80 Fun & Fascinating Facts About California You Didn’t Know

California, here we come! The state of California is so huge in so many ways — especially geographically and culturally — that there is so much to say and so many facts we can tell you about the Land of Milk and Honey. From the giant redwood trees in Big Sur to the sun-kissed beaches of Southern California and from Death Valley to the state’s 4,000 vineyards, California encompasses and influences so much about the country and the world at large that it may as well be its own country. Continuing our series on all 50 States — including Alabama, Delaware, Idaho, New Hampshire, Florida, Maine, and Louisiana — here are 79 facts about the El Dorado state.

What is California known for?

1. California is known as the Golden State, in large part because of its discovery of gold in 1848, as well as the golden California poppies that can be found up and down the state. You’ll also find the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The nickname was made official in 1968.

2. Los Angeles and San Diego and San Francisco and Santa Monica and Big Sur and lots of other well-known cities that are popular with tourists and industry folks from all around the world, and for many different reasons. You’ll find movie stars and beaches with crystal-clear water and perfect weather and giant redwood trees and fashion and culture and commerce — all that has such an impact on how the rest of us live.

3. Disneyland! The iconic amusement park opened on July 17, 1955 and charged adults just $1 for admission. Designed and built with the direct supervision of Mr. Walt Disney himself, Disneyland is nothing short of a phenomenal experience. “The Happiest Place on Earth” will stop at absolutely nothing to give you as close to a perfect experience as possible and everyone should be lucky enough to go at least once in their lives. It’s expensive, tho.

4. Silicon Valley! The southern San Francisco Bay Area of California is home to monster conglomerates like Google, Meta, and Apple — as well as dozens and dozens of startups and tech companies. The region has been a hub of innovation since the very first radio station in the United States to feature regular programming was launched in San Jose in 1909. More than one hundred years later, Silicon Valley is still hard at work looking for new ways to make our lives more efficient while collecting our personal data and increasing our dependency on them.

5. Hollywood! That famous and iconic Hollywood sign you’re probably so familiar with was erected in 1923 and was originally 13 letters long and read “Hollywoodland.” It withstood a lot of deterioration over the next several decades and in 1978, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner led a campaign to restore the landmark. Nine different donors — including Hefner, Alice Cooper, Andy Williams, and Gene Autry — made donations coinciding the nine different letters making up the Hollywood sign.

6. Surfing! Surfing has been a big deal since the 1950s, and such an integral part of California culture that it’s been influencing music, fashion, and linguistics for the rest of us ever since, not to mention other sports like skateboarding and snowboarding. Perhaps the only thing surprising about surfing being the official sport of California was how long it took to actually make it official. The bill was finally approved in August 2018.

Official state symbols of California

7. There’s an official anthem for the state, and it’s called “I Love You, California.” The words and music were written by Francis Beatty Silverwood and Abraham Franklin Frankenstein, respectively, and first published in 1913. The song is played at the funerals for Californian governors (including Ronald Reagan), and was featured in a commercial for Jeep in 2012.

8. Because of California’s laid-back reputation and easy-going nature, you’d be forgiven for thinking that marijuana is the official state grass but it’s actually the purple needlegrass, found in valleys and mountain ranges all over the state. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made it official by signing the bill into law on August 23, 2004. This did not occur easily, as there is something called the California-Pacific Section of the Society for Range Management that have been trying to make this happen since the 1970s, and it wasn’t until the Executive Director of the Quail Ridge Wilderness Conservancy (QRWC) made a serious push for it in the early aughts, along with help from California Native Grasslands Association (CNGA) and the California Native Plant Society (CNPS). These are actual serious organizations that take purple needlegrass very very very seriously.

9. There are two state fishes of California: the golden trout and the garibaldi. The former has been official since 1947 and the latter was named the state marine fish in 1995.

10. California has an official insect! It’s the California dogface butterfly, which is prettier than it probably sounds.

11. The desert tortoise has been the official state reptile of California since 1972, and it’s also the official reptile of neighboring Nevada. You can find them in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts but it has unfortunately been designated as a critically endangered species.

12. October 15 is Pacific Leatherback Sea Turtle Conservation Day in California, to support the official state marine reptile, which is the largest of all sea turtles. They can weigh up to a solid ton, and can grow to be 8 feet long. Unfortunately, it’s been on the endangered species list since 1970.

13. Mary Todd (and Abraham) Lincoln’s nephew William Todd designed the California state flag. Here it is!

14. Augustynolophus morrisi belongs to a family of duck-billed dinosaurs and inhabited central California during the Maastrichtian Age about 66 million years ago, sharing the space with far more popular contemporaries like Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus. The vegetarian’s fossils have only been found in California, and as such, it became the official state dinosaur of California in 2017.

15. The California state seal was created in 1849, and the design includes 31 stars to represent the number of states there were when California was admitted to the Union. It also contains a grizzly bear, a gold miner, grapes, and the motto “Eureka,” all elements that represent the varying characteristics of California. The Roman goddess of wisdom Minerva is also included.

16. The state bird is the California valley quail.

17. Eschscholzia californica — otherwise known as the California poppy — became the official state flower in 1903.

18. California is so big that it has two official state mammals, one for land and one for water: the California grizzly bear and the gray whale.

19. The state motto of California is “Eureka,” which is Greek for “I found it!” It’s a common exclamation people have been known to make when they come across a big discovery — like when James Wilson Marshall came across gold near Coloma. While Marshall probably did not shout this upon his find, the motto nonetheless appears on the California state seal. Eureka is also the name of a city in California.

20. The official state amphibian is the California red-legged frog.

21. No less than twenty-four (24) states — 48% of them all! — have square dancing as an official state symbol. California named it as the official state folk dance in 1988, and it’s also the official folk dance of New Jersey and South Carolina. All the states that have it as the official dance are Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, and Connecticut, as well as Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, and Missouri. And Nebraska, North Dakota, and Oregon, as well as Tennessee and Texas. And Utah. And Virginia. And also Washington state.

Early history of California facts

22. Las Sergas de Esplandián (or in English, The Adventures of Esplandián), by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, was a book first published in 1510 as part of a series of chivalric romance novels that was pretty popular in its day. The novel is notable because the novel describes a fictional island called California that was inhabited by Black warrior women, and it’s considered to be the origin of the name California.

23. The first white guy to set foot in California was the Iberian explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542 and the Spanish Empire claimed the territory. Cabrillo died the following January from gangrene that he developed from a shin injury that occurred when he fell on a jagged rock trying to help his men ward off Tongva warriors who had the audacity to not want to be colonized.

24. The famous explorer Francis Drake submitted a competing claim on behalf of England in 1579.

25. For a long time, California went largely unexplored and the Spanish Empire didn’t do much about it until after the Portolá expedition of 1769-1770 where missions were set up in regions that would eventually become San Jose, San Diego, and Los Angeles.

26. Starting in 1821 after Mexico gained its independence from Spain, California was part of the First Mexican Empire and the area spend the next couple decades in government turmoil with about 40(!) changes.

27. California was actually an independent country for 25 days in 1846, known as the California Republic.

28. The California Gold Rush began in 1848 after a sawmill operator in Coloma, California discovered gold and a shitload of people hauled ass westward in hopes of riches. This madness peaked in 1849, and this is how the San Francisco 49ers got their name.

29. The 31st state, California was admitted to the Union on September 9, 1850.

30. Beverly Hills has a reputation for symbolizing the rich and famous but it began as a modest Spanish ranch that grew lima beans. The ranch was eventually sold, sold again, and then divided into lots and sold piecemeal. It was incorporated in 1914 and a few years later in 1919, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford — two of the biggest movie stars of their day — built a mansion on land they bought there. The press called this “Pickfair” (perhaps a harbinger of the Bennifers and Brangelinas to come), as other big stars followed. A trend began, and the rest is California history.

California topography & geography

31. After Alaska and Texas, California is the third-largest state.

32. At about 750,000 acres, Yosemite National Park — America’s second national park after Yellowstone — is so big that it stretches across four counties in California. It’s got pretty much everything a nature lover would want in one place, like Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfall in the country, and El Capitan, which is one of the most popular destinations in the world for avid rock-climbers. It’s hard to sum up all of the beauty Yosemite National Park contains, but from Wawona Tunnel to Olmstead Point, and from Cathedral Beach to Bridalveil Fall, the wilderness is nothing short of gorgeous and pristine.

33. A coastal redwood in Redwood National Park is the tallest living tree on Earth. It’s called Hyperion, and it’s over 379 feet tall.

34. California is generally divided between Northern California and Southern California, and the exact geographic center of the state is the unincorporated community of North Fork, located in Madera County.

35. The United States has 59 national parks and California is home to 9 of them — more than any other state.

36. There are 58 counties in California, and at almost three million acres, San Bernardino County is the largest in the country.

37. Mount Whitney is the highest point in California, at 14,505 feet above sea level. It’s also the highest peak in the 48 contiguous states.

38. At 279 feet below sea level, Badwater Basin in Death Valley is the lowest point in California.

39. It should surprised absolutely no one that Los Angeles is the largest city in California.

40. The capital of California is Sacramento.

41. From north to south, California is 770 miles. At its widest, California is 250 miles.

42. San Francisco Bay has what is considered to be the world’s largest landlocked harbor.

43. There are 482 incorporated cities and towns in California, the newest one being Jurupa Valley in 2011.

44. General Sherman is the biggest tree in the world by volume, and it’s located in California’s Sequoia National Park. At 102 feet all around, and at least 275 feet tall, it’s still growing.

45. Death Valley is the hottest place in the country. Temperatures can reach over 115 scorching degrees during the summer.

46. The oldest known non-clonal tree in the world is in the White Mountains of California. Methuselah is a Great Basin bristlecone pine tree that is over 4,800 years old, and is so well-protected that its exact location is kept secret by the United States Forest Service.

47. Clear Lake is the oldest lake in North America. It’s been around for 2.5 million years and at 68 square miles, it’s also the largest natural freshwater lake that is wholly located within the state.

Fun, cool, interesting & weird facts about California

48. California is the most populous state in America, with more than 39 million people. Almost an eighth of the people in the United States live there.

49. With a seating capacity of 17,500, the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles is the largest outdoor amphitheater in the world, and is considered one of the best venues in the country to see live music. Officially opened since 1922, the venue has hosted Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Fred Astaire, Ella Fitzgerald, and Monty Python, as well as hundreds of other notable performers. Several huge rock-n-roll acts have recorded and released live albums there, like The Beatles (The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, released in 1977), The Doors (Live at the Hollywood Bowl, released in 1987), and The Jimi Hendrix Experience (whose concert can be found as part of the Electric Ladyland 50th anniversary box set). The Doors also played their last show at the Bowl, on September 10, 1972.

50. Otis Redding was renting a houseboat in Sausalito when he wrote “Dock of the Bay,” perhaps his most famous song, in August 1967.

51. Blue jeans were invented in San Francisco in 1873 by Levi Strauss and his business partner Jacob Davis (whom history seems to forgotten).

52. In 1889, famed media mogul William Randolph Hearst wanted a wild grizzly bear that he could show off at Woodward’s Gardens in San Francisco. An expedition led to the capture of a then-nearly-extinct bear, and Hearst named the bear Monarch. The bear lived for another 20 years and then stuffed to be put on display at the California Academy of Sciences. In fact, the grizzly bear you see on California’s state flag was modeled after Murdoch.

53. Castroville is a town in Monterey County and it’s considered to be the artichoke capital of the world. The town is known for their annual Castroville Artichoke Festival, which began in 1959, and eagle-eyed viewers of Stranger Things may have spotted Dustin’s Castroville Artichoke Festival t-shirt in a few episodes.

54. Before California became known as the Golden State, it was the Grizzly Bear State. Unfortunately, the California grizzly bear is now extinct. 🙁

55. Dick and Mac McDonald opened the very first McDonald’s in 1948 in San Bernardino. A hamburger was 15 cents. The beginnings of the fast food empire were depicted in John Lee Hancock’s 2016 film The Founder, starring Michael Keaton, Laura Dern, Linda Cardellini, and Nick Offerman.

56. Arnold Schwarzenegger was the 38th Governor of California, serving from 2003 to 2011.

57. There has been an annual frog-jumping contest in Angels Camp, Calaveras County since 1928. Inspired by the Mark Twain story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” people enter their strongest, leapingest frogs to face off others to see which one can jump the farthest in three moves. The record is currently held by Rosie the Ribbeter, who jumped an astonishing 21 feet in 1986. The contest was also a focus on a very enjoyable episode of We Are the Champions on Netflix.

58. A state so big has its fair share of weird town names, though some of them are incorporated and/or ghost towns. They include Twentynine Palms, Ukiah, Half Moon Bay, Diamond Bar, Eureka, Hawaiian Gardens, Earp, Furnace Creek, Skidoo, and perhaps the best town name in all of America, Zzyzx (located in San Bernardino County), which is pronounced exactly how it’s spelled.

59. A dog was once the mayor of a California town. His name was Bosco, and he was a black Labrador retriever and Rottweiler mix that beat out two actual humans to win the mayoral election for Sunol in 1981. He served nobly until his death in 1994, and a statue was erected in his honor in 2008.

60. Californium — symbol Cf and atomic number 98 on your periodic table of elements — was first synthesized by a team of physics researchers at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley, and it’s the only element to be named after a state.

61. There are about 4,200 bonded wineries in California. If the state were its own country, it would be the 4th leading in the world. The wine production in California accounts for more than 80% of all the wine made in the United States — that’s more than 17 million gallons.

62. You can take a walk across the iconic Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. There is a pedestrian path about 1.7 miles long.

63. The stock market crashed in 1929, spurring the Great Depression as thousands of banks went under throughout the 1930s. However, none of the banks in San Francisco went under.

64. California leads the United States in foods like almonds, pistachios, walnuts, strawberries, raspberries, peaches, nectarines, kiwi, grapes, apricots, avocados, figs, and dates — just to name a few.

65. A Los Angeles restaurant invented the savory French dip sandwich — but there’s some debate about which one. Philippe The Original (which is still around) claims that its owner created it in 1918, but another L.A. restaurant called Cole’s Pacific Electric Buffet claims that it was on the menu in 1908.

66. If Los Angeles were a state, it would have the 4th largest economy of all the United States.

67. The fortune cookie you often get with your meal at Chinese restaurants was inspired by a Japanese tradition and invented in California.

68. San Francisco is famous for its cable cars, and they are the only ones still operating in the United States. In 1964, they were named the first moving National Historic Landmark.

69. Southern California experiences over 10,000 earthquakes every year. Of course, most of them are so small that residents don’t even feel them.

70. We often associate Hollywood as a movie-making behemoth industry and while that’s certainly true, it’s actually just the third-biggest film industry in the world, behind Bollywood in India and Nollywood in Nigeria.

71. It took a long time for sushi to catch on in the United States, and it did so because a Los Angeles chef named Ichiro Mashita (probably, as this has been disputed) created the California roll in the early 1970s. He constructed the roll inside-out, and replaced the raw tuna with avocado. It quickly caught on throughout Southern California, and a culinary star was (re)born.

72. In 1986, Clint Eastwood was elected mayor of Caramel, California. One of his first acts in office was to repeal a law that prohibited eating ice cream on the sidewalk.

73. Disneyland opened in Anaheim on Sunday, July 17, 1955. Admission was a dollar.

What sports teams are in California?

74. There are three NFL teams are in California: the Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Chargers, and the San Francisco 49ers.

75. Major League Soccer has three (3) teams stationed in the state: San Jose Earthquakes, Los Angeles Galaxy, and the unimaginatively-named Los Angeles Football Club.

76. Both the summer and winter Olympics have been hosted in California, and it’s the only state to do so. The 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympics took place in Los Angeles, and the 1960 Olympics took place in Squaw Valley. The 2028 Summer Olympics are scheduled to take place in Los Angeles as well.

77. There are four (4) NBA teams in the state. The Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, and the Sacramento Kings. The Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA are also located in California.

78. Five (5) Major League Baseball teams play their home games in California: the San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, San Diego Padres, and the Athletics, who will be playing in West Sacramento while awaiting their move to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2028.

79. Speaking of baseball, ever notice that the Los Angeles Angels is redundant? Since “Los Angeles” is Spanish for “city of angels,” when you say “The Los Angeles Angels,” you’re really saying, “The the angels angels.”

80. The National Hockey League boosts three teams: San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks, and Los Angeles Kings.

Cover Image Photo Credit: via PxHere

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