This website is devoted to chronicling the history of California settlements and colonies. Despite the State’s relative youth, it is rich in diversity in its pattern of human settlement. While it is perhaps most famous beyond its borders for its Gold Rush settlements, the state was truly the land of opportunity, and those opportunities in turn led to courageous, earnest efforts to create new societies in the far west. From the German immigrant vintners who settled Anaheim to the Methodists in Compton to the Presbyterians in Westminster, from the settlements of industry like Westwood and Samoa, to the socialist experiment of Llano del Rio in the Mojave desert, California has been the land of big plans and great dreams.
We encourage readers to contribute new histories that describe the historic evolution of this State. What is your story?
