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KEARNY, Stephen Watts (1794-1848). United States Army officer Stephen
Watts Kearny seized New Mexico and helped capture California from Mexico. He was born in
Newark, N.J., on Aug. 30, 1794. During service in the War of 1812 he was promoted to
captain and thereafter made the Army his career.
He spent most of the next 30 years on frontier duty, and in 1846 he was made
commander of the Army of the West and promoted to the rank of brigadier general. At the
outbreak of the Mexican War in May 1846, he was ordered to conquer New Mexico and
California. He and his 2,700 men entered Santa Fe unopposed on August 18, and he
established a new civil government for the territory.
On September 25 Kearny left for California to help Robert F. Stockton and
John C. Fremont deal with the territory, which they had already conquered (see Fremont).
Kearny was then ordered to Mexico to become military commander of Veracruz. While there he
contracted yellow fever. He returned to the United States in 1848 as a major general, but
poor health led to his death on Oct. 31, 1848, in St. Louis, Mo.
Virtually every kind of climate, land form, vegetation, and animal life
that can be found anywhere else in the United States can be found in California, the
Golden State. The third largest state stretches for more than 800 miles (1,290 kilometers)
along the Pacific coast. It meets the sea with sandy beaches and rugged cliffs. Inland,
past wooded coastal mountains, lie verdant valleys and arid deserts. Along the eastern
border the towering Sierra Nevada thrusts jagged peaks far beyond the timberline. Among
the mountains are the awesome forest habitats of the largest, the tallest, and the oldest
living things on Earth.
Above the varied surface of the land, climates range from mountain to marine,
and below the surface lie mineral resources in seldom-rivaled wealth. Early settlers were
drawn by its minerals--most notably the gold discovered in the mid-1800s--and by the
wealth of its forests, farmlands, and petroleum fields.
With the development of natural resources came a huge expansion in many kinds
of manufacturing. This remarkable diversity of industry provides the bulk of the state's
income. California gained worldwide fame as the center of American filmmaking, and by the
1960s it had become the heart of the television industry as well. California's Silicon
Valley is the hub of innovations in the nation's computer and consumer electronics
industries.
First colonized by Spain, California became a state in 1850. Since then, the
appeal of its varied riches has made it the most populous state in the Union. With the
people have come the ills of urbanization. California's cities were scarred by the
violence of the 1960s--ghetto rioting and student demonstrations and civil rights
protests. Pollutants of increasing toxicity continue to threaten the quality of life as
they contaminate the air and water. Population centers gnaw steadily at the state's
natural beauty and strain the financial resources of its government.
The name California was used officially in Spanish documents as early as
1542. It is believed to come from the description of a fabled island called California in
a 16th-century Spanish novel, 'The Exploits of Esplandian', by Garcia Ordonez de Montalvo.
This origin of the name was determined by the historian Edward Everett Hale. The nickname
Golden State comes from its golden poppies, the state flower, as well as the gold
discovered there in 1848.
Population Growth
California has been the fastest-growing state ever since it was admitted into the Union.
Its population growth has been truly remarkable. In 1850, the year of statehood, it had
fewer than 100,000 people. By 1900 it had almost 1,500,000, making it the 21st state in
population rank. In 1940 its population nearly reached the 7-million mark--about 570,000
less than the population of Los Angeles County alone today. Only eight states have more
people than this county.
By 1950 California's rank jumped from fifth to second, with a population of
10,586,223. In the 1990 census California led the nation in population for the third time
in a row, with a total of 29,839,250. This gives the state the largest number of
representatives in the United States Congress. California also has three of the 15 largest
cities in the United States. (See also Los Angeles; San Diego; San Francisco.)
California is first among the states in value of agricultural products and
second in fishing. Its mineral production--one of the largest in the United States--is
surpassed only by that of the petroleum-producing states of Texas, Louisiana, and Alaska.
In manufacturing and tourism, California is the top- ranking state. Its wholesale trade is
exceeded in value only by that of New York.
Survey of the Golden State
California lies in the Pacific coast region of the United States. To the north is
Oregon, with a border of 215 miles (346 kilometers). The longest part of its eastern
border, 610 miles (982 kilometers), is shared with Nevada. To the southeast the Colorado
River separates California from Arizona. In the south the international boundary between
California and Mexico stretches for 140 miles (225 kilometers). On the west California
borders the Pacific Ocean for 840 miles (1,351 kilometers).
The state's greatest length is the 780 miles (1,255 kilometers) down its
center. The greatest width is 365 miles (587 kilometers)--from the coast of Santa Barbara
County east to the Colorado River. The narrowest east-west distance is 150 miles (241
kilometers), near the Mexican border.
Among the states California ranks third in area. (Only Alaska and Texas are
larger.) The largest county in the nation is San Bernardino County. With 20,154 square
miles (52,199 square kilometers), it covers more territory than the states of Vermont and
New Hampshire combined. The total area of California is 158,693 square miles (411,013
square kilometers), including 2,407 square miles (6,234 square kilometers) of inland water
surface.
Natural Regions
The surface of California is more varied than that of any other state. It ranges from
mountains to valleys, from forests to farms, and from seacoast to desert. Within a hundred
miles of each other are the lowest point in the United States and the highest point, not
including the mountains in Alaska.
In California's Death Valley the land drops to 282 feet (86 meters) below sea
level (see Death Valley). To the northwest, in the Sierra Nevada, Mount Whitney rises
14,495 feet (4,418 meters) (see Whitney, Mount).
California is included in four geographic provinces of the western United
States. They are the Basin and Range, in the east; the Cascade-Sierra, in the center; the
Pacific Border, in the west; and the Lower California, in the southwest. Within the state
are ten distinct natural regions. Six of these are in northern and central California,
four in the south.
The Klamath Mountains occupy California's northwestern corner and
continue into Oregon. This region has peaks and ridges 6,000 to 8,000 feet (1,800 to 2,400
meters) above sea level.
The Klamath River winds through the mountains for about 150 miles (240 kilometers) before
reaching the Pacific.
The Cascade Range lies east of the Klamaths. It is the southern extension of the Cascades,
which extend northward into Canada. The highest peak is Mount Shasta (14,162 feet; 4,317
meters), the cone of an extinct volcano. About 85 miles (135 kilometers) to the southeast
is Lassen Peak (10,466 feet; 3,190 meters), until 1980 the most active volcano in the
continental United States. (See also Cascade Range.)
The Coast Ranges, also referred to as the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a long system of
highlands in the west. From 20 to 40 miles (30 to 60 kilometers) wide, they rise from
2,000 to 4,000 feet (600 to 1,200 meters) and occasionally to 6,000 feet (1,800 meters)
above sea level. On the west the Coast Ranges slope down to the Pacific Ocean; on the
east, to the Central Valley. The only break in this highland chain is the Golden Gate and
San Francisco Bay, through which the rivers of the Central Valley empty their waters into
the Pacific. (See also Pacific Coast Ranges.)
The Sierra Nevada is a great mountain wall 50 to 80 miles (80 to 130
kilometers) wide in the east-central part of the state. It begins near the North Fork of
the Feather River and extends generally southeastward for about 400 miles (640
kilometers). At its southern end it curves westward to meet the Tehachapi Mountains, which
link the Sierras with the Coast Ranges. Along the western face of the range is Yosemite
Valley of the Merced River. (See also Sierra Nevada.)
COMPROMISE OF 1850. At the close of the Mexican War, in 1848, the
United States owned vast stretches of territory without local government. All the land now
included in New Mexico, Arizona, and California was then unsettled.
In 1848, however, gold was discovered in California. Thousands of people,
chiefly from the Northern states, joined the gold rush. In a few months some 80,000 of
them had settled in the mining region.
To maintain order in these settlements, an established government was needed.
California asked to be admitted to the Union as a "free state"--one which would
not permit slavery. The United States, however, had entered the war with Mexico largely to
satisfy the South, since the South wanted new territory which could be divided into slave
states.
Throughout the South protest meetings were held. The Northern states were
equally insistent that slavery should not be extended. All but one Northern state
legislature demanded that Congress should ban slavery in the new territory.
Civil war seemed inevitable when Henry Clay offered a compromise, proposing
that each side yield something in the dispute. The North should allow New Mexico and Utah
to organize as territories with no mention of slavery and give the South a stronger
fugitive slave law. The South should accept California as a free state and allow
prohibition of slave trade in the District of Columbia. In the boundary dispute between
Texas and the federal government, the Santa Fe region was to be ceded to New Mexico
territory for compensation to Texas.
All spring and summer of 1850 a fight over these measures was waged in
Congress. Clay won the support of influential Union men, including Stephen A. Douglas and
Daniel Webster.
In Webster's famous Seventh of March speech, he declared that slave labor
could never be profitable in New Mexico and that the North would lose nothing by granting
this concession. He felt that it was not necessary to bar slavery by law of Congress; it
was already excluded by "the law of nature."
After a fight of eight months, Webster and Clay secured the passage of the
laws that are known as the Compromise of 1850, or Omnibus Bill. This measure did not
prove, as Webster had hoped, "a finality that would give peace to a country long
distracted by the quarrel over slavery." It merely postponed the Civil War for ten
years. (See also Clay, Henry; Webster, Daniel.)
Palisade Group, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California
The longer, gentler western slopes have deep canyons and valleys carved
by glaciers and rushing streams. In great gorges are the Merced, Kern, Tuolumne, and
Mokelumne rivers. At the northern end of the Sierra Nevada, the North Fork of the Feather
River flows through a gap marking the separation from the Cascade Range. In the southern
part of its range, the Sierra Nevada ends at Tehachapi Pass in Kern County. The water from
snow-fed streams irrigates the orchards and grain fields of the rich Sacramento and San
Joaquin valleys. The best-known valley, though, is the Yosemite.
Spanish settlers named the range for the Sierra Nevada in southern Spain. That range
contains Spain's highest mountains. Sierra Nevada means "snowy range." Along the
jagged, snowy crest of the Sierra Nevada, a dozen peaks rise to more than 14,000 feet
(4,200 meters) above sea level. The highest of these peaks is Mount Whitney at 14,495 feet
(4,418 meters) (see Whitney, Mount). Forests of pine and fir cover the western slopes to
an elevation of 9,000 feet (2,743 meters). Here are groves of giant sequoias, some of the
largest trees in the world. Three national parks-- Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and
Sequoia--preserve the natural beauty of the mountains.
Mead, Carver Andress (born 1934), American computer scientist and
educator, born in Bakersfield, Calif. Mead earned a Ph.D. in 1960 from the California
Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. He was a professor at the institute from 1957
and became the profesor of engineering and applied science in 1980. He was a member of the
board of directors at Synaptics, Inc., in San Jose, Calif., and of Aptix Corp., also in
San Jose. Mead was instrumental in developing the VLSI (very large scale integration)
computer system, which allows about 100,000 transistors to fit onto one chip. This system
helped make large complex circuits and parallel processing possible. He wrote several
books, including 'Introduction to VLSI Systems' (1979) and 'Analog VLSI and Neural
Systems' (1985).
Tibbett, Lawrence (1896-1960), U.S. baritone, born in Bakersfield, Calif.;
debut in concert 1917, in opera 1923; star in Metropolitan Opera, motion pictures,
Broadway musicals, radio, and television
Trevino, Elizabeth Borton de (born 1904), U.S. author. De Trevino won the
Newbery Medal in 1966 for 'I, Juan de Pareja', a story about painter Diego Velasquez and
his slave.
She was born Elizabeth Borton on Sept. 2, 1904, in Bakersfield, Calif. After
graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University in 1925 with a bachelor's degree in
Latin American history, she moved to Massachusetts and studied violin at the Boston
Conservatory of Music. During the early 1930s, she worked for the Boston Herald as a
performing arts reviewer and general reporter. While gathering information in Mexico, she
met Luis Trevino Gomez, the man assigned to be her escort and interpreter during her stay.
She moved to Mexico when they married in 1935 and worked part-time as a travel publicist
while raising a family.
Trevino first ventured into children's literature with 'Pollyanna in
Hollywood' (1931), a continuation of the "Pollyanna" series created by Eleanor
Porter. Trevino was hired to write several more installments during the next 20 years. In
the 1960s, she concentrated on historical fiction, and in addition to 'I, Juan de Pareja'
(1965) she produced 'Nacar, The White Deer' (1963), 'Casilda of the Rising Moon' (1967),
and 'Turi's Poppa' (1968). Some of her later works included 'Beyond the Gates of Hercules:
A Tale of the Lost Atlantis' (1971), 'El Guero' (1989), and 'Leona: A Love Story' (1994).
Trevino also penned several adult novels, which, like her juvenile fiction,
often centered around issues of faith, friendship, and love. Trevino discussed her life in
the memoirs 'Where the Heart Is' (1962) and 'The Hearthstone of My Heart' (1977).
Walker Pass, in s. California, across the Sierra Nevada, at
altitude of about 5,250 ft (1,600 m), 60 mi (100 km) n.e. of Bakersfield.
Kern River, stream rising in mountains of s.e. California; flows s.w. and n.
to Lake Tulare.
Tulare, Calif., city 45 mi (70 km) s.e. of Fresno; cotton and beef raising,
dairying, farm machinery, food processing; pop. 33,249
Tularemia (or rabbit fever), infectious disease of wild rabbits, quail,
opossums, deer, and other wild game animals. It was named for Tulare County, Calif., where
it was discovered in 1910 by the United States Public Health Service. It is caused by the
bacterium Francisella tularensis and has an incubation period of two to ten days. The
disease is usually transmitted to humans through direct contact with an infected animal
carcass. The bacteria enters the body through an open cut, which becomes an ulcerous sore.
It can also spread by a bite from an infected tick, flea, fly, or louse or by eating
infected game animals. Symptoms are similar to those of influenza and include swollen and
tender lymph glands in the armpits or groin, fever, headache, muscle pain, and weakness.
Tularemia is diagnosed by a history of exposure to a wild rodent or carrier insects, the
sudden onset of symptoms, and the presence of a skin lesion. Diagnosis is confirmed by a
blood test for antibodies against the bacteria. Patients are treated with antibiotics and
warm saline dressings for skin lesions. Infection confers lifelong immunity. Physicians
recommend the preventive measures of wearing rubber gloves for cleaning of game, liberal
use of soap, water, and disinfectant, and thorough cooking
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