"The story behind the naming of important mountains, counties, rivers, cities, lakes, capes, bays"--Cover.

This anniversary edition concentrates on the origins of the names currently used for the cities, towns, settlements, mountains, and streams of California, with engrossing accounts of the history of their usage. The dictionary includes a glossary and a bibliography.

This is the new "pocket" version of the classic California Place Names, first published by California in 1949. Erwin G. Gudde's monumental work, which went through several editions during its author's lifetime, has now been released in an expanded and updated edition by William Bright. The abridged version, originally called 1000 California Place Names, has grown to a dynamic 1500 California Place Names in Bright's hands. Those who have used and enjoyed 1000 California Place Names through the decades will be glad to know that 1500 California Place Names is not only bigger but better. This handbook focuses on two sorts of names: those that are well-known as destinations or geographical features of the state, such as La Jolla, Tahoe, and Alcatraz, and those that demand attention because of their problematic origins, whether Spanish like Bodega and Chamisal or Native American like Aguanga and Siskiyou. Names of the major Indian tribes of California are included, since some of them have been directly adapted as place names and others have been the source of a variety of names. Bright incorporates his own recent research and that of other linguists and local historians, giving us a much deeper appreciation of the tangled ancestry many California names embody. Featuring phonetic pronunciations for all the Golden State's tongue-twisting names, this is in effect a brand new book, indispensable to California residents and visitors alike.

Over 1,500 place names in San Diego County. Each listing gives general location and specific citation of place name origin.

The journal seems to contain information for everyone regardless of one's interest...Each page of this almost six hundred page journal is crammed with facts and descriptions. So much of interest is contained in every entry that each re-reading will reveal many interesting incidents or observations not quite grasped on the first perusal....This book will be a valuable source to all students of California or United States history and to the casual readers as well.

This handbook focuses on two sorts of names: those that are well-known as destinations or as geographical features of the state, and those that demand attention because of their problematic origins, whether Spanish, such as Bodega and Chamisal, or Native American, like Aguanga and Siskiyou. Map.

At various times in a span of fifteen years, John McPhee made geological field surveys in the company of Eldridge Moores, a tectonicist at the University of California at Davis. The result of these trips is Assembling California, a cross-section in human and geologic time, from Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada through the golden foothills of the Mother Lode and across the Great Central Valley to the wine country of the Coast Ranges, the rock of San Francisco, and the San Andreas family of faults. The two disparate time scales occasionally intersect—in the gold disruptions of the nineteenth century no less than in the earthquakes of the twentieth—and always with relevance to a newly understood geologic history in which half a dozen large and separate pieces of country are seen to have drifted in from far and near to coalesce as California. McPhee and Moores also journeyed to remote mountains of Arizona and to Cyprus and northern Greece, where rock of the deep-ocean floor has been transported into continental settings, as it has in California. Global in scope and a delight to read, Assembling California is a sweeping narrative of maps in motion, of evolving and dissolving lands.

Maps tells the story in this innovative volume, and the story of Canada they tell is profoundly engrossing and rewarding. The atlas covers a period of a thousand years and contains essentially all the historically significant maps of the country. Gathered from major archives and libraries all over the world, they include treasures from the National Archives of Canada--many never before published--and many from the archives of the Hudson's Bay Company. Included are maps by the founder of New France, Samuel de Champlain, by Philip Turnor and Peter Fidler. There are English maps and French maps; Spanish maps and Russian maps; American, Italian and Dutch maps as well as maps drawn by Native people such as the Beothuk, Blackfoot and Cree. Canada's colourful past unfolds in sumptuous visual detail--history seen from a whole new perspective.

“A California classic . . . California, it should be remembered, was very much the wild west, having to wait until 1850 before it could force its way into statehood. so what tamed it? Mr. Starr’s answer is a combination of great men, great ideas and great projects.”—The Economist From the age of exploration to the age of Arnold, the Golden State’s premier historian distills the entire sweep of California’s history into one splendid volume. Kevin Starr covers it all: Spain’s conquest of the native peoples of California in the early sixteenth century and the chain of missions that helped that country exert control over the upper part of the territory; the discovery of gold in January 1848; the incredible wealth of the Big Four railroad tycoons; the devastating San Francisco earthquake of 1906; the emergence of Hollywood as the world’s entertainment capital and of Silicon Valley as the center of high-tech research and development; the role of labor, both organized and migrant, in key industries from agriculture to aerospace. In a rapid-fire epic of discovery, innovation, catastrophe, and triumph, Starr gathers together everything that is most important, most fascinating, and most revealing about our greatest state. Praise for California “[A] fast-paced and wide-ranging history . . . [Starr] accomplishes the feat with skill, grace and verve.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Kevin Starr is one of california’s greatest historians, and California is an invaluable contribution to our state’s record and lore.”—MarIa ShrIver, journalist and former First Lady of California “A breeze to read.”—San Francisco