When Spanish explorers first arrived in California in the 16th century, they believed they were on an island. They apparently named it California after a fictional islet ruled by Queen Calafia that featured in a popular novel of the time titled Las Sergas de Esplandian. Initially, the name applied to modern-day Mexico's Baja California peninsula – ‘baja’ meaning ‘lower’ – but as the Spanish moved north and inland the whole region became known as California, or Las Californias.
California was once an independent nation – for 25 days following the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846, a reference to the short-lived republic’s flag. The Bear Flag Republic, or La Republica de California as the Spanish called it, was an unrecognised breakaway state from Mexico that briefly controlled an area north of San Francisco, in and around what is now Sonoma County. The Republic ceased to be when US Navy Lieutenant Joseph Revere raised the American flag in front of the Sonoma Barracks, subsuming California into the United States.
Since it hosted by far the largest gold rush in American history, it's no surprise that California is known as the Golden State. It's also thanks to the abundance of wild poppies – the state's official flower – that carpet its rugged landscape and bloom golden-orange from February to May. Gold is California's state element, while its state fish is the golden trout. Despite not receiving an official nickname until 1968, references to California as the Golden State appear as early as 1856, in a book by Eliza Farnham promoting the state’s many attractions.
One Californian county, Inyo, can claim both the highest and lowest points in the lower 48 states. At 14,505 feet (4,421m), Mount Whitney, on the border of Sequoia National Park, is the highest American mountain outside Alaska and is climbable for non-mountaineers with a good level of fitness and a permit. Just 85 miles (137km) away in Death Valley National Park lies Badwater Basin, a constantly evaporating bed of salt that's 282 feet (86m) below sea level, and the lowest point in both state and country.
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There are more than 30 theme and amusement parks in California. The state hosts many of the country's big hitters, like Disneyland in Anaheim (the first Disney Park in the world when it opened in 1955); Universal Studios Hollywood, which opened in 1964; and Knott’s Berry Farm, California’s oldest theme park, which opened in 1920. What started as a roadside berry stand now has 57 acres of world-class shows, rides and attractions to entertain guests.
In 1873, San Francisco entrepreneur Levi Strauss (pictured) and tailor Jacob Davis started a clothing revolution when they obtained a patent to create work trousers reinforced with metal rivets. This marked the birth of one of the world’s best-known and best-loved garments: blue jeans. Initially marketed as workwear, they soon became a fashion staple making their way into wardrobes around the country and the world.
Most people associate fortune cookies with China, but their roots really lie in 20th-century California. According to the Library of Congress, there are two competing theories. One holds that they were created in 1914 by a Japanese man named Makoto Hagiwara, who owned what is now the Golden Gate Park Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco and served the cookies there with tea. The other claims that they were invented by a Chinese-American man named David Jung, who owned the Hong Kong Noodle Company in Los Angeles.
Around 95% of America’s avocado crop is grown in California (and 10% of the world's), and 60% of that comes from San Diego County, nicknamed 'the avocado capital of the world'. The town of Fallbrook first started cultivating the crop in 1912 and became famous for the fruit in the 1940s. Since the 1960s, the town has played host to the Fallbrook Avocado Festival, featuring avocado-themed food stalls, drinks, gifts, clothes and more, attracting up to 100,000 visitors each year.
California’s almond crops are grown in vast orchards, many of them in and around the city of Modesto in the state’s agricultural region, which is known as the Central Valley. Every year, from February to mid-March, this vast, flat landscape treats passers-by to a spectacular display when its trees bloom pale-pink and white. Take in the beauty of this scented scene on the Modesto Almond Blossom Cruise through the heart of California’s almond country.
California accounts for roughly 85% of all the wine made in the United States, and would be top five in the world for wine production if it were an independent nation. Around 620,000 acres of Californian land is planted with vineyards, spanning more than 2,000 registered wineries producing more than 60,000 different wines. The state is known worldwide for lush, rich wines made with very ripe grapes, crafted in the big-hitting northern wine regions like Napa Valley and Sonoma County, as well as lesser-known Mendocino County and Temecula in the south.
When the steel used to build the Golden Gate Bridge arrived in San Francisco, it was primed in 'international orange' – a deliberately vibrant colour the aerospace industry uses to set things apart from their surroundings. It looked so good against the hills and ocean that the architect in charge decided it should remain; the bridge was originally designed to be grey. This led to a special formulation colour, known as 'Golden Gate Bridge International Orange', which is used to maintain the bridge today.
First identified in 1939, the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz is centred around an unusual wooden shack that appears to have been pulled down by strange gravitational forces. Competing claims suggest that it's down to metal secretly buried in the ground by aliens, a meteor that's fallen to Earth or a magma vortex. In reality, the site is a visual illusion, in which the tilted environment and floor confuse our brains and make us feel as though the laws of physics have somehow stopped applying.
Glass Beach north of San Francisco, next to MacKerricher State Park, is one of California’s most popular beaches. It’s so-called for all the smooth, colourful pieces of glass that have washed up on its waterfront and sparkle in the west coast sun. For years the area's cliffs were a dumping ground for broken bottles, jars and other appliances, which over time were rubbed smooth by saltwater and deposited back on the shore. Even though the glass was created from rubbish, it's illegal to take any pebbles away from the beach.
Bubblegum Alley in San Luis Obispo on California’s central coast is as its name suggests: an alleyway covered in pieces of chewed bubblegum. It started in the 1950s, and is said to be the work of rival high school and college students. The surface underwent two full cleans in the 1970s but was quickly covered up again each time, and new, slightly gross pieces are still added every day.
In the 1984 film Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom, Indy and his team are forced to escape from an aeroplane over the Himalayas. However, the peaks that feature in these scenes are actually those of Mammoth Mountain in central California, a complex of lava domes near the town of Mammoth Lakes. Movie buffs can enjoy exploring the location in person, whether during winter for ski season or on hikes in spring and summer.
In Star Trek: The Final Frontier, characters Kirk, Spock and McCoy take shore leave on Earth at Yosemite National Park when their trip is interrupted by an emergency call to duty by Starfleet Command. Backdropping scenes are several of the park’s famous sights, including the stunning Half Dome rock formation (pictured), which you can appreciate in real life on a challenging 14-mile (23km) round-trip day hike.
Set on Mount Lee in the Santa Monica Mountains, the gleaming Hollywood Sign we see today is among California's best-known and best-loved landmarks. But it hasn’t always said ‘Hollywood’. It was put up in 1923 and originally read ‘Hollywoodland’, as a temporary advert for a local housing development of the same name. It was shortened to Hollywood when it was refurbished in 1949.
Learn more about the fascinating history of the Hollywood Sign
As the Hollywood Sign celebrates its 100th year, a hike remains the best way to get top-class views of California’s world-famous landmark. Bikes and Hikes LA offers two hiking routes, each taking you up behind the large white letters. The easier Hollywood Sign Tour follows a low incline path for 90 minutes, while the tougher Hollywood Sign Hike follows a steeper trail for three hours.
Between April and June phenomena known as 'moonbows' or 'night rainbows', created by a blend of waterfall spray and moonlight, can be spotted in Yosemite National Park. Specific conditions are required for them to appear – viewers need a clear evening, a full moon, sufficient water in the falls, sufficient darkness and a good viewing angle. They can be seen from a variety of locations, including Upper Yosemite Falls and Glacier Point – see here for a more comprehensive list.
See more of the weirdest weather phenomena from around the world
The California state tartan is an official Scottish Tartan pattern created for California on 23 July, 2001. It celebrates contributions to Californian history by residents of Scottish ancestry. It’s based on the Muir Clan tartan to honour the great Scottish-born American naturalist John Muir. His activism helped preserve the Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Park, and served as an inspiration for the protection of many other important wilderness areas.
California’s state capital, Sacramento, claims to contain more trees per capita than any other city on Earth – roughly four per person in the city centre and suburbs and 15 per person in its rural sector. There are around a million trees within the city limits, ranging from oaks, maples, elms and sycamores to towering redwoods. The city's nickname is 'The City of Trees' – and it's extremely well-earned.
In 2004, The Gay and Lesbian Atlas used data from the 2000 US census to give the first detailed geographic account of America's gay and lesbian households. Oakland, a city on the east side of San Francisco Bay, had the highest concentration of lesbian couples of any US city, and the second-highest number of same-sex couple households behind nearby San Francisco. Fast forward to 2020 and the region defended its crown: 2.8% of all coupled households in the Oakland-San Francisco-Berkeley area were same-sex, the highest percentage in the US.
'Eureka' is an ancient Greek word used to celebrate a discovery, attributed to the Greek mathematician Archimedes when he figured out the principle of buoyancy. Unsurprisingly, its use became linked to the American Gold Rush, and miners could be heard exclaiming the word upon striking lucky. It features in the California state seal designed in 1849 (pictured), and became the official motto of the state in 1963.
The ex-settlement of Bodie, in the Bodie Hills east of the Sierra Nevada, is an original Wild West ghost town. It features 110 buildings, including a gold mill, a red-brick hotel and a wooden church from 1882, all preserved in a state of arrested decay. It boomed in the gold rush of the late-1800s, but by 1915 was almost deserted. To protect it from vandalism, it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, and became Bodie State Historic Park in 1962.
The Badger Pass in Yosemite National Park is the oldest ski resort in the state of California, and opened in 1933 to meet the demand for winter sports that slowly grew through the 1920s. Yosemite remains one of only three national parks nationwide to have a ski lift, and the only national park ever to have put in a bid for the Winter Olympic Games (in 1932). The resort has a base elevation of 7,200 feet (2,200m) and 10 runs, which makes it inviting for beginners and intermediates.
A wide array of antiquated state laws technically still exist in some parts of California. Naturally they're no longer enforced, but in no particular order: in Blythe it's illegal to wear cowboy boots unless you own at least two cows; in Long Beach it's illegal to swear while playing crazy golf; in San Francisco it's illegal to store anything other than a car in a garage; in Walnut it's illegal to fly a kite higher than 10 feet (3m) and in Palm Springs it's illegal to take your camel for a walk down Palm Canyon Drive between the hours of 4 and 6pm. You'd better lawyer up.
Sun-Maid is the largest raisin producer in the world, and was founded in 1912 as a collaboration between groups of Californian raisin growers. Today, visitors to the nearby Sun-Maid Market in Kingsburg can spot the world's largest box of raisins standing proudly outside. Made by students at California State University in 1992, it measures 12 feet (3.6m) by eight feet (2.5m), contains 7,500kg (16,500lbs) of raisins and is honoured in The Guinness Book of Records.
On 2 October 1969, in room 3420 at Boelter Hall (pictured) on the south campus of UCLA, a team of students led by Leonard Kleinrock, professor of computer science at UCLA Samueli School of Engineering, sent the first message over the ARPANET. ARPANET stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, and was a precursor to the modern internet and a large part of its technical foundation.
A silent western film named In Old Hollywood became the first movie made in Hollywood in 1910. It was directed by DW Griffith, who chose the location on account of its beautiful scenery. Today taking one of Hollywood's many studio tours, such as Warner Bros or Universal Studios, offers a deep dive into the history and culture of filmmaking – and the chance to discover the settings of some of the world’s most iconic films.
In 1981 a dog named Bosco Ramos – part black Labrador and part Rottweiler – became mayor of the northern Californian town of Sunol after beating two humans in an election. Though initially nominated as a joke, he served in the honorary position for 13 years before passing away in 1994. He is the only dog ever to serve as a US mayor, and is commemorated today by a bronze statue outside the town post office.
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