Citrus was a huge industry in the entire state of California during the early 20th century; by 1896, the Orange Vale Colony in eastern Sacramento County already had 300 acres in fruit including oranges and lemons. This part of Northern California drew eager investors from Chicago and other parts of the eastern US when folks realized these northern orange trees […]
On Monday I showed you some images of the Cascade Range in central Washington State; today, we have a look at the area around Mount Lassen, which is at the southern end of the Cascades and the northern end of the Sierra Nevada. I’ve never explored this part of Northern California, and until I watched this episode of California’s Golden […]
I should know better by now. Every week as I look through the list of titles in the Huell Howser archive, I have a tendency to skip over many of the place names that are unfamiliar to me. For some reason, I’ve assumed most of them were located in Southern California — so the chances that I had ever been […]
I just keep finding more episodes related to California Mission history! In this one-hour segment Huell experiences a true adventure as he takes a drive along Highway 101 and some of the other, smaller roads that made up portions of the historic California trail between the missions. His visit to the foundry where they create bright, shiny new bells for […]
I concluded the California Mission series a couple of weeks ago, but I couldn’t leave the topic of the missions without taking a look at the swallows that arrive at Mission San Juan Capistrano every spring in mid March. These beautiful little birds clearly bring a lot of joy to the people in the area as they gather to celebrate […]
I recently finished reading a book called All the Gallant Men, a fascinating memoir by Donald Stratton, who was serving aboard the USS Arizona at the time of the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. He survived the ship’s sinking but suffered serious burns; and while he and his fellow survivors were initially treated in Hawaii, they were later transferred first […]
As I began watching this final episode of Huell’s California Mission series I expected something completely different. When I first saw the title “Art of the Missions,” I had imagined a tour of some surviving pieces of religious art — paintings of the Virgin, stained glass windows, tile mosaics. But even though I had it completely wrong, this turned out […]
Some of the sights Huell finds as he explores the gardens of Mission La Purísima Concepción may seem a bit familiar if you’ve been following my recent Friday series, in which I’ve shared slides my mom shot there back in the early 1980s. And later this week my images will include some from the garden area. I’m really glad that […]
The “forgotten” 22nd Mission, San Antonio de Pala, was built in 1816 and serves the people of the Pala Village. Huell learns quite a lot about the history of the mission and the reservation, including a visit to a portion of the mission that is home to the Vivian Banks Charter School; the school is unique in being a public […]