The Library of Congress makes available these eyewitness accounts of California's history from 1849 to 1900.

A collection of primary source photos from 19th-century California which portray what everyday life was like during the California Gold Rush.

The California State Parks present an excellent unit to local geology of Borrego Badlands to Salton Trough. Through lessons plans, power point presentations, and a videoconference students will take a closer look into fossils and the...

A collection of primary source materials and informational text that looks at law and order in the "wild west" of California, identifying changing ethnicity in a growing population seeking gold and other resources.

Students can use this page as a jumping off page to do research on Spanish missions in California. There are numerous links to Scholastic articles and to other websites on subtopics such as missionaries, Franciscans and places in...

A brief history of the first transcontinental railroad and the vision of Theodore Judah as well as the financing of the "Big Four."

Contains an article on the discovery of gold in California at Sutter's Mill that resulted in the California Gold Rush.

When fourth graders are required to learn their state history, this California teacher takes it across the curriculum implementing a project-based learning unit highlighting the Spanish Mission Era of California in the 18th and 19th...

Understanding history requires students to be able to see the big picture. This teaching unit introduces students to tools they can use to investigate history. Topics covered include cartography, chronography, and maps of space, time and...

This site provides information on the three Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County.

The San Diego History Center provides the interesting story of Portola, an early governor of California. Provides a great story about Monterey.

Lesson on immigration, conflict and nativism in which students examine primary source documents to evaluate public policy and attitudes towards Chinese immigrants in California, 1878-1879.

The physical characteristics, history, and mining of gold in California are examined in this thorough site.

Discover how connecting Santa Cruz, California to the national railroad network in the late 1800s helped the town prosper and change.

Primary source photographs portray the issues and history surrounding the Watts Riots of California, and how the community came together.

Memories of Angel Island immigration station are sometimes bittersweet as the Station was designed to "Exclude new arrivals." Site provides the interesting history of this immigration station of the West.

Contains Nelson's pictorial guide-books, a fascinating look at the journey on the Central Pacific Railroad from Utah to California, including time schedules and descriptions of scenery.

A history of five tribes in the California Native American culture area.

[Free Registration/Login Required] This resource presents a primary lesson plan that looks at primary sources to learn about Chinese immigration to California.

Read a history of the Chumash Indians and learn about their way of life before contact with the Spanish. Find out about their large domed houses, plank canoes, and impressive cave paintings.

This website tells about the emergence of secularization of Spanish California, which resulted in the decline of the missions.

From a 1969 publication by the Chinese Historical Society of America comes this extensive look at the Chinese role in the building of the Central Pacific Railroad from California east to Utah.

This site from the National Parks Service gives a brief history, and description of the California trail system which was used by settlers moving to California during the 1849 Gold Rush days.

Read about the pioneers in Earth's geologic history and their discovery of how the process of uniformitarianism shaped the study of evolution.