Books published by Arcadia Publishing Library Editions

Oceano is a California beach town between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Originally part of the Rancho El Pismo Mexican land grant of 1840, Oceano first appeared as a place name on a map in 1893 and was promoted as a beach resort soon after the Southern Pacific Railroad arrived in 1895. While most of these promotions failed during the Great Depression, the railroad depot continued as a shipping point for the area's agriculture. During this time, Oceano became a point of entry for the "Dunites," a group of artists, writers, and poets who once lived in the sand dunes south of town. Today Oceano is still the primary access and gateway to its state park beach and large sand dune complex. Many people come to enjoy the experience of driving on the beach, camping there, and venturing into the dunes on foot or by vehicle.

Nestled into a scenic mountain valley at the junction of the Eagle River and Brush Creek, Eagle is a small mountain town that is often overshadowed by its famous ski resort neighbor, Vail. However, this thriving little mountain community claims a rich history of more than 100 years of spunk and fortitude. Eagle's robust character started with the miners who came to the valley in the 1880s seeking gold and silver. Then came the farmers and ranchers, who recognized another type of wealth in the fertile soils and abundant water of the valley. As for that spunk, the townspeople of Eagle were tenacious enough to wage a 20-year war seeking county seat status and progressive enough to keep a small town growing and thriving for over a century.

Before Meriwether Lewis saw the Great Falls of the Missouri River in 1805, the area had been visited for centuries by plains bison and the Blackfeet Indians. The city's founding father, Paris Gibson, learned of the falls from Lewis and Clark's journals, and with financing from railroader James J. Hill, Gibson began building the city of Great Falls in 1884, capitalizing on its Missouri River location. After the railroad arrived, the first of five hydroelectric dams was built, along with smelters for silver and copper. The year 1909 saw the homestead boom and settlers by the thousands, while World War II's construction boom supported large military facilities in the city. Great Falls' good times lasted 90 years.

Estes Park is a small village nestled in the north central mountains of Colorado. The earliest settlers were homesteaders who arrived to "prove up" in the 1870s and soon discovered that providing lodging and entertainment for outdoor adventurers and tourists looking for a respite from city life could provide a more reliable revenue stream than farming and ranching. By 1905, the town was platted and several hotels provided modern accommodations. When Rocky Mountain National Park was created in 1915, Estes Park became the eastern gateway and continues to be the first stop for approximately 2.5 million visitors annually. From an initial population of less than 200, the town has grown to almost 10,000 year-round residents, many of whom still make their living providing goods and services to visitors from as near as Denver and as far away as Nepal.

Even before settlers came to the Puget Sound, the U.S. Navy was exploring the sheltered inlets and deep water ports of what was dubbed "America's Mediterranean." In 1856, the sailors of the navy warship Decatur repelled an attack by Native Americans, saving a tiny village on the shores of Elliott Bay named Seattle. In the ensuing years, Puget Sound became the West Coast's premier port of call for the navy's vessels and aircraft operating in the vast Pacific Ocean. During World War II, the region turned out a long line of combat and support vessels while quickly repairing many other ships that had been horribly damaged in clashes with the Japanese. In both peace and war, the communities of Puget Sound and the U.S. Navy have shared an enduring partnership that remains today.

Known for more "first flights" and record flights than any other place, Edwards Air Force Base is legendary. Centered around an ancient dry lakebed in the Mojave Desert 90 miles north of Los Angeles, activity at Edwards has sharpened the cutting edge of aviation and aerospace since the 1940s. The complex is a strategic flight test, research, and development center for the U.S. Air Force, NASA, and civilian contractors. Since the 1950s, almost every U.S. military aircraft has been partially tested here. The skies above Edwards have been the scene of remarkable achievements, including Chuck Yeager's world-famous breaking of the sound barrier in 1947. The base was first established near the small town of Muroc in 1933 and became renowned for its giant runways painted onto the flat, dry lakebed. Speed and altitude records were commonplace at Edwards during the 1950s. Suborbital space flights began there in the 1960s. In the 1970s it was the primary testing site for the space shuttle program. Dramatic aerospace research continues today at Edwards, America's proving ground for the future of high tech aviation.

For generations, Chinook Indians camped in the area that is now Oysterville, gathering oysters from the shallow waters of Shoalwater Bay. When tribal elder "Old Klickeas" introduced two young adventurers, Robert Hamilton Espy and Isaac Alonzo Clark, to the oyster treasure, the pioneer boom years began. Oysters were marketed in gold-rich, oyster-hungry San Francisco, where a plateful sold for $50. Within months, there were several hundred settlers, and in 1855, Oysterville was chosen as the seat of Pacific County, Washington Territory. Oysterville had many county firsts: a school, a college, a newspaper, a post office, and a church--but never a bank. When schooners arrived to pick up their oyster cargoes, oystermen were paid in gold coin that then might be buried or stashed under floorboards for safekeeping. Often there was more gold in Oysterville than in any town on the West Coast except San Francisco. Today the peaceful vistas along the lanes and shoreline of the village belie its tumultuous history. Oysterville was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Moss Beach has long been a picturesque seaside place with scenic cliffs and unusual marine gardens. The town is separated from the dense San Francisco area by Devil's Slide, a moody geographical barrier of tumbling rocks that now supports U.S. Highway One. The developers of the Ocean Shore Railroad envisioned Moss Beach as one of a string of resorts along the San Mateo County coastline. The railroad did not endure, but the automobile era brought prosperity to the secluded area, which hummed with activity during Prohibition and became a strategic and controlled location during World War II. Early settler Jurgen Wienke, who built the original Moss Beach Hotel in the 1880s, would be amazed at how this little town has evolved. Abundantly endowed with natural beauty, the Moss Beach of yesterday can still be discovered today.

The lower Virgin River basin is located about 10 miles south of the border junction between what is now Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. Early explorers told of blistering heat, disease-carrying insects, and scarce, evil-tasting water. But in 1877, the valley offered a haven to a small group of Mormon families who sought to live and practice their religious convictions, settling in Bunkerville on the south side of the Virgin River. On the north side, the struggle to establish Mesquite started in 1880. The third attempt in 1894 was successful after years of merciless floods. Residents have survived a hostile environment, geographic isolation, political gerrymandering, and in the middle of the last century, dangerous radiation fallout from atomic testing. Deep sand roads have given way to a bustling interstate highway, and the area has become a golf and gaming destination. After incorporation in 1984, Mesquite experienced a boom and has been named the fastest growing city of its size in the United States.

Settlers of European heritage arrived in the Uncompahgre River Valley after the Ute tribe was ordered to reservation lands in Utah by the federal government in 1881. The pioneers staked out properties and established covenants. The Uncompahgre River carried the usual annual melt from the San Juan Mountains through today's Ouray, Montrose, and Delta Counties toward its confluence with the Colorado River near Grand Junction. But the settlers' crops required more water than the river or irrigation ditches could bring. Engineers assessed the failed farms and abandoned villages in the wake of the Uncompahgre Valley's over-settlement and looked east of Montrose to the Black Canyon, cut by the nearby Gunnison River. They drilled the Gunnison Tunnel to bring the snowcap melt from the Continental Divide's western slopes to the Uncompahgre Valley, creating one of the Rocky Mountain region's most fertile valleys. The tunnel, completed in 1909, was the biggest irrigation project up to that time.

Monarch Country is an incredibly beautiful mountain region spanning both sides of the Continental Divide in the southern portions of Chaffee and Gunnison Counties in the Rocky Mountains of south-central Colorado. Monarch Pass, at 11,312 feet above sea level, divides the Gunnison Country in the west from the Arkansas River watershed in the east. This scenic, wild, and rugged region surrounding the crossroads of U.S. Routes 50 and 285 is rich in mining, railroad, and skiing history and once included booming mining camps such as Maysville, Garfield, Monarch, and White Pine. The crown jewel of this spectacular high-country landscape is the Monarch Ski Area, which enjoys 350 to 500 inches of snowfall every year.

A telegram stating, "We have located terminus on Commencement Bay," was sent on July 14, 1873, by R. D. Rice and J. C. Ainsworth, Northern Pacific Railroad commissioners, to Gen. Morton Mathew McCarver in Tacoma and Arthur Denny in Seattle's Pioneer Square. This message set the iron wheels in motion for Tacoma's destiny and transformation from old-growth forests to the Stadium District of today. It is here that railroad tycoons, timber barons, industrial leaders, and everyday people built their homes and raised their families. Perched high on the bluffs overlooking Commencement Bay, Mount Tahoma (Rainier), and the Cascade Mountains is one of the best-preserved historical residential areas in the nation. Magnificent Stadium Bowl is an important gathering place, and the steep spires of Stadium High School have inspired thousands of Tacomans for more than a century.

The Ute Indians were hardly out of western Colorado when their land was opened to Anglo settlers. It was on September 26, 1881, when George A. Crawford, William McGinley, R. D. Mobley, M. R. Warner, and others went to the junction of the Gunnison and Grand (later renamed the Colorado) Rivers to claim 640 acres. In the semiarid confluence of the two rivers, a city developed, fruit orchards were planted, and a college grew out of the seeds of a single-room school with a dirt floor. Several newspapers opened, providing news and information to a business community that included coal mining, railroads, dry goods, and even a toffee factory whose products have graced the tables of royalty. How Grand Junction was able to develop into a progressive community of entrepreneurs, educators, and community-minded citizens is a story best told in a small sampling of pictures. None of the founders are still here, but their legacy, stories, and pictures have survived to speak for them.

Launched in an era when speed and grandeur went hand in hand, the RMS Queen Mary is the last survivor of the golden age of ocean liners. From the time of her maiden voyage in 1936, passengers crossed the North Atlantic cocooned in luxury. Movie stars, tycoons, politicians, and royalty shared a ship with everyday people, for whom this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. During World War II, the Queen Mary ferried countless soldiers safely across the sea and, at war's end, carried their brides and babies home to America. Refurbished and polished to her previous glory, the Queen Mary continued to carry passengers until her final voyage to Long Beach in 1967. The RMS Queen Mary now serves as a floating hotel and tourist attraction, a living testament to her glamorous history, a generous showcase of art, and a magnificent example of a time when oceans could be crossed in both comfort and beauty.

Sacramento's Chinatown has played a central role in the history of the Chinese in America since the Gold Rush. It was named Yee Fow (Second City) by the early Chinese pioneers because it was the second stop by steamboat on the way to the gold country. In the 1960s, Sacramento's Chinatown, one of the oldest Chinatowns in America, was largely torn down by redevelopment, but today Chinese Americans in the capital city are planning a Yee Fow Center for History, Culture, and Trade as they seek to remember the past and look to the future.

Needles is located at the borders of California and Arizona on the west bank of the Colorado River, once serving as an important transportation hub in California. During the mid-1800s, the steamboat trade flourished here as gold, silver, goods, and passengers were transported along the Colorado River. The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, now known as the Santa Fe, replaced the steamboats when tracks were laid through the area starting in 1883. The charter city was founded in 1913. America's "Mother Road," Route 66, built through downtown Needles in 1926, spurred growth as new businesses opened to serve travelers. Needles was named for its striking rock formations and is famous for its summer temperatures, but it is ultimately known and remembered as a living icon of an early 20th century town on historic Route 66.

Once known only as "Siding 45," Glasgow, Montana, was named by a railroad clerk's random finger poke on a spinning globe in 1887. Resourceful land speculators lured its first homesteaders with the promise, "Pin your faith in Glasgow and you shall wear diamonds." Successful farmers and cowboys initially made the community an agricultural center and the seat of Valley County. The 1930s drought and depression eras brought hard times, however, before the construction of the New Deal Fort Peck Dam helped reinvigorate Valley County communities. Faithful to their pioneer legacy, the people of the "Hi-Line" have more recently successfully refocused on long-established agriculture and developing tourism to continue the historic saga of northeast Montana.

Hot, thirsty range cattle led cowboys to a shady, spring-fed pond midway between the coastal and sierra foothills in Northern California. The area was referred to as "the Willows." It was a place no doubt well known to the native Wintun Indians long before white men came exploring. Settlers began buying up land at $4 an acre after the Gold Rush. Milton French was ranching to the west of town as early as 1857. In June 1876, Johnson and Hochheimer opened a general store. Daniel Zumwalt provided land to railroad magnate Charlie Crocker, who extended train service to the "the Willows" by 1878. Broad streets were laid out in an east-to-west orientation. The town was on its way to becoming the center of one of the most productive agricultural areas in the state, thanks to the development of deep-water wells and the building of canals.

The town of Douglas is located in east-central Wyoming in a gentle valley, with the mountains of Medicine Bow National Forest on one side and the beautiful Wyoming plains on the other. Established in 1887 by the Fremont, Elkhorn, and Missouri Valley Railroad, the town was named by representatives from the railroad's Chicago headquarters after the great orator and Illinois senator Stephen Douglas. Douglas, probably known best for his part in the Lincoln-Douglas Debates, was an enthusiastic advocate of westward expansion. To many of the locals--and by official proclamation in 1985--Douglas is considered the "Home of the Jackalope," an animal well known in American folklore as being part antelope and part jackrabbit. Be it fact or fiction, the town has successfully marketed the Jackalope through festivals, souvenirs, and even hunting licenses. The area is rich in history, from military establishments, immigrant trails, ranching, and homesteading, to its beautiful scenery, such as the Ayres Natural Bridge, depicted on the cover.

The Rose Bowl is best known for hosting the "granddaddy of them all"--the much anticipated major college football game held every January 1. It has further secured its place in sports history by hosting Super Bowls, BCS football championships, Olympic games, and World Cup finals. For the residents of Pasadena, the Rose Bowl is also an important community center. In addition to football games (and Caltech pranks), many Pasadenans remember graduating at the bowl. Over the years, the Rose Bowl has hosted numerous concerts, peace rallies, festivals, flea markets, and Fourth of July celebrations. And the structure itself, designed by architect Myron Hunt, is seen by many as a proud testament to Pasadena's commitment to architectural innovation. The photographs in this book, many from the archives of the Pasadena Museum of History, highlight the Rose Bowl's memorable sports moments as well as the stadium's unique role in Pasadena's cultural life.

Woodland Park, at an altitude of nearly 8,500 feet, is located 18 miles west of Colorado Springs along the north slope of Pikes Peak in eastern Teller County. Much of the history of the West passed through this area on the old Ute Trail--now Highway 24--as hunters, trappers, cowboys, Native Americans, settlers, miners, railroaders, ranchers, and tourists discovered an abundance of natural beauty and varied business opportunities through the years. Today, Woodland Park is home to about 8,000 year-round residents, many of whom treasure not only the spectacular scenery but also the rich past of the town they call home. This evocative tour through that past shares vintage photographs collected by the Ute Pass Historical Society.

In the 1880s, the Central Pacific Railroad labored through the rugged upper Sacramento River canyon to connect California with the far northwest. Where the canyon's steep walls open up to a view of snowcapped Mount Shasta, a railroad switching yard, a depot, a roundhouse, a turntable, and repair shops were constructed. Surrounded by virgin timber, rushing waters, and dramatic geologic formations, this railhead camp--named for a Canadian collier--grew. Completion of the rail line brought commerce and growth as timber was harvested and streams were prospected for gold. Visitors were, and continue to be, drawn by the pure mountain air, scenic beauty, healing mineral waters, hunting, and world-class trout fishing. Though facing many obstacles, including storms, fires, and floods, the town thrived. Incorporated in 1909, Dunsmuir became the headquarters for the Southern Pacific Railroad's fabled Shasta Division in 1916. Today Dunsmuir is known as California's Historic Railroad Town and is recognized in the National Register of Historic Places.

It was the winter of 1851-1852 when the word "gold" echoed throughout the valley. Soon hundreds of gold miners flocked to Table Rock City, later renamed Jacksonville. In short order, families arrived and took out donation land claims and began farming, raising stock, and opening businesses. Many had already emmigrated from Europe, Canada, Ireland, and England. Jacksonville had its own Chinatown that was home to the many Chinese who had traveled far seeking their fortune through gold mining. When the railroad bypassed Jacksonville in 1883 in favor of the new town of Middleford, later renamed Medford, Jacksonville's fortunes reversed. During the ensuing decades, the town's buildings fell into disrepair. The threat of bulldozers leveling the downtown core in the late 1960s brought out a renewed interest in preservation. Today Jacksonville is a National Historic Landmark District and looks much as it did 150 years ago.

Fort Laramie was one of the most important frontier outposts of the American West. Founded as the trading post Fort William in 1834, the fort became a U.S. military post in 1849. Beginning in 1841, emigrants stopped at Fort Laramie while traveling the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. Fort Laramie served as a gathering place for thousands of Native Americans and hosted the 1851 and 1868 treaty councils. When the treaties failed, the post became the staging area for campaigns that eventually led to the tribes's confinement on reservations. Fort Laramie was abandoned by the military in 1890; the buildings were auctioned and served private interests during the homestead period from 1890 to 1937. Fort Laramie was acquired by the state of Wyoming in 1937, and the fort became a unit of the National Park System in 1938. Fort Laramie National Historic Site is open daily except New Year's Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The restoration of many structures to their historical appearance provides visitors with a glimpse of the past.

In 1862, the Central Pacific Railroad was founded and began building eastward from Sacramento as part of the transcontinental railroad. This required a shop capable of keeping the railroad's equipment in running order. So in 1867, in the swamps just north of town, the Sacramento shops were born. For well more than a century, this massive complex kept the Central Pacific and its corporate successor, the Southern Pacific, operating smoothly. For many decades, the shops were the largest employer in the Sacramento area, employing carpenters, painters, draftsmen, boilermakers, electricians, clerks, upholsterers, and others. The shops' forces designed, built, and maintained locomotives, freight and passenger cars, and other railroading equipment. The complex closed in 1999. Most of the area, popularly known as the Railyards, is set for redevelopment. The California State Railroad Museum handles maintenance and restoration of its collection in two of the shops buildings and plans to develop a Railroad Technology Museum on the site.

The beginning: selling a visionn -- The outdoors: golfing, horses, fishing, and surfing -- The community: family and friends -- The visitor: food, lodging, and commerce -- The parties: events and games -- The residences: homes and retreats -- The President: when Nixon moved in.

In spite of its relentless reputation as a "cow town," Denver has grown from a dusty prairie burg into a thriving metropolis nestled against the foothills of the great Rocky Mountains. Gold brought the area's first settlers in the 1850s, and mining camps sprouted up along the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River. The first rudimentary structures of canvas, mud, and logs were soon replaced with sturdy buildings made of brick, stone, and wood, in what is now affectionately referred to as "Lodo" or the lower downtown district. City growth worked its way uptown and to the east from this neighborhood of houses, hotels, shops, and commercial buildings, eventually encompassing Capitol Hill. Many well-known people worked and lived in downtown Denver and Capitol Hill, including the infamous Margaret "Molly" Brown of Titanic fame, railroad man David Moffat, merchant prince Charles Boettcher, druggist-turned-entrepreneur Walter Scott Cheesman, and Denver's notorious lovers, Horace Tabor and his wife "Baby Doe."

Ocean Shores was the newest city in Washington for nearly 40 years, but for centuries before it had been a place of permanent occupation and food gathering for Native American tribes and a place for sea otter hunters, pioneers, and settlers to reach the interior of the Olympic Peninsula. Before Ocean Shores, there was the dream of a town called Cedarville followed by the reality of Lone Tree with its post office and 200 residents. Point Brown Peninsula was a village of survival for Polynesian Kanakas, Finns living on the edge of society, migrant workers called Bluebills, and a Hooverville for depression-era families. After World War II, when developers first conceived of creating a "Venice of the West," many said their dream would never last. However, in 1970, Ocean Shores became a city and today has entered its 50th year of development.

The stately yet welcoming Park Hill neighborhood, located just east of downtown Denver, was platted from prairie lands in 1871 by energetic real estate speculators. A horse-drawn rail car began transportation service in later years to and from Denver as homes in Park Hill became popular. Eventually, Denverites invested in Park Hill lots and wealthy citizens built architecturally sophisticated homes, creating an enclave of Denver society. When automobiles became popular in the 1910s, Park Hill became a popular place to raise a family and has continued as an attractive residential area for more than a century. The home of Denver's elite for decades, including mayors and other leading politicians, Park Hill has embraced diversity in the 21st century, encompassing blue-collar workers along with the physicians, attorneys, and professional athletes.