California History

California History posts cover the long arc from the Spanish mission system through the Mexican period, the 1849 Gold Rush, statehood in 1850, the railroad and water wars, and into the twentieth century. Articles look at the founding of Los Angeles, the rise of Hollywood, the Dust Bowl arrivals, the postwar aerospace boom, and how Proposition 13 reshaped public finance. There are also notes on the Native peoples who were here long before the Spanish arrived, and the slow change of place names from Spanish to English and back.