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protected zone within an urban setting. Scramble along riverbeds, through shady canyons, past bizarrely formed pinnacles and visit famous movie sets. North of here, Ojai is a little inland Shangri-la with an artsy pedigree, stunning scenery, a spiritual vibe and otherworldly spa experiences. It’s at the edge of the Los Padres National Forest, an outdoor wonderland of rocks, creeks and waterfalls that’s perfect for overnight camping. The same is true of Big Bear Lake, a laid-back mountain town that morphs into SoCal’s premier skiing area in winter. In summer, hikers and mountain bikers invade to escape the heat in the LA Basin. Another cool spot is Julian, an old mining town in the hills east of San Diego, where you can pan for gold and gorge on scrumptious apple pie.

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CAMP, KITSCH & CULTURE

We dare you count the number of times during your trip you’ll be saying ‘Only in Southern California!’ The region is truly the capital of quirk and you’ll encounter unique characters, places and experiences wherever you go. If aliens landed on LA’s famous Venice Boardwalk they’d probably blend right in with the human zoo of chainsaw-jugglers, Speedo-clad snake-charmers and a roller-skating Sikh minstrel. Inland from here, the Museum of Jurassic Technology is a subversive repository of mind-twisting curiosities that’ll bamboozle and astound you. The desert has always lured kooks, including George van Tassel who built a giant rejuvenation machine called the Integratron in the Mojave. Off the I-10, you’ll do a double-take near Cabazon, where the World’s Biggest Dinosaurs house exhibits on – of all things – creationism. In Palm Springs, octogenarian showgirls do the cancan in the Palm Springs Follies, while at Glen Ivy Hot Springs you’ll have fun making devil’s horns on your head from sticky clay while wallowing in the mud pool. Cap the day at Medieval Times near Disneyland, where you can fancy yourself knight and damsel while watching jousting horsemen, eating chicken with your hands and wearing a paper crown. And then there’s always Las Vegas …

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History

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PREHISTORIC TIMES

NATIVE CALIFORNIANS

EUROPEAN DISCOVERY

MISSION IMPROBABLE

THE PATH TO STATEHOOD

THE RISE OF A REGION

MOVIES

MILITARY

SOCIAL CHANGE

THE FUTURE IS NOW

TIMELINE

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Most people think of Southern California as being only recently settled by the Brady Bunch, but a lot happened before the suburban dream became the dominant cultural paradigm. This chapter provides a general overview of how the region has developed through the centuries. For city- or area-specific historical events, see the history sections in the destination chapters.

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If you’re wondering what happened to California’s Native American population, find definitive answers in Handbook of North American Indians, edited by Robert Heizer.

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PREHISTORIC TIMES

Long before the first humans arrived in North America, mammoths, sloths, dire wolves, saber-toothed cats and other Ice Age animals prowled around the area we today call Southern California. Truckloads of fossils from these long-extinct critters have been pulled from LA’s La Brea Tar Pits, where they were trapped and killed in a gooey muck between 10,000 and 40,000 years ago. Roughly around the time the last of these animals vanished, the first humans began showing up in North America, having trekked from Siberia to Alaska via a long-gone land bridge across the Bering Strait. They weren’t exactly speedy about moving south and, according to radiocarbon dating of artifacts such as shell middens (ancient refuse heaps), stone tools and arrowheads, it took descendants of these migrants some 2000 years to reach Southern California.

The most spectacular artifacts left behind by California’s early inhabitants are their rock art, dating from 500 to 3000 years ago. Many sites are closed to the public in the interest of preservation, but you can visit Chumash Painted Cave State Historic Park, near Santa Barbara.