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Article: California
- Article from:
- Dictionary of American History
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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CALIFORNIA
CALIFORNIA,
whose name derives from a fifteenth-century Spanish romance, lies along the Pacific Coast of the United States. Formidable natural barriers, including the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade Mountains to the east and the north and the Sonoran Desert to the south and southeast, isolate it from the rest of the continent. Streams plunging down from the mountains form the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers in the Great Central Valley, while coastal ranges divide the littoral into isolated plains, valleys, and marine terraces. The state contains a wide variety of ecologies, from alpine meadows to deserts, often within a few miles of each other. San Francisco Bay, near the ...