The Indigenous people of the central Californian coast made many advancements

The Chumash manufactured shell beads for thousands of years, eventually as money

The practice was unique to the Chumash among North American Indians. Some researchers have made the case theirs was the first use of money on the continent.

Native Americans developed pottery and religion, and experienced population growth during the Woodland period

Between 500 B.C.E. and 1100 C.E., Indigenous peoples produced pottery and practiced animism, a spiritual worldview in which animals, plants, and natural forces are believed to possess sacred power. They moved seasonally to make the most of available resources.

Napa Valley was originally inhabited by the Indigenous Wappo people

Before the wineries, Napa was home to several Indigenous tribes, collectively called the Onasatis or Wappo, who lived and hunted on the land for generations before Spanish missionaries and settlers arrived. Some of their practices, like controlled burns of the dry brush, helped shape the fertility of the land for future agriculture.

The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians is the area's federally-recognized tribe

Thousands of years before Europeans arrived, indigenous populations settled and flourish in the region of Santa Barbara. Kenneth Kahn, the Santa Ynez band's chairman, shares insights on the history of the Chumash in the region.

How scientists know invasive nutria were likely introduced to California by humans

Although native to South America, DNA testing of the semiaquatic rodents showed they are closely related to a population in Oregon, suggesting they were deliberately transported into the state. First identified in the San Joaquin Valley in 2017, the distance, terrain, and lack of nutria between the two regions has allowed researchers to rule out natural migration.

The Spanish consolidated power in California with 21 strategic missions

This map shows the order of establishment of the Franciscan-led missions whose saintly names still grace contemporary maps, from Santa Rosa in the north to San Diego in the south.

The Mississippian culture mastered corn cultivation, long-distance trade, and complex governance

From roughly 1100 to 1540, Mississippian peoples across what is now the Southeastern United States mastered corn cultivation, built political structures that organized large populations, and maintained trade networks that spanned much of the continent.

Santa Barbara's Channel Islands revealed the oldest skeletal remains in North America

IN 1959, archaeologists found a human femur jutting out from a rock face on Santa Rosa Island. Using the then-new technology of radiocarbon dating, they measured the age of the remains at 13,000 years—the oldest in the continent.

The Corps traded gifts with many native tribes as a sign of goodwill

They offered peace medals, beads, cloth, and mirrors, while receiving food, horses, furs, and guidance that helped them navigate and survive the western wilderness. This image collection showcases items the expedition collected.

The ritual burns of California forests

Many ecosystems around the world have adapted to regularly occurring wildfires. Some human cultures saw the advantage of such fires and integrated them into their community rituals. Learn about similar tribal traditions looking to better manage California's forests today.

A historical tree of technological advancement

Starting from stone tools millions of years ago and culminating in today's cutting-edge tech, this thorough genealogy lays out how humanity has progressed in its use of tools over thousands of years. See descriptions, links to further info, and how each tech fits in the larger tree.

How did Polynesian wayfinders navigate the Pacific Ocean?

Ancient Polynesian navigators used the sun, moon, stars, clouds, currents, and more to sail the seas. People of Southeast Asia began their voyages to the region now known as Polynesia in roughly 1500 BCE. They would settle a vast area of 15 million square miles, including hundreds of islands, moving from islands due to overpopulation or war. Such voyages dwindled in 1300 CE as societies became more rooted.

Indigenous women crafted the integrated circuits for the Apollo Guidance Computer

Applying their blanket-weaving skills, over 1,000 Navajo women in New Mexico were hired to connect circuit components in intricate patterns using a microscope. Outside Boston, "rope mothers" at the Raytheon facility wove the AGC's core memory using threaded metal wires.

British Columbia's 'Infinite Coast' is a hidden travel gem

The long expanse of Pacific coast north of the US border includes Victoria, Vancouver Island, the Great Bear Rainforest, fjords, whale watching, and 50 First Nations that manage the coastline. This site presents the region in an engaging interactive format to attract travelers looking for lesser-known areas of natural beauty.

Santa Barbara once had a thriving Chinatown and Japantown

In the late 1800s, the city had an influx of immigrants from China and Japan, prompting the growth of areas dominated by their respective cultures. Earthquakes and world wars, as well as a push for Spanish Colonial architecture, led to their eventual decline.

John Steinbeck's 'Sea of Cortez,' a travelogue through the Gulf of California, is still used by ecologists today.

Viking raids spread Scandinavian culture far beyond northern Europe

Between roughly 800 and 1200 CE, seafaring Vikings from Scandinavia combined skilled craftsmanship with violent coastal raids. Their expeditions extended cultural influence from the British Isles to Northern Africa, reshaping medieval trade, warfare, and settlement patterns.

The first women to run the Colorado River discovered four plant species

Over 45 days and 660 miles, Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter identified more than 50 species in what was the first botanical survey of the region. Expected to help navigate boats and cook for the crew during the day, their work was confined to before dawn and after dusk.

Cacao is a Maya word that survives today

In the 1980s, archaeologists finally deciphered Maya hieroglyphs in part by identifying known words. Maya scholar David Stuart notes that cacao—still used today—was one of the key linguistic anchors that unlocked ancient Maya texts.

22 fascinating discoveries of massive gold coin hoards

The gallery highlights major gold coin treasures from ancient to modern times, from the Saddle Ridge hoard in California in the 1800s (now worth $10M) to finds in Baltimore, Kentucky, and more. Each discovery reveals something about the period, with some buried and others left in vaults.

The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill galvanized the modern environmental movement

In January 1969, an oil platform off the coast of Santa Barbara ruptured, releasing roughly 3 million gallons of crude into the Pacific. The spill killed over 10,000 seabirds, dolphins, and seals, coating 35 miles of coastline.

Some police departments in California have officers specialized in hive crime

The cost of a beehive climbed from about $35 in the early 2010s to $200 as of 2020, which has incentivized some to steal hives at night. These kidnappings led to the creation of dedicated task forces in the state, whose almond farms have created an extraordinary demand for pollinators.

Leonard Knight built a folk art landmark in the California badlands

Slab City is an unofficial off-the-grid community on the site of a decommissioned Marine Corps base in the Southern California desert. Knight began constructing his enormous and colorful "Salvation Mountain" in 1984. In 2000, it was designated "a folk art site worthy of preservation and protection."

15 facts about the Cali Cartel

The Cali Cartel was a drug cartel based in southern Colombia. Originally founded by the Rodríguez Orejuela brothers in the early 1970s, the cartel changed the structure of drug trafficking, and is often considered “the most powerful crime...

Carmel, California, is looking into banning pickleball

Pickleball is the fastest-rising sport in the US, but it's not without its controversies. Chief among them is noise, which Carmel, California, a wealthy enclave on the state's central coast, seeks to remedy with a ban on the sport. It would be the first in the state.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

The Great Salt Lake's distinct dual coloration results from high-salinity organisms that only live in the northern portion and produce a purple protein.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

In its famous catalog, Sears sold $600 DIY house kits from 1908 through the 1940s, resulting in an estimated 100,000 'Sears and Roebuck homes.'

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

Poison ivy's characteristic rash is caused by an allergic response to an oily compound in the plant called urushiol.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

The term 'algorithm' originated from the Latinized name of al-Khwārizmī, a 9th-century mathematician whose works introduced Arabic numerals and the decimal-based numeral system to Europe and whose treatise 'Al-Jabr' gave algebra its name.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.