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16 unique California facts

Updated: May 5, 2023


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Take a deep dive into what makes the golden state so special with these california facts!

  1. California is home to the "Avocado Capital of the World" with 50,000 acres of avocado crops. Check out these cool facts from California Avocado.

  2. The famous San Francisco cable cars were the first moving National Historic Landmark.

  3. Death Valley is the hottest National Park in the county having reached 134 degrees Fahrenheit (57 degrees Celsius).

  4. California is where the internet was born! in 1969, the first ARPANET message was sent from UCLA.

  5. The name California comes from a 16th-century Spanish novel that describes a mythical paradise called California.

  6. California boasts 1,100 miles of coastline with sandy beaches, cliffs and mountains.

  7. More movies have been filmed in California than any other state.

  8. In Pacific Grove, nicknamed "Butterfly Town", take a stroll through a monarch butterfly sanctuary. Thousands of monarch butterflies take to trees in the sanctuary to overwinter. There is a fine in place of $1,000 to prohibit the "molestation of butterflies."

  9. California boasts the largest trees in the world. The General Sherman Tree, located in Kings Canyon National Park, is the largest in the world at 52,508 cubic feet.

  10. California also lays claim to oldest living thing in the world. The Great Basin Bristlecone Pines, in the White Mountains near Bishop, are the oldest living non-clonal organisms and though to be 5,070 years old.

  11. There are more than 300,000 tons of grapes grown in California each year and produces more that 17 million gallons of wine.

  12. In 1850, California became the 31st state. Before its statehood, California was an independent country for one month in 1846.

  13. San Francisco is the birthplace of blue jeans. Levi Strauss introduced the jeans to the world in 1873.

  14. Victoria Beach, near the oceanside town of Laguna Beach, boasts a 60 foot pirate tower right on the beach! Built in 1926 as an enclosed staircase to the beach for William E. Brown, a senator from Los Angeles.

  15. California is home to both the highest and lowest points in the continental U.S. At 14,495 feet, Mt. Whitney in Sequoia National Park is the highest point in the contiguous United States. Badwater in Death Valley National Park, at 282 feet below sea level, is the lowest elevation point in the United States.

  16. How did Sourdough bread become synonymous with San Francisco? The bakers in the city during the gold rush used an undiscovered yeast to make their bread which resulted in an unusually tangy taste.


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