9 Fun Facts About California You Should Know About

subhathish
14 Min Read

Post Author

California, also known as the Golden State, is one of the most renowned states in the USA. From farmers to Hollywood stars, this state is the most diverse environment in terms of culture.

Most of our knowledge about California ends at Los Angeles’ Hollywood sign. But the state has so much to offer than just another English movie. So fasten your seatbelts and get ready to face a huge wave of interesting facts about California.

1. Immensely Populated

One of the mainstream yet fun facts about California is that it falls among the most populous cities in the country. It is so populated that the state houses nearly 40 million people. The inhabitants of California are the highest and it is roughly 10 million higher than the populace of Texas, the biggest state in the country. It represents around 1/8 of America’s population.

One of the other fun facts about California is that the state holds more people than some countries. For instance, Canada’s population is only 38 million. In other words, California beats the maple leaves by 2 million.

2. Plenty of National Parks

California is not just about the skyscrapers in Los Angeles and San Francisco. There are more national parks here than anywhere else. You’d be surprised to see how much of nature the city preserved. The state has nine national parks in total and this is one of those fun facts about California most people don’t know.

The Death Valley National Park

9 Fun facts about California: Icy Tales
Image Source: Unsplash

The Death Valley National Park is the largest national park in the USA. The size of this government property is nearly three million acres. In other words, 13,658 square kilometres of wild lands. Up to the establishment of Death Valley Park in ’94, Yellowstone National Park maintained the distinction of being the biggest park in the country.

It is the lowest point in North America. The Death Valley is situated 282 feet below sea level which is the lowest national park in the entire world. This is one of the fun facts about California that surprise people to this date. At this location, there was once an upland lake, perhaps hundreds of years ago. Since it had no outward outlet to other waterways, a significant amount of silt, notably salt, was collected there.

Ultimately, the water disappeared, leaving only exquisitely sculpted mineral salts. If there is indeed a lot of rain, like there has been in 2005, it will periodically regenerate.

Sequoia National Park

California’s Sequoia national park is one of the oldest in the country. It was established by the 23rd president of the United States, Benjamin Harrison.

The park was created to prevent poaching of the sequoias. There are three of the top 10 ancient forms of flora in Sequoia National Park. Namely Western Juniper, Foxtail Pine, and the giant sequoia species which have been alive for more than three thousand years.

General Sherman

9 Fun facts about California: Icy Tales
Image Source: DepositPhotos

The world’s largest tree stands in the Sequoia National park. The tree has been named General Sherman and stands at 275 feet and circumferences up to 102 feet.

It is the largest living tree ever that has been alive. It has been towering high for over 2,500 years.

Kings Canyon National Park

The Kings Canyon park was established on 15th October 1940 and is located in California’s mountains of Sierra Nevada. The canyon was formed some 500 million years back due to deposits of sandstone. The area was not explored till the mid-1800s, and by the government’s military assessment of the nation’s terrain in the 1850s.

Two decades later, an ecologist by the name of John Muir started to worry more about the survival of trees in the area. However, in 1965, the park was moulded to a tourist’s convenience.

World war II effect

Due to their proximity and shared protection of a large portion of the terrain and redwoods, Kings Canyon National Park and Sequoia National Park started to be maintained jointly during the Second World War. This is one of the fun facts about California.

3. Houses both highest and lowest points

The state has both the highest and lowest points in the country which is one of the mind-blowing and fun facts about California.

Mount Whitney

The highest point in the United States stands at 14,500 feet and is called Mount Whitney. It falls under Sequoia park’s territory and a permit is required to climb it. As a matter of fact, to ascend the highest point of Mount Whitney and descend the stairs to Whitney Gate, takes 8 – 12 exhausting hours.

The Badwater Basin

The lowest point in the United States lay low in the Death Valley and is termed the ‘Bad Water Basin’. There used to be an upland lake here, but it accumulated a substantial amount of silt, particularly salt because it had no outflow to other streams.

4. California’s state animal

9 Fun facts about California: Icy Tales
Image Source: Unsplash

Here is another one of those interesting facts about California, people who are acquainted with the state flag might assume that the populace adores the California grizzly bear.

Besides the red band around the bottom, the flag’s other notable component is a large brown bear with the phrase “California Republic” inscribed beneath it. This is one of the 9 Fun facts about California.

Why a grizzly bear?

In the past, the grizzly bear was able to migrate over most of the state, particularly in the lower slopes and basins.

Up until the California Gold Rush, when humans started pouring into the region in large numbers, the Californian grizzly bear was a strong and dangerous animal that had little problem protecting itself. The bear, however, did not cede its area without a battle. It earned a reputation amongst colonists for annihilating their animals and generally wreaking havoc on their farmsteads and campgrounds.

The danger posed by bears to the people and livelihoods of the immigrants was not taken lightly. It appears that the bear was chosen as California’s official state animal in 1953 as a sort of sorrow and commemoration. And that surely is one of those interesting facts about California.

5. California produces plenty of wine

Another interesting & fun fact about California is that every year, wine is made in a massive magnitude of 17 million gallons. California produces so much wine due to abundant grape farms in the golden state and other states.

Grape wine sources

The state produces the country’s fruits, especially grapes. As a matter of fact, each year three hundred thousand grapes are harvested in the state contributing to the economy of the country. There are numerous states like the El Dorado State, Grape state, and the Golden State where grapes are cultivated in hundreds and thousands.

Agriculture and farming

North-central California farms more than 35 per cent of the total of the nation’s veggies and 70percent of its fruit production. Along with having the largest cash farming revenues, the state’s farming industry produces more than 450 kinds of goods. California is the only state to home more than 6,500 different plant species.

6. Roads are built on guns in San Francisco

Here are mind-bending fun facts about San Francisco. There are roads in the city that have been built on guns. People were seeking for solutions to asphalt the roadways and improve accessibility in the 19th century and turned to firearms.

There could have been options like concrete but San Francisco chose to use guns as the foundation of its roads. Guns were literally dumped on the ground, mud to cover them, and the road was laid.

7. Dogs are more populated than children in San Francisco

This surely is an absurd yet interesting among the 9 Fun facts about California. Even though it doesn’t speak for the state as a whole but yes, dogs in San Francisco are more than the children in the city.

There are several explanations for this. The main one is that San Francisco has extremely high living expenses which is another one of the 9 Fun facts about California. Even well-paid silicon valley employees find it difficult to justify growing their family in the metropolis when income does not really multiply. People rather adopt animals than have children of their own.

8. Counties in California

The state branches out to 58 counties which were initially 27 in the 17th century. The largest county in the country is San Bernardino which ranges up to 20,105 square miles.

The San Bernardino County

9 Fun facts about California: Icy Tales
Image Source: DepositPhotos

San Bernardino county comes under the Greater part of Los Angeles and houses nearly 2 million people. The county is home to at least 35 officially designated nature reserves that are protected by the NWPS. Among the 9 Fun facts about California are that there are six aviation sites owned by San Bernardino county namely Apple Valley, Hesperia, Twenty-nine Palms, and many more.

The Los Angeles County

The golden state of Los Angeles has a lot in store to entertain people. The entire world already knows about the Hollywood sign, the Lakers, as well as the traffic. But here are some more fun facts about California (Los Angeles).

Largest  Economy

 fun facts about California
Image Source: Unsplash

The GDP of Los Angeles, if it were a separate nation, would dwarf those of Saudi, Swiss, and the whole United Arab Emirates combined. San Jose is one of the government’s other income streams. This is by far the biggest IT hub in the US and is situated in the core of Silicon Valley.

The Sonoma County

The biggest geothermal area in the globe is located in Sonoma County. About twelve thousand years ago, aboriginal people used the area for steam baths and medicinal reasons prior to power stations being developed nearby.

The ghost town

A ghost town exists in Sonoma. There previously lived hundreds and thousands of California miners in Mercuryville. By the middle of the 20th century, however, hardly 10 residents were still present.

9. Tally’s Electric Theatre

The last in the list of fun facts about California is here. The world’s first motion picture theatre was inaugurated here. Motion films had already been viewed in southern Europe and other locations in the US, but this was the only cinema that showed them solely. Tally’s Electric Theatre, the city’s first theatre, established Los Angeles as the world’s film hub. It served as the catalyst for the Hollywood movement and then was eventually titled ‘The Lyric Theatre.

Conclusion

These are the 9 fun facts about California that should amuse readers. One would never fall short of stuff things to discover or learn because CA is so large and diverse. Hills, rivers, the San Francisco bay, and dunes may be found in California but it also houses the most populated cities in the world and you will find dogs in the street more than children.

To read more such interesting articles, visit our website Icy Tales.

Last Updated on by

Stay Connected

Share This Article
Leave a comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *