A replica of the first public theater built in California.

This California family's ancestral melon is sold only here.

This eagle-topped spire remembers the military commander who snatched up California for the United States.

The short oil boom of Venice Beach, and its swift removal from the tourism-laden landscape.

Here, Father Agapius Honcharenko established his homestead, becoming the first nationally conscious Ukrainian to settle in the United States.

Outside San Francisco lies a small clown cemetery and memorial.

These six walrus head statues harken back to a time when this area wasn't far from the oceanfront.

Hidden inside a gift shop that doubles as a museum, this gargantuan yo-yo can only be operated by crane.

Three plaques mark the spot where the "forgotten father of broadcasting" worked.

A picturesque example of brute-force engineering conquering nature.

This giant shopping mall still holds signs of its automotive past.

800 apricot trees honor Silicon Valley's agricultural history.

California's first suspension bridge.

A fire lookout atop a glacial pinnacle is reached by climbing three vertiginous flights of stairs.

A monument to the frontier doctor who came up with the idea of delineating highways with a painted line.

This fully intact Neoclassical-Greek Revival style firehouse operated until 1938.

At night, a grove of towering redwood trees growing through the pavement block out all light from the so-called “Dark Park” of Madrone Avenue.

"You don't need a rocket scientist to build a steam engine, but we've got one." -Museum docent on the credentials of a restoration volunteer.

Astronomers plan to launch a space telescope into orbit, to find out what exactly stands in the way of an asteroid hitting Earth.

This bakery sits on the site of the Black Panther Party's first headquarters.

A sparse, solitary sequoia still stands as a living tribute to the famous conservationist who planted it—but it's dying.

The San Andreas Fault spectacularly offsets this creek.

This cabin from the 1850s is one of the first structures built by Chinese immigrants in California.

Check out a shovel along with your Shakespeare.