California’s official full name is “State of California,” and it became the 31st state to join the United States on September 9, 1850!
California (U.S. State)
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Facts About California (U.S. State)
Sacramento is California’s capital city, where important government decisions are made for the entire state! It became the permanent capital in 1854.
As of 2024, California’s population is approximately 39.4 million people.
California is located on the West Coast of the United States, bordering the Pacific Ocean, with Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and Mexico to the south!
California is nicknamed “The Golden State” because of the famous Gold Rush of 1849 and the beautiful golden poppies that bloom across its hills!
California’s official state motto is “Eureka,” a Greek word meaning “I have found it,” which relates to the discovery of gold during the Gold Rush!
California is the third-largest state in the United States, covering 163,696 square miles (423,970 square kilometers).
California’s official state bird is the California Valley Quail, a plump bird with a cute bobbing topknot feather on its head!
The official state flower of California is the golden poppy, which paints hillsides with bright orange-yellow colors every spring!
California’s state tree is the mighty California Redwood, which can grow taller than a 30-story building!
The California state freshwater fish is the golden trout, which has beautiful golden-orange sides and can only be found naturally in cold mountain streams in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
California’s state amphibian is the California red-legged frog.
The California grizzly bear is the official state animal, even though grizzly bears no longer live in California – the last one was spotted in 1924!
California’s official state bat is the pallid bat, a nocturnal mammal with big ears that helps control insect populations.
Blue and gold are California’s official state colors, with blue representing the sky and ocean and gold honoring the Gold Rush.
California’s official state crustacean is the Dungeness crab, a prized seafood known for its sweet, tender meat.
The West Coast Swing is California’s official state dance. It started in the 1930s and is still danced today at competitions and social events across the state.
Augustynolophus morrisi is California’s state dinosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur that lived about 66 million years ago and grew as long as a school bus!
Denim is California’s official state fabric, honoring Levi Strauss, who created the first blue jeans in San Francisco during the Gold Rush for miners who needed tough pants.
Benitoite is California’s state gemstone, a rare blue crystal that glows under ultraviolet light and is only found in San Benito County, California – nowhere else on Earth!
Purple needlegrass is California’s state grass, which can live for over 150 years and has roots that can grow 20 feet (6 meters) deep into the soil to find water during droughts.
The California dogface butterfly is the state insect, with wings that look like they have a dog’s face on them, and they only lay their eggs on false indigo plants.
Gold is California’s official state mineral, which makes perfect sense, since the discovery of gold in 1848 led to the famous Gold Rush that helped California grow so quickly.
The California golden chanterelle is the state’s official mushroom, with a bright orange-yellow color and a fruity apricot smell that makes it easy to identify.
The desert tortoise is California’s state reptile, which can live for 80 years and stores water in its bladder to survive in the desert for up to a year without drinking!
Serpentine is California’s official state rock, with a green and shiny surface that looks like snake skin, and it contains asbestos which makes it dangerous to handle without protection.
San Joaquin soil is California’s state soil, which is incredibly fertile and helps California grow more fruits and vegetables than any other state in the country!
California has the lowest point in North America at Badwater Basin in Death Valley, which sits 282 feet (86 meters) below sea level!
Mount Whitney in California reaches 14,494 feet (4,418 meters) high, making it the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States (all states except Alaska and Hawaii)!
California has over 840 miles (1,352 kilometers) of coastline along the Pacific Ocean, which would take about 35 days to walk if you hiked 8 hours a day!
The Sierra Nevada mountain range in California stretches for 400 miles (644 kilometers) and contains the beautiful Yosemite Valley!
Lake Tahoe, which crosses the California-Nevada border, is so deep (1,645 feet (0.5 kilometers)) that you could stack 5 Statues of Liberty on top of each other underwater!
California’s Mojave Desert is home to Joshua trees, which aren’t really trees, but a type of yucca plant that can live for over 500 years!
California has more than 280 state parks protecting everything from ancient redwood forests to beautiful beaches!
The San Andreas Fault stretches about 750 miles (1,207 kilometers) through California. It’s where two giant pieces of Earth’s crust — the Pacific and North American plates — slide past each other, sometimes causing earthquakes!
California contains both the hottest place in North America (Death Valley hit 134°F in 1913) and places where snow can be 884 inches (73.7 feet) deep in the Sierra Nevada mountains!
The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in California is a maze of waterways and islands covering 1,100 square miles (2,800 km²), where fresh water from rivers mixes with salty ocean water!
California condors, which almost went extinct, have huge wings that stretch about 9.5 feet (3 meters) across — wider than most kids are tall!
Lassen Volcanic National Park in California has all four types of volcanoes found in the world: shield, composite, cinder cone, and plug dome! It’s like a natural volcano museum!
California’s Salton Sea was created by accident in 1905 when irrigation canals from the Colorado River broke and flooded a desert valley for two years!
The magnificent coastal redwoods in California are the tallest trees on Earth, with some reaching over 350 feet (107 meters) — taller than a 30-story building!
California’s Channel Islands are home to more than 145 plant and animal species that don’t exist anywhere else on Earth!
The Great Basin Bristlecone Pines in California’s White Mountains include some of the oldest living things on Earth, with one tree being over 5,000 years old!
Native American tribes like the Chumash, Pomo, Modoc, and Yurok lived in California for over 10,000 years before Europeans arrived!
Spanish explorers first arrived in California in 1542, but they didn’t establish settlements until the mission system began in 1769!
The original California Republic (Bear Flag Republic) only existed for 25 days in 1846 before becoming part of the United States!
The California Gold Rush began in 1848 when James Marshall found gold at Sutter’s Mill, bringing more than 300,000 people to California in just a few years!
Chinese immigrants built much of the western portion of the Transcontinental Railroad through California’s Sierra Nevada mountains in the 1860s!
The last wild California grizzly bear (featured on the state flag) was spotted in 1924, meaning these bears are no longer found in the wild in California!
