Fort Wallace

Fort Wallace (ca. 1865–1882) was a US Cavalry fort built in Wallace County, Kansas to help defend settlers against Cheyenne and Sioux raids. All that remains today is the cemetery, but for a period of over a decade Fort Wallace was one of the most important military outposts on the frontier.

Today, Fort Wallace is represented by a privately operated museum nearby in the town of Wallace, with relics from the fort as well as photos, reproduction items, and literature covering the post's history and the settlement of the Great Plains. A casting of the plesiosaur discovered by Dr. Turner and Scout William Comstock is also on display. Facades of some of the buildings from Fort Wallace and from the Old Town of Wallace are featured in the Milford Becker Addition opened in 2017.

West Sacramento, California

West Sacramento (also known as West Sac) is a city in Yolo County, California. The city is separated from Sacramento by the Sacramento River which also separates Sacramento and Yolo counties. It is a fast-growing community; the population was 48,744 at the 2010 census, up from 31,615 at the 2000 census. The traditional industrial center of the region since the Gold Rush era, West Sacramento is home to a diverse economy and is one of the area's top four employment centers.

West Sacramento is part of the Sacramento–Arden Arcade–Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area which has a population (2000) of approximately 1,796,857.[10] Major industries to the region include agriculture, government, and transportation.

In 1844, John Schwartz, a Flemish traveler, was the first Euro-American to permanently settle in the area of West Sacramento, which at that time was part of Mexico. He built a shack on the west bank of the Sacramento River six miles (10 km) south of its connection with the American River. John, with the help of his brother George, founded a salmon fishery along the river. In addition to the fishery, they also found the soil to be fertile and began farming and raising livestock. The announcement of the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848 brought a multitude of miners to the region. This also coincided with the end of the Mexican–American War.

Winchester, California

Largely rural for most of its history, and home to agricultural businesses including the Winchester Cheese Company, Winchester experienced rapid growth during the housing construction boom in the early-to-mid 2000s. However, construction and growth slowed when the housing bubble burst in 2007, resulting in a housing market correction. The mid-to-late 2010s saw housing prices in Winchester recover and construction continue with new subdivisions, schools, and parks being built.

The 2010 United States Census[5] reported that Winchester had a population of 2,534. The population density was 327.7 people per square mile (126.5/km²). The racial makeup of Winchester was 1,577 (62.2%) White, 38 (1.5%) African American, 17 (0.7%) Native American, 46 (1.8%) Asian, 2 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 728 (28.7%) from other races, and 126 (5.0%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1,233 persons (48.7%).

There were 769 households, out of which 326 (42.4%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 425 (55.3%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 94 (12.2%) had a female householder with no husband present, 53 (6.9%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 54 (7.0%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 6 (0.8%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 149 households (19.4%) were made up of individuals and 71 (9.2%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.30. There were 572 families (74.4% of all households); the average family size was 3.78.

Yreka, California

Yreka (/waɪˈriːkə/ wy-REE-kə) is the county seat of Siskiyou County, California, United States, located near the Shasta River; the city covers an area of approximately 10 square miles (26 km2), most of which is land. As of the 2010 United States Census, the population was 7,765, reflecting an increase of 475 from the 7,290 counted in the 2000 Census. Yreka is home to the College of the Siskiyous, Klamath National Forest Interpretive Museum and the Siskiyou County Museum.

In March 1851, Abraham Thompson, a mule train packer, discovered gold near Rocky Gulch while traveling along the Siskiyou Trail from southern Oregon. By April 1851, two thousand miners had arrived in "Thompson's Dry Diggings" to test their luck, and by June 1851, a gold rush "boomtown" of tents, shanties, and a few rough cabins had sprung up. Several name changes occurred until the little city was called Yreka. The name comes from the Shasta language /wáik'a/, for which Mount Shasta is named.[7] The word means "north mountain" or "white mountain".[8][9]

Poet Joaquin Miller described Yreka during 1853–1854 as a bustling place with "... a tide of people up and down and across other streets, as strong as if a city on the East Coast".[11] Incorporation proceedings were completed on April 21, 1857.[11]

Walnut, California

Walnut is a city in the eastern part of Los Angeles County in California.[8]Money's Best Places to Live ranked Walnut #70 in 2009[9] and #57 in 2011,[10] the highest ranking for a California city in both years.

The greater Walnut Valley is located between the steep San Jose Hills mountain range to the north, and the gentle Puente Hills to the south. Quality housing consists of master-planned single family homes ranging in size from 1,800 to 11,200 square feet. The city hosts a highly ranked public school system—the Walnut Valley Unified School District, which has been ranked by numerous sources as one of the top public school districts in Southern California[11] as well as Mt. San Antonio College. Walnut is one of the cities with the lowest crime rates in the San Gabriel Valley.[8]

The city covers nearly nine square miles (23 km2) and is home to hundreds of businesses. Its 2012 population was estimated at 29,661 by the United States Census Bureau. According to the 2010 United States Census, Walnut has a median household income at one of the top earning percentiles in the country at $101,250.[12]

Westlake Village, California

Westlake Village is a city in Los Angeles County on its western border with Ventura County. The planned community of Westlake, built with a lake at the center, straddles the line between Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Roughly two-thirds of the community was annexed by the city of Thousand Oaks. In 1981, the remaining portion incorporated into the City of Westlake Village which became the 82nd municipality of Los Angeles County.[5][6][5]

About 3,000 years ago, Chumash Indians moved into the region and lived by hunting rabbits and other game, and gathering grains and acorns. On-going excavations, archaeological sites, and polychrome rock paintings in the area provide a glimpse into the social and economic complexity of the ancient Chumash world.[7][8][9]

It is unknown when the first people settled in the area. A Chumash village was settled here in 500 BCE, known as Hipuc.[10] The Chumash Indians gathered and prepared acorns and other seeds. These were collected in the fall. The Chumash also hunted wild animals, fish and gathered plants. Their diet consisted of acorns, gophers, cottontail rabbits, skunks, jack rabbits, rats, mice, and seeds. They made their clothing from the skins of animals such as rabbits, deer, and sea otters. Women wore long skirts weaved from grass or soft bark, while men wore pieces of deerskin tied around their waists. Both men and women painted designs on their bodies and wore shell beads.[11]

Windsor, California

Windsor is an incorporated town in Sonoma County, California, United States.[5] The town is 9 miles north of Santa Rosa and 63 miles north of San Francisco. The population was 26,801 as of the 2010 census.

Windsor's first European settlers arrived in 1851. In 1855, Hiram Lewis, a Pony Express rider, became the town's first postmaster. He named the town Windsor because it reminded him of the grounds around Windsor Castle, a medieval castle from his home country of England. In 1855, a post office was established in Windsor. The following year, a business enterprise was built in eastern Windsor, which included a goods store, a shoe shop, a grocery and meat market, a saloon, a hotel, a boarding house, and two confectionery shops. The Northwestern Pacific Railroad was completed through the town in 1872, providing a faster and cheaper link to the Bay Area.[6]

On May 21, 1905, a fire destroyed the center of Windsor. Fanned by heavy winds, the fire destroyed several businesses, including a hotel and a barber shop. The damage was at an estimated $30,000 worth of property.[6]

Yuba City, California

Yuba City is a city in Northern California and the county seat of Sutter County, California, United States. The population was 64,925 at the 2010 census. Yuba City is the principal city of the Yuba City Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Sutter County and Yuba County. The metro area's population is 164,138.[8][9] It is the 21st largest metropolitan area in California ranked behind Redding and Chico. Its metropolitan statistical area is part of the Greater Sacramento CSA.

The Maidu people were settled in the region when they were first encountered by Spanish and Mexican scouting expeditions in the early 18th century. One version of the origin of the name "Yuba" is that during one of these expeditions, wild grapes were seen growing by a river, and so it was named "Uba", a variant spelling of the Spanish word uva (grape).

The Mexican government granted a large expanse of land which included the area in which Yuba City is situated to John Sutter, the same John Sutter upon whose land gold was subsequently discovered in 1848. He sold part of this tract to some enterprising men who wished to establish a town near the confluence of the Yuba River and the Feather River, tributaries of the Sacramento River, with an eye to developing a commercial center catering to the thousands of gold miners headed upstream to the gold fields. At the same time, another town was developing on the eastern bank of the Feather River, the beginnings of what later would become Marysville.

Walnut Creek, California

Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about 16 miles (26 km) east of the city of Oakland. With a total estimated population of 69,122, Walnut Creek serves as a hub for its neighboring cities because of its location at the junction of the highways from Sacramento and San Jose (I-680) and San Francisco/Oakland (SR-24) and its accessibility by BART. Its active downtown neighborhood features hundred-year-old buildings and extensive high-end retail establishments, restaurants and entertainment venues.

There are three bands of Bay Miwok Indians associated with early Walnut Creek:[8][9] the Saclan, whose territory extended through the hills east of present-day Oakland, Rossmoor, Lafayette, Moraga and Walnut Creek; the Volvon (also spelled Bolbon, Wolwon and Zuicun) near Mt. Diablo; and the Tactan located on the San Ramon Creek in Danville and Walnut Creek.

Today's Walnut Creek is located within the earlier site of four Mexican land grants. One of these land grants – measuring 18,000 acres (73 km2) – belonged to Juana Sanchez de Pacheco, who eventually passed the land down to her two grandsons. Ygnacio Sibrian, one of the grandsons, created the first roofed home in the valley in about 1850. The grant was called Rancho Arroyo de Las Nueces y Bolbones, named after the principal waterway, Arroyo de las Nueces (Walnut Creek), as well as for the local group of indigenous Americans (Bolbones). The Arroyo de las Nueces was named for the evidence of the native species of walnut tree, the California Walnut.

Westley, California

Westley is a census-designated place (CDP) in Stanislaus County, California. The population was 603[1][2] at the 2010 census, down from 747 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Modesto Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Oxford Energy had a major stake in a major local scrap tire pile operation.[4][5][6][7][8][4][5] It was the largest single collection of waste tires on the west coast, when it mostly burnt down in 1997.[4][5]

Filbin had begun trucking used tires into Ed's Tire Disposal even before construction of I-5,[9] the road being built between 1956 and 1979, depending on location.[9] Oxford Energy had begun dumping near Westley in various piles since the 1950s.[4][5]