Riverside County encompasses more than two million people and most of the width of California, from Los Angeles's eastern suburbs to the Arizona state line at the Colorado River. Historian Steve Loch captures the vanished past of this vast swath of deserts and mountains--the eras of Spanish and then Mexican rule and the exploits of the earliest settlers of the American period. Juan Bautista de Anza, Louis Robidoux and many other namesake figures of today's geography are described in this unabridged excerpt of the author's comprehensive and masterly history Along the Old Roads.
Elmer Wallace Holmes provides us with a thorough history of one of the most beautiful counties in the US, with its beautiful valleys and magnificent mountains, its equable climate and fertile soil. He tells us about the big cities, the Perris and Moreno valleys, San Jacinto and San Gorgonio and much more ...
In 1915, Jukichi and Ken Harada purchased a house on Lemon Street in Riverside, California. Close to their restaurant, church, and children’s school, the house should have been a safe and healthy family home. Before the purchase, white neighbors objected because of the Haradas’ Japanese ancestry, and the California Alien Land Law denied them real-estate ownership because they were not citizens. To bypass the law Mr. Harada bought the house in the names of his three youngest children, who were American-born citizens. Neighbors protested again, and the first Japanese American court test of the California Alien Land Law of 1913—The People of the State of California v. Jukichi Harada—was the result. Bringing this little-known story to light, The House on Lemon Street details the Haradas’ decision to fight for the American dream. Chronicling their experiences from their immigration to the United States through their legal battle over their home, their incarceration during World War II, and their lives after the war, this book tells the story of the family’s participation in the struggle for human and civil rights, social justice, property and legal rights, and fair treatment of immigrants in the United States. The Harada family’s quest for acceptance illuminates the deep underpinnings of anti-Asian animus, which set the stage for Executive Order 9066, and recognizes fundamental elements of our nation’s anti-immigrant history that continue to shape the American story. It will be worthwhile for anyone interested in the Japanese American experience in the twentieth century, immigration history, public history, and law.
The thousands of acres of navel orange groves that once blanketed Riverside, California, were one of the most recognizable icons of the states early citrus industry and also the origin for Californias nickname, The Golden State. Founded as a utopian colony in the wake of the Civil War, Riverside soon began to lure wealthy foreign and eastern investors who turned their sights towards Riverside where the perfect combination of sun, soil, and water turned the opportunity of citrus growing into a multimillion-dollar industry. Twenty-five years after Riversides founding, millions of dollars of investments had transformed the small agricultural outpost into the wealthiest city per capita in the nation. The citys Orange Barons invested their money by building stately Victorian mansions and imposing brick commercial buildings. Others lured additional investors by creating parks with tropical plant gardens, formal avenues landscaped with rare and beautiful trees, and a carefully designed downtown area with beautiful churches, hotels, and civic buildings.
Riverside County encompasses more than two million people and most of the width of California, from Los Angeles's eastern suburbs to the Arizona state line at the Colorado River. Historian Steve Loch captures the vanished past of this vast swath of deserts and mountains--the eras of Spanish and then Mexican rule and the exploits of the earliest settlers of the American period. Juan Bautista de Anza, Louis Robidoux and many other namesake figures of today's geography are described in this unabridged excerpt of the author's comprehensive and masterly history Along the Old Roads.
Several books have been written about the history of the Coachella Valley, most of which focus on the efforts of white settlers to develop the valley's agriculture and tourism industries.But while some scholars have written extensively about the history of the Cahuilla Indians and ancient Lake Cahuilla, relatively little has been written about the immigrants from Mexico, Japan and other countries who have fueled the Coachella Valley's economic growth since the early 1900s, let alone the people who have come to this valley from other states.The Palm Springs Historical Society published a book in 2005 titled, We Were Here Too: The History and Contributions of the Original Mexican Families to the Palm Springs Village. But aside from a self-published book titled Coachella Valley Mexican American Pioneer Roots, which was produced by the Mexican American Pioneers in December 2009, and a commemorative yearbook, Coachella Valley Union High School: The First 50 Years 1910-1960, relatively little has been written about the immigrant history of Coachella and the eastern Coachella Valley.This book is an attempt to fill the void by highlighting some of the more interesting aspects of the eastern Coachella Valley's immigrant history, as told by several of the valley's pioneering immigrants and their descendants, in an effort to better inform our youth and everyone else, for that matter, about the significant economic and social contributions of immigrants in our community.This book includes many direct quotes from heretofore unpublished accounts of Mexican American pioneers who were interviewed in 2007 by Dr. Sarah McCormick-Seekatz as part of an oral history project organized by the Coachella Valley History Museum and Cultural Center in Indio. Dr. McCormick-Seekatz is one of a handful of historians who have taken an interest in researching various aspects of the Coachella Valley's immigrant history.
Through new research and materials, Edward T. Chang proves in Pachappa Camp: The First Koreatown in the United States that Dosan Ahn Chang Ho established the first Koreatown in Riverside, California in early 1905. Chang reveals the story of Pachappa Camp and its roots in the diasporic Korean community's independence movement efforts for their homeland during the early 1900s and in the lives of the residents. Long overlooked by historians, Pachappa Camp studies the creation of Pachappa Camp and its place in Korean and Korean American history, placing Korean Americans in Riverside at the forefront of the Korean American community’s history.
