Posts by Mike McPhate

Long before the natural wonder known as Yosemite’s firefall became the Coachella of nature photography, there was a manmade version of the spectacle that delighted generations of visitors to the park. While unthinkable today, people used to push gleaming embers off the edge of Glacier Point as nighttime entertainment for campers in the valley 3,200…

In May of 1903, Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir went on a camping trip in Yosemite that changed the nation. The adventurous president had read Muir’s writings and expressed interest in seeing the naturalist’s beloved Yosemite. “I do not want anyone with me but you,” the president wrote in a letter, “and I want to…

In 1856, San Francisco witnessed an assassination as treacherous and cowardly as there ever was in the city. In the days of the Gold Rush, vice and violence ruled the day, and the crusading newspaperman James King made a career of exposing the city’s many scoundrels in the pages of the Evening Bulletin. “He flayed…

Addressing the California State Medical Society in 1875, Dr. Alfred E. Regensburger suggested a way to deal with the growing number of women interested in medical careers. “If we ignore them and downplay their efforts,” he said, “they will be forced to abandon the idea of being a part of medicine.” Born in May of…

“L.A.’s most successful export is not Hollywood but Pentecostalism,” the Economist once wrote. In April 1906, an itinerant black preacher, William Seymour, kicked off what became known as the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles. Historians now regard the religious revival as the primary catalyst for the spread of Pentecostalism in the 20th century. Seymour was…

In April 1974 a freelance copywriter named Gary Dahl struck upon an improbable multimillion-dollar idea. Over beers at a Los Gatos bar, Dahl’s buddies were lamenting the hassles of pets: the feeding, the walking, the cleaning up. “I own a pet rock,” Dahl said in jest. It turned into a running joke, then a serious…

Decay festers all around at the Salton Sea, the vast inland lake in Southern California that once hosted beauty pageants and boat races in its tourist heyday. Pollution, drought, and blistering heat conspired to end the fun, killing off fish en masse and leaving communities abandoned along the shore. But new life is moving into…

Every so often, the clouds seem to turn black and dance above the fields of California. They are thousands of European starlings performing one of nature’s most extraordinary — and mysterious — shows. When they assemble in the sky, the birds form synchronized blobs known as murmurations that twirl and throb and swoop. The most…

The California Sun uses a model of voluntary support. That means we rely on you, dear reader, to chip in a small amount to help cover the cost of producing the newsletter. Here are nine reasons to inspire you: 1The Sun reveals California’s treasures. A subterranean wonderland in the San Joaquin Valley, a pink dream…

Updated: March 15, 2022The bloom is on at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad. For about 10 weeks each year, the working farm lets the public wander its carefully manicured rows of white, red, yellow, purple, pink, and orange blossoms perched on 50 gently sloping acres overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The flowers are ranunculuses, a member…

In 1852, three black men — Carter Perkins, Robert Perkins, and Sandy Jones — were asleep in a cabin when a group of armed whites broke in, loaded the men into a wagon, and hauled them before a justice of the peace. The captives were declared fugitive slaves and ordered back to their former masters. This…

Born in a small Mexican village, Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa hopped the border into California in 1987 the day before his 19th birthday — with no English and $65 in his pocket. Today, he is a celebrated brain surgeon, cancer researcher, and author. Quiñones-Hinojosa’s California journey began in the fields around Fresno, where he picked tomatoes and cotton…

James Lick, once the wealthiest Californian, donated funds to build the world’s most powerful telescope with the stipulation that it double as his tomb. An austere Pennsylvania Dutchman, Lick made his fortune snatching up real estate in the small village of San Francisco just as the Gold Rush was taking off. An undated rendering of…

In the late 19th century, Pasadena was a sleepy town of citrus growers and wealthy vacationers. It was a local fox-hunting club, whose members hailed from parts east, that had the idea to showcase the area’s mild Mediterranean climate. “In New York, people are buried in the snow,” the Massachusetts-born writer Charles Frederick Holder declared.…

Morro Bay, perched midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, is a sleepy fishing village, popular with city folk looking to get away from it all. But each winter, the place is overtaken by a rumpus of life. Located along the north-south Pacific Flyway, Morro Bay is among the country’s most important bird areas. Between…

There’s a little almond tree at the edge of an orchard outside Modesto that’s festooned with decorations on holidays throughout the year. For passing motorists, the display is a bit of random cheer and also a mystery: Why this tree along this lonely stretch of road? The story, first reported in the Modesto Bee, begins…