The State of California – Free Online Topography map

California is a state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east, Arizona to the southeast, and, to the south, the Mexican state of Baja California. California is the most populous U.S. state. Its four largest cities are Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, and San Francisco. The state is home to eight of the nation’s fifty largest cities. It is known for its varied climate and geography as well as its diverse population.

With an average of 342 days of sunshine per year, who could blame President Nixon for wanting to get close to the beautiful San Clemente beaches and high-cliff, scenic view coastline? The area known as Alta California was colonized by the Spanish Empire beginning in the late 18th century. It and the rest of Mexico became an independent republic in 1821. In 1846, California broke away from Mexico, and, after the Mexican-American War, Mexico ceded California to the United States. It became the 31st state admitted to the United States on September 9, 1850

Oddly enough for a town with so much sunshine, San Clemente, CA was founded by the 33rd mayor of Seattle, Washington, Ole Hanson (or maybe not so odd, considering Seattle has an average of 226 cloudy days per year). After Hanson finished being mayor in 1919, he made an unsuccessful attempt at becoming the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 1920, and then headed for California. Weary of politics or the rain-or both-Hanson purchased the land and designed a 2,000-acre community designed to resemble a Spanish village. California is the most populous U.S state, and the third-largest U.S. state by land area after Alaska and Texas. Its geography ranges from the Pacific coast to the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the east, to Mojave desert areas in the southeast and the Redwood-Douglas fir forests of the northwest. The center of the state is dominated by the Central Valley, one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world.



Hanson named the city after San Clemente Island, which in turn was named by the explorer Vizcaino in 1602 after Saint Clement, who was executed by being tied to an anchor and thrown into the sea, and who is celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church on November 23, the day Vizcaino arrived on San Clemente Island. The California Gold Rush dramatically changed California with a large influx of people and an economic boom that caused San Francisco to grow from a tiny hamlet of tents to a world-renowned boomtown in the 19th century. The early 20th century was marked by the establishment of Los Angeles as the center of the American entertainment industry, in addition to the growth of a large tourism sector in the state as a whole. Along with California’s prosperous agricultural industry, other industries include aerospace, petroleum, and computer and information technology. If California were a separate country, it would rank among the ten largest economies in the world, with a GDP similar to that of Italy, and it would be 35th among the most populous countries.

California has a long and rich history of wine making. The wine industry marked its beginning in 1769, when the first grape vines were planted at Mission San Diego, by the Franciscan missionary Father Junipero Serra. This black-skinned grape variety, which was called Mission grape, played a significant role in California wine production until 1880. The word California originally referred to the entire region composed of what is today the state of California, plus all or parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Wyoming, and the Mexican peninsula of Baja California.

In 1833, the first documented imported European wine vine of California was planted in Los Angeles by a French winemaker Jean-Louis Vignes. Later in the 1850s and ’60s, Agoston Harazsthy – a Hungarian soldier and merchant – imported original vine cuttings from around 165 European vineyards. Altogether, he introduced 300 different grape varietals in California. The name California is most commonly believed to have derived from a fictional paradise peopled by black Amazons and ruled by a Queen Califia. The myth of Califia is recorded in a 1510 work The Exploits of Esplandian, written as a sequel to Amadís de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo.[6] The kingdom of Queen Califia or Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a remote land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts and rich in gold.

Seal Beach, California used to be dynamic and charming place. Now the situation is a bit different. Some years ago Seal Beach was a lively and dynamic place with games, entertainment and of course, the seals. Nowadays, all the liveliness and clamor of Seal Beachis replaced with people peacefully walking the pier or or enjoying the beautiful beaches. California adjoins the Pacific Ocean, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and the Mexican state of Baja California. With an area of 160,000 square miles (414,000 km2), it is the third-largest state in the United States in size, after Alaska and Texas.[9] If it were a country, California would be the 59th-largest in the world in area.

Seal Beach, California was established in 1915 with a population of 250. The town was first established under the name Bay City before being changed to Seal Beach. It offers the longest beach south of San Francisco. The beach is unique with its seals but also with the sightseers who visit the town, the people who go there to picnic, the adults who dance in the pavilion or dine at the restaurants and so on and so forth. In the middle of the state lies the California Central Valley, bounded by the coastal mountain ranges in the west, the Sierra Nevada to the east, the Cascade Range in the north and the Mountains in the south. The Central Valley is California’s agricultural heartland and grows approximately one-third of the nation’s food. Divided in two by the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the northern portion, the Sacramento Valley serves as the watershed of the Sacramento River, while the southern portion, the San Joaquin Valley is the watershed for the San Joaquin River; both areas derive their names from the rivers that transit them. With dredging, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin Rivers have remained sufficiently deep that several inland cities are seaports. The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta serves as a critical water supply hub for the state. Water is routed through an extensive network of canals and pumps out of the delta, that traverse nearly the length of the state, including the Central Valley Project, and the State Water Project. Water from the Delta provides drinking water for nearly 23 million people, almost two-thirds of the state’s population, and provides water to farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. The Channel Islands are located off the southern coast.

With the foundation of Pacific Electric Railway, Henry Huntington had brought to Seal Beach, California many people who displayed interest to invest their money in the community. These people wanted to buy a strips of land along the beach, which was a rare commodity. As the population of Seal Beach, California was increasing, the people continued to enjoy the beauties that town had to offer. The Sierra Nevada (Spanish for “snowy range”) include the highest peak in the contiguous forty-eight states, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 ft (4,421 m). The range embraces Yosemite Valley, famous for its glacially carved domes, and Sequoia National Park, home to the giant sequoia trees, the largest living organisms on Earth, and the deep freshwater lake, Lake Tahoe, the largest lake in the state by volume.

California climate varies from Mediterranean to subarctic. Great quantity of the state has a Mediterranean climate, with cool, rainy winters and dry summers. The cool California Current offshore often creates sujmer fog near the coast. Further inland, one encounters colder winters and hotter summers.

Northern parts of the state average higher annual rainfall than the south. California’s mountain ranges influence the climate as wwll: some of the rainiest parts of the state are west-facing mountain slopes. Northwestern California has a temperate climate, and the Central Valley has a Mediterranean climate but with greater temperature extremes than the coast. The hiyh mountains, including the Sierra Nevada, have a mountain climate with snow in winter and mild to Assuage heat in summer.

The east side of California’s mountains has a drier rain shadow. The low deserts east of the southern California mountains experience hot summers and nearly frostless mild winters; the higher elevation deserts of eastern California see hot summers and cold winters. In Death Valley, the highest temperature in the Western Hemisphere, 134 °F (57 °C), was recorded July 10, 1813.