Riverside County encompasses more than two million people and most of the width of California, from Los Angeles's eastern suburbs to the Arizona state line at the Colorado River. Historian Steve Loch captures the vanished past of this vast swath of deserts and mountains--the eras of Spanish and then Mexican rule and the exploits of the earliest settlers of the American period. Juan Bautista de Anza, Louis Robidoux and many other namesake figures of today's geography are described in this unabridged excerpt of the author's comprehensive and masterly history Along the Old Roads.

Elmer Wallace Holmes provides us with a thorough history of one of the most beautiful counties in the US, with its beautiful valleys and magnificent mountains, its equable climate and fertile soil. He tells us about the big cities, the Perris and Moreno valleys, San Jacinto and San Gorgonio and much more ...

In 1915, Jukichi and Ken Harada purchased a house on Lemon Street in Riverside, California. Close to their restaurant, church, and children’s school, the house should have been a safe and healthy family home. Before the purchase, white neighbors objected because of the Haradas’ Japanese ancestry, and the California Alien Land Law denied them real-estate ownership because they were not citizens. To bypass the law Mr. Harada bought the house in the names of his three youngest children, who were American-born citizens. Neighbors protested again, and the first Japanese American court test of the California Alien Land Law of 1913—The People of the State of California v. Jukichi Harada—was the result. Bringing this little-known story to light, The House on Lemon Street details the Haradas’ decision to fight for the American dream. Chronicling their experiences from their immigration to the United States through their legal battle over their home, their incarceration during World War II, and their lives after the war, this book tells the story of the family’s participation in the struggle for human and civil rights, social justice, property and legal rights, and fair treatment of immigrants in the United States. The Harada family’s quest for acceptance illuminates the deep underpinnings of anti-Asian animus, which set the stage for Executive Order 9066, and recognizes fundamental elements of our nation’s anti-immigrant history that continue to shape the American story. It will be worthwhile for anyone interested in the Japanese American experience in the twentieth century, immigration history, public history, and law.

The thousands of acres of navel orange groves that once blanketed Riverside, California, were one of the most recognizable icons of the states early citrus industry and also the origin for Californias nickname, The Golden State. Founded as a utopian colony in the wake of the Civil War, Riverside soon began to lure wealthy foreign and eastern investors who turned their sights towards Riverside where the perfect combination of sun, soil, and water turned the opportunity of citrus growing into a multimillion-dollar industry. Twenty-five years after Riversides founding, millions of dollars of investments had transformed the small agricultural outpost into the wealthiest city per capita in the nation. The citys Orange Barons invested their money by building stately Victorian mansions and imposing brick commercial buildings. Others lured additional investors by creating parks with tropical plant gardens, formal avenues landscaped with rare and beautiful trees, and a carefully designed downtown area with beautiful churches, hotels, and civic buildings.

Riverside County encompasses more than two million people and most of the width of California, from Los Angeles's eastern suburbs to the Arizona state line at the Colorado River. Historian Steve Loch captures the vanished past of this vast swath of deserts and mountains--the eras of Spanish and then Mexican rule and the exploits of the earliest settlers of the American period. Juan Bautista de Anza, Louis Robidoux and many other namesake figures of today's geography are described in this unabridged excerpt of the author's comprehensive and masterly history Along the Old Roads.

Twenty-six edition oral histories of Orange County African-American pioneers from Willis Duffy to the family of Robert Clemons.

Through new research and materials, Edward T. Chang proves in Pachappa Camp: The First Koreatown in the United States that Dosan Ahn Chang Ho established the first Koreatown in Riverside, California in early 1905. Chang reveals the story of Pachappa Camp and its roots in the diasporic Korean community's independence movement efforts for their homeland during the early 1900s and in the lives of the residents. Long overlooked by historians, Pachappa Camp studies the creation of Pachappa Camp and its place in Korean and Korean American history, placing Korean Americans in Riverside at the forefront of the Korean American community’s history.

Blythe, California, is located along the Colorado River in the Palo Verde Valley, a part of the great Sonoran Desert. The town is, in modern times, 100 miles from nowhere, two hours of high-speed freeway travel to anywhere. Riverman Desertman describes the settlement and early work in the Valley, when getting there was a two-day trip north from the stage stop at Glamis, or south from Blythe Junction (now the town of Rice). There was no established road to the west, across nearly 100 miles of open desert to the Coachella Valley. Travelers to the east had to be ferried across the river, where they faced a trek of at least 60 miles to Wickenburg. All of this took place, in 1907, at the pace of a mule team or a fast horse. Blythe pioneer Camiel Dekens recollections graphically describe the difficulties early settlers faced in their efforts to transform a river-bottom valley to a productive farming community. At the same time, he paints vivid portraits of some of the individuals who shared his time and space, many of whom gave their names to streets and roads that crisscross the Palo Verde Valley. According to Riverside County Historical Commission Chairman Bill Jennings, in his Forward to the 1990 Edition: Riverman, Desertman fills a vital niche in the short shelf of Riverside County history books. In the late 1950's, a veteran newspaper writer, Tom Patter-son, met Camiel Dekens and their chemistry was responsible for creating a rich memoir that chronicles an important time in the desert's long history. Because it concerns a relatively obscure area and represents one man's impact, it might otherwise have been ignored in the sparse recorded history of the Colorado (Western Sonoran) Desert. Tom had no tape recorder, being a newsman of the old school. Instead, he took tons of handwritten notes and went over the data carefully with his source. As a result, Riverman, Desertman is a concise, competent accurate chapter in the rich history of Riverside County. Co-author Tom Patterson, in his Introduction, says: This book is primarily the story of Palo Verde Valley in its days of hard struggle, early hope and steady growth from 1907 until 1922. During most of that time Camiel Dekens struggled along with it. Interestingly, the period of his own personal difficulties came when despondency began to overcome the Valley and his sense of mission returned when the Valley could again see its way ahead. Dekens, who applied himself to a raw place and saw it become the home of commerce and family life felt himself distinctly a part of Palo Verde Valley. Dekens recollections of characteristics of the Palo Verde Valley in the early years of the twentieth century-- its remote location, desert surroundings and the impact of a mighty and untamed river make this work a unique contribution to the history of a unique and remote area.