California |
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| Entered the Union: September 9, 1850 (31) | Capital: Sacramento |
| Origin of Name: probably derived from a popular Spanish novel published in 1510 which described a fictional island paradise named California -- Las Sergas de Esplandián, by Garcia Ordóñez de Montalvo. | |
| State Nickname: Golden State | State Flower: Golden Poppy |
| State Motto: Eureka (I have found it) | State Bird: California Valley Quail |
| State Song: “I Love You, California” | State Tree: California Redwood |
| State Marine Animal: California Gray Whale | State Animal: Grizzly Bear |
| State Marine Fish: The Garibaldi | State Fish: Golden Trout |
| State Insect: The California dogface butterfly | State Gem: Benitoite |
| State Fossil: The sabre-tooth cat | State Rock: Serpentine |
| National Parks: 9 • National Forests: 18 • State Parks & Beaches: 278 | |
| Famous for: National Parks, Golden Gate Bridge, Hollywood Movie Industry, mountains, beaches | |
| Famous Californians: Dave Brubeck (musician), Julia Child (chef), Joe DiMaggio (baseball), John Fremont (explorer), Robert Frost (poet), William Randolph Hearst (publisher), Anthony Kennedy (US Supreme Court), George S. Patton (General), John Muir (naturalist), Richard Nixon (President), Marilyn Monroe, Robert Redford (actors), Junipero Serra (missionary), Jack London, Upton Sinclair (authors), John Steinbeck (author), Shirley Temple (actress & ambassador) | |
| Native Animals and Birds: Click on photos of the animals and birds on this page to find out more about them and to hear the sounds they make. | |
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| Several Native American groups inhabited California -- including the Yuma, Maidu, Pomo, Hupa and Paiute tribes. | ||||||||||||||
| In 1542 Spanish explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo sailed into San Diego Bay, then continued north along the coast, making frequent trips ashore to claim land for Spain. | ||||||||||||||
| The first Spanish mission was established in 1769 at San Diego. California became a U.S. territory in 1847 when Mexico surrendered it to John C. Frémont. | ||||||||||||||
| On Jan. 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill, starting the California Gold Rush and bringing settlers to the state in large numbers. | ||||||||||||||
| Death Valley, is 282 ft below sea level, the lowest point in the nation. Mt. Whitney (14,505 ft) is the highest point in the lower 48 states. | ||||||||||||||
| California is one of the nation's leading turkey-producing states. | ||||||||||||||
| Dick and Mac McDonald opened the first McDonald's restaurant in San Bernardino, California. | ||||||||||||||
| Around 200 buffalo roam on Catalina Island, descendants of a few taken there in the 1920’s for a movie and left there. | ||||||||||||||
| All gray whale calves are born in the warm, shallow lagoons of Baja, California. | ||||||||||||||
| San Francisco Bay is considered the world's largest landlocked harbor. | ||||||||||||||
| Every plant in Disneyland's Tomorrow-land is edible. Guests are welcome to help themselves to bananas, strawberries, tomatoes, and more. | ||||||||||||||
| California grows 99.5% of all dates grown in the United States, | ||||||||||||||
| Fresno, California is the Raisin Capital of the World. California grows over 300,000 tons of grapes each year. | ||||||||||||||
| California produces over 17 million gallons of wine each year. | ||||||||||||||
| The largest three-day rodeo in the United States is held on the Tehama County Fairgrounds in Red Bluff. | ||||||||||||||
| The California Redwood Trees are the tallest and largest living organisms in the world. | ||||||||||||||
| The tallest tree in the world, at 380 feet, is in Redwood National Park. | ||||||||||||||
| California is the birthplace of the Frisbee, Barbie dolls, skateboards, and video arcade games. | ||||||||||||||
| The best view in the United States is at Mount Diablo State Park. From the top of the 3,849 foot summit more of the earth's surface can be seen than any other peak in the world, except Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa. | ||||||||||||||
| Castroville, California is known as the Artichoke Capital of the World. In 1947, Norma Jean, who would later be known as Marilyn Monroe, was crowned Artichoke Queen. | ||||||||||||||
| During the California gold rush of 1849, miners sent their laundry to Honolulu for washing and pressing. Due to the extremely high costs in California during these boom years, it was deemed more feasible to send their shirts to Hawaii for servicing. | ||||||||||||||
| California's Ethnic Roots: Mexican 22.2%, German 9.8%, Irish 7.7%, English 7.4%, African 5.1%, also includes 65 other ethnicities and a Native American population of 350,000 -- the most of any state. | ||||||||||||||
| Religion in California: 71.4% Christian (39.4% Protestant, 32% Catholic), 19% No Religion, 2% Jewish, 2% Buddhist, 3% Other Religions, 1.6% LDS, 1% Jehovah's Witness | ||||||||||||||
At a Glance
California Quick Facts
| Entered the Union | September 9, 1850 (31) |
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| Capital | Sacramento |
| Nickname | Golden State |
| State Bird | California Valley Quail |
| State Flower | Golden Poppy |
| State Tree | California Redwood |
New for 2026
More California Facts & Photos
The world's oldest known living tree grows in California's White Mountains: a Great Basin bristlecone pine named Methuselah, nearly 4,860 years old. It sprouted before Egypt's pyramids were finished, and forest rangers keep its exact location secret.
The La Brea Tar Pits in the middle of Los Angeles have produced millions of Ice Age fossils since excavations began in 1913, including the saber-toothed cat, California's state fossil. It is the only active paleontological dig site in a major city anywhere in the world.
Lake Tahoe, straddling the California-Nevada line, is the largest alpine lake in North America and, at 1,645 feet, the second deepest lake in the United States after Oregon's Crater Lake.
Yosemite Falls drops 2,425 feet in three sections, the tallest waterfall in North America. Fed almost entirely by snowmelt, it thunders in late spring at up to 2,400 gallons per second, then can run completely dry by the end of summer.
The Hollywood Sign went up in 1923 as a real estate advertisement reading HOLLYWOODLAND, lit by about 4,000 blinking light bulbs. It was meant to stand for only 18 months.
Common Questions
California: Questions & Answers
Why is there a grizzly bear on the California flag?
It comes from the Bear Flag Revolt of June 1846, when American settlers in Sonoma declared an independent California Republic and raised a homemade flag bearing a grizzly and a single star. The Legislature made the Bear Flag official in 1911. California is now the only state whose flag carries an extinct animal: the California grizzly vanished in the 1920s.
How did the golden poppy become California's state flower?
Californians voted for it: in 1890 the California State Floral Society put the choice to a ballot, and the golden poppy beat the mariposa lily and the matilija poppy. The Legislature made the designation official in 1903, and every April 6 is now celebrated as California Poppy Day.
Why do California's giant sequoias need fire to survive?
Fire is part of how sequoias reproduce. Heat dries out their cones for a mass release of seeds onto the bare, ash-enriched soil a burn leaves behind, and flames thin smaller trees so sunlight reaches the seedlings. Tree rings show surface fires swept the groves every 6 to 35 years for about 2,000 years, so park crews now light prescribed burns to keep the cycle going.
Why does California have so many earthquakes?
California straddles the boundary between two plates of the Earth's crust, the Pacific and the North American, which slide past each other along the San Andreas Fault system. They move about 46 millimeters a year, roughly the speed your fingernails grow. Faults stick while strain builds, sometimes for a century, then lurch free in an earthquake.
Voices of America
In Their Own Words
Thomas Jefferson
"The reason that Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart."
President
Ronald Reagan
"Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged."
President
George Washington
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports... And let us indulge with caution the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion ... Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail to the exclusion of religious principle."
Farewell Address
Abraham Lincoln
"We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us." (1863)
President
Ronald Reagan
"If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under."
President
Last updated: July 2026