When the Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869, travel across the country was forever changed. Instead of taking six months by wagon, the railroad allowed information, merchandise, and peopl...

The California State Capitol Building was completed in 1874 and cost $2.4 million to complete. It is home to the state’s governor as well as the branches of the state government. Did you know? Richa...

Located at Piers 15 and 17 on San Francisco’s Embarcadero, the Exploratorium is a museum of science and art that features over 650 explore-for-yourself exhibits. This scientific funhouse was founded...

Do you have an idea for the next “big thing” in business? Or were you an enterprising young person who actually had a successful lemonade stand? What about an idea for a new piece of technology? O...

John Sutter, an immigrant from Switzerland, built Sutter’s Fort on land that was granted to him by the Mexican Government. It was designed to protect his 50,000 acres of land and provide shelter...

In the mid 1950s, when two major dams were completed along the American River in California, the salmon and steelhead trout could no longer reach their usual spawning areas. Nimbus Fish Hatchery was c...

At the California Academy of Sciences you can explore an aquarium, a planetarium, and a natural history museum–all under one living roof. Established in 1853 and completely rebuilt in 2008, the Cali...

Early gold prospectors could draw an ounce of gold out of the river in one day while panning for gold. As the rivers became crowded with prospectors, you could spend the entire day bent over, shovelin...

The pioneer women of the west kept busy with traditional responsibilities: childbearing, caring for the little children, cooking, baking, and sewing, to name a few. They often had to perform these hou...

In 1869, Andrew Hallidie witnessed a horrible accident as a horse drawn streetcar slid backwards down a steep slippery San Francisco street. Four years later, Hallidie introduced the city to its first...