Pioneers Of Riverside County

Riverside County encompasses more than two million people and most of the width of California, from Los Angeles's eastern suburbs to the Arizona state line at the Colorado River. Historian Steve Loch captures the vanished past of this vast swath of deserts and mountains--the eras of Spanish and then Mexican rule and the exploits of the earliest settlers of the American period. Juan Bautista de Anza, Louis Robidoux and many other namesake figures of today's geography are described in this unabridged excerpt of the author's comprehensive and masterly history Along the Old Roads.

Riverside County encompasses more than two million people and most of the width of California, from Los Angeles's eastern suburbs to the Arizona state line at the Colorado River. Historian Steve Loch captures the vanished past of this vast swath of deserts and mountains--the eras of Spanish and then Mexican rule and the exploits of the earliest settlers of the American period. Juan Bautista de Anza, Louis Robidoux and many other namesake figures of today's geography are described in this unabridged excerpt of the author's comprehensive and masterly history Along the Old Roads.

For all the faults attributed to the San Andreas, its one very soothing aspect has been an enormous spiderweb of cracks spreading throughout the geologic formations of what became Riverside County. These fissures yielded springs and grottos of warm waters to which thankful pioneers and snake-oil salesmen alike attributed curative powers. In the 20th century, vacationers seeking relaxation, together with those afflicted with a myriad of maladies, came to Palm Springs, Desert Hot Springs, Glen Ivy, Murrieta Hot Springs, and a dozen other wide places in the road to bathe in the balmy waters beneath desert breezes.

A history of the settlement and formation of Riverside County, California (Volume 1 of 2)

In 1915, Jukichi and Ken Harada purchased a house on Lemon Street in Riverside, California. Close to their restaurant, church, and children’s school, the house should have been a safe and healthy family home. Before the purchase, white neighbors objected because of the Haradas’ Japanese ancestry, and the California Alien Land Law denied them real-estate ownership because they were not citizens. To bypass the law Mr. Harada bought the house in the names of his three youngest children, who were American-born citizens. Neighbors protested again, and the first Japanese American court test of the California Alien Land Law of 1913—The People of the State of California v. Jukichi Harada—was the result. Bringing this little-known story to light, The House on Lemon Street details the Haradas’ decision to fight for the American dream. Chronicling their experiences from their immigration to the United States through their legal battle over their home, their incarceration during World War II, and their lives after the war, this book tells the story of the family’s participation in the struggle for human and civil rights, social justice, property and legal rights, and fair treatment of immigrants in the United States. The Harada family’s quest for acceptance illuminates the deep underpinnings of anti-Asian animus, which set the stage for Executive Order 9066, and recognizes fundamental elements of our nation’s anti-immigrant history that continue to shape the American story. It will be worthwhile for anyone interested in the Japanese American experience in the twentieth century, immigration history, public history, and law.