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DIVERSE AND DRAMATIC California is unmatched in its abundance and diversiry. Its 500 mile long Central Valley, lying between the Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada, is the most productive agricultural land in the entire Western Hemisphere, with an output of $11.5 billion in cash crops and livestock each year. The mist covered forests of the north are home to the world's tallest living things: the coast redwoods (Sequoia sem pervirens), which reach heights of more than 350 feet and can live for 1,000 years. A mere two hours drive east from the balmy beaches of the Pacific is an enormous desert whose rock carvings are visual reminders of past civilizations that have disappeared as surely as the silver mines of a more modern era. Towering above all these wonders is the state's granitic spine, the Sierra Nevada, a range of rugged mountains larger in area than the Swiss, Italian, and French alps combined. Equally grand is California's 760 mile ,coastline of jagged cliffs and sandy beaches. This dramatic rim of the continent has been a source of inspiration ever since Franciscan friars from Spain began building missions along the coast and linking them with the Camino Real (Royal Road) more than 200 years ago. Today the Pacific Coast Highway ,c1osely follows that early camino, and generations of poets and painters have traced every mile of it in their efforts to capture the beauty of Big Sur, the power of breakers crashing against the northern coast, and the twilight glow that transforms the evening sky above southern's California into a palette of pastels. California's population is as diverse as its landforms. The state's natural bounty has made it a 20th century Ellis Island. One out of every four immigrants who enter the United Sates eventually settles here. Hispanics, mainly from Mexico and Central and South America, make up 28 percent of the population of Los Angeles County. And more than a third of all Asians living in the United States in 1990 called California home. The new arrivals have joined with native Californians to build a state that leads the nation not only in agriculture, but in computer science, aerospace, biotechnology, and entertainment. A Work In Progress For most Americans, however, California is still defined by its scenery, from the lofty peak of Mount Whitney to the barren floor of Death Valley. Most of North America was molded eons ago by retreating Ice Age glaciers that scoured the Great Plains, scooped out the Great Lakes, and shaped the course of rivers. California, by comparison, remains a work in progress, a place where grinding pressures deep within the earth continue to uplift mountains, trigger volcanic eruptions, and rearrange the landscape. Millions of years ago these tectonic forces brought forth the Sierra Nevada (called by Californians simply the Sierra or High Sierra), a bold 400 mile link in the mountain chain running from Central America to Alaska. The mountains contained the gold that drew a rush of miners and led to California's settlement and statehood. Though time has softened the wounds left by the hydraulic mining of gold rush territory, it has also claimed many of the towns cobbled together by forty niners out to strike it rich. Those that have survived places like Copperopolis, Chinese Camp, El Dorado, Jenny Lind, and Sutter Creek are booming again because of a steady influx of retirees. The coming of the "flatlanders" has not diminished the Sierra's sense of tradition. Saloons in the town of Columbia still offer a choice of whiskey or sarsaparilla just as they did a century ago, and the legendary Calaveras Jumping Frog contest has not changed since the days of Mark Twain. Nevertheless, gentrification is an undeniable and unavoidable fact of life. Old Wells Fargo offices more often than not sell designer cookies now, while hitching posts along Main Streets mark the spots where realtors park their cars. But the Sierra offers a gift even greater than gold: water. In winter, moisture carried by prevailing westerlies blowing off the Pacific turns to snow when it hits the mountain range. Then, during the long months of summer, water from melting snow recharges the rivers, irrigates the Central Valley, and fills the swimming pools of Southern's California, carried there by a system of aqueducts. The heart of the Sierra is Yosemite National Park. Yosemite was originally carved out by streams cascading down the western face of the mountains. Later, glaciers moved through and ground away at the bedrock. The result is breathtaking seven mile long valley from which rise sheer granite walls 3,000 to 4,800 feet high. Discovered by gold rush pioneers the valley was saved from herdsmen and timber companies by John Muir, the pioneer environmentalist. Today Yosemite's exquisite alpine meadows, tumbling waterfalls, and trees that started life when ancient Greece was flourishing attract tens of thousands of visitors. Crowds and commercialization notwithstanding, the person who sees the mist hovering above Mirror Lake on an early autumn morning finds it is difficult to describe Yosemite as anything other than paradise. Extract from "America Land Of Beauty And Splendor".The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. Pleasantville, New York/ Montreal. Written by Craig Canine et al.1992. |
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