Angels Flight, Built in 1901, Was Originally Called the Los Angeles Incline Railway. Promoted As “The World's Shortest Rail

Rain Shadow ANGELS FLIGHT Angels Flight, built in 1901, was originally called the Los Angeles Incline Railway. Promoted as “The World’s Shortest Railway,” it ran two blocks from the corner of Hill Street and Third Street to Olive Street above—one of the steepest slopes in Los Angeles. Angels Flight is a funicular, which means the passenger cars not only ride on rails, but are connected to each other by cable so that they counterbalance each other as one ascends and the other descends. Rain Shadow PAYDAY Payday saw aqueduct workers lining up, then leaving “quicker than liquor” to get to the nearest saloon—many to spend every dollar they’d earned. Although Mulholland disapproved of this behavior, he acknowledged that “No man will do the hard, hazard- filled work of driving tunnels or skinning mules through canyons, while putting up with the blistering heat, biting cold and dust storms, without some relief.” This demand fueled enterprise. Fly-by-night establishments—many selling poor-quality whiskey— proliferated along the aqueduct route. Finally, when incidents of drunken brawling reached fearful levels, the state legislature passed a bill banning saloons within four miles of the construction sites. That closed down some 30 establishments, but others continued to operate outside of the periphery. Photo courtesy County of Inyo, Eastern California Museum Background photo courtesy Library of Congress Rain Shadow ALABAMA GATES OCCUPATION The Alabama Gates occupation involved as many as 700 Owens Valley citizens, who left their farms and shops to demonstrate opposition to what they saw as the increasing stran- glehold on the valley by Los Angeles. The event brought worldwide attention to what some in the press called “California’s Little Civil War.” All photos courtesy County of Inyo, Eastern California Museum Rain Shadow CALIFORNIA POPPY The California poppy (Eschscholzia californica), sometimes also called “golden poppy,” “California sunlight” or “cup of gold,” is the official flower of the State of California as well as of Altadena, a community 15 miles northeast of Los Angeles. These poppies bloom abun- dantly in Spring across the California countryside. Another good place to see them is at the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, a state park in the western Mojave Desert. Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection Rain Shadow CAFE MONTMARTRE Café Montmartre, Hollywood’s first nightclub, was opened by Adolph “Eddie” Brandstatter on Hollywood Boulevard in 1923, in the midst of Prohibition (a bootlegger—illegal supplier of alcohol—was on site). Brandstatter, who was raised in France and had worked in Paris and London, sought to bring a European sophistication to LA’s night life. Hollywood stars and LA elite frequented his club. Café Montmartre courtesy Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection Background photo of Rudolph Valentino dancing with Pola Negri courtesy Library of Congress Rain Shadow SIERRA CLUB The Sierra Club was founded in 1892 by naturalist and writer John Muir to help protect the Sierra Nevada, the mountains he loved and called “the Range of Light.” His collaborators in this endeavor and charter members of the club included attorney Warren Olney and profes- sors from Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley. One of the club’s first goals was to see Yosemite, at that time a state park, expanded and made a national park. In 1903, Muir gave President Teddy Roosevelt a tour through Yosemite, and two years later the Sierra Club had achieved this key goal. All photos courtesy Library of Congress.

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