William S. Hart Park and Museum

Jutting out into the Pacific Ocean from the spectacular Big Sur Coast, the Point Sur Lightstation stands as a silent sentinel to a bygone era. Point Sur, a National Historic Landmark, is the only complete turn-of-the-century lightstation open the public in California. From 1889 until 1974, families lived and worked in the buildings atop Pt. Sur. The families are gone but the unique stone lighthouse still guides ships with its light. Many ships perished on the rocks off Pt.

The miracle of the Swallows of Capistrano takes place each year at the Mission San Juan Capistrano on March 19th, St. Joseph's Day. Legend says the swallows, seeking sanctuary from an innkeeper who destroyed their nests, took up residence at the old Mission. They return to the site each year to nest, knowing their young can be safe within the Mission walls.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have your very own island? What about an island off the southern coast of California? Join Huell and the family that owns this special island as they return to their little slice of California. It takes three separate boat rides to get there and your feet might get wet, but it is well worth the trip.

In this muddy adventure, Huell travels to some very remote areas to take an up close and personal look at "mudpots". Mudpots only occur three places in the US and one of them is right here in California. Our first stop is the Imperial Wildlife Area. Huell and a member of the Fish and Game take a look at huge mounds of bubbling, oozing, popping and exploding mudpots. This is a public are that is open to mud lovers one and all. Next its off to some privately owned land which has some extraordinary mudpots.

When you mention Anaheim to most folks, Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm come to mind, but this city has a rich history and some genuine surprises. Huell spends the day with the President of the Anaheim Historical Society and visits everything from a family owned bowling alley celebrating it's 50th anniversary to a statue built in 1935, that is the oldest piece of public artwork in Orange County. We'll also visit the home of the man who started Carl's Jr. and a very historic cactus garden in Pearson Park.

Originally built as a reservoir to feed the citrus groves of San Bernardino through a series of flumes and tunnels, this engineering marvel eventually fell apart. For legal reasons, the project never worked and the reservoir became a recreational area. What most people don't know is that there is a whole world under the lake. Huell takes a hundred-foot ride down in an elevator that was built in the late 1800s to explore this underwater marvel.

Have you ever wondered what 100,000 Monarch Butterflies look like? Well here's your chance. Huell travels to Pismo State Beach to visit the largest overwintering site for Monarch butterflies in the U.S. More people visit this site than any another butterfly site in the world. Last year they had 50,000 visitors!

Before it was dammed in the early 1900s, John Muir called it more beautiful than Yosemite Valley itself. And now, in a one-hour special, Huell travels to this historic and spectacular place to document its past and talk about its future.

Visit the world's first motel, the Motel Inn in San Luis Obispo; a stop at Pozo's Saloon, a stagecoach stop, and chat with the last remaining citizen of Moy Mell, where a colony of people called Dunites lived in the sand dunes from the 1920s through the 1940s.

Discover the colorful history of the Beach Boardwalk, the last remaining oceanside amusement park in the West Coast; meet the pioneers of surfing and the inventor of the wet suit, and enjoy salt water taffy and other sweet treats at Marini's, a family-run business for over four generations.

Travel to Downieville, nestled high in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where gold miners organized the first ski races in the country; meet the staff on the Mountain Messenger, the state's oldest weekly newspaper; and watch a demonstration of the long, heavy wooden skis worn by the gold miners in the mid-1800s.

Clear Lake is located at the base of fabled Mt. Konocti and is California's largest natural lake. Much of the terrain around the 4,200 foot Mt. Konocti was formed by lava flows and folding of the earth's crust. The lake has a rich history; evidence of human habitation dates back at least ten thousand years. More than 120,000 visitors each year enjoy picnicking, boating, camping and nature walks.

For years Huell has been getting letters telling him he should do a show about vernal pools. Well, now he has. Just a short drive from Sacramento on an old military base, Huell meets up with a couple of experts and a bunch of school kids all eager to explore the flora and fauna that live in and around these wonderful, natural pools. As they go from pool to pool, Huell learns that even if they are only a few acres apart, they can be totally different worlds.

Will Rogers has got to be one of the all-time great American characters. Often called the "Cowboy Philosopher," he kept America laughing through some of its toughest years. Will was a radio commentator, newspaper columnist and motion picture star. In 1922, Will bought property above Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades and built a summer cottage. The family loved the place so much that Will had a proper ranch built and the family moved there in 1928. In 1944, after the death of Mrs. Rogers, the property became Will Rogers State Historic Park and is now a well loved tourist destination.

You all are probably wondering what a glass beach is? Well, as usual Huell discovers some of California's strangest gems, and on this trip Huell strolls two beaches that are a treasure hunters paradise. In the coastal town of Fort Bragg, Huell visits what the locals call, "Glass Beach," where you'll find a kaleidoscope of colored glass glittering in the Pacific surf: azure, scarlet, mauve, amber, amethyst and teal.

Pan for gold, sing pioneer songs and eat "bangers" at the annual Bidwell Bar Day celebration at Lake Oroville in Butte County. Also visit the pride of Sonora: "The Red Church," a picturesque landmark in the center of town; and discover an unusual source of pride at the unique Annual Poison Oak show in Columbia, a restored gold mining town in Tuolumne County.

It's a little bit of Denmark right here in California! Join host Huell Howser as he travels to Solvang on a "Road Trip." This adventure includes tasting some homemade aebleskivers and kringles, visiting the world-famous red shoe, touring the Elverhoj Museum and stopping by the authentic Bethania Lutheran Church.

California and China have had a long and storied connection, the most well known is the Chinese laborers who helped build the California railroads. But on this adventure, Huell finds a few lesser-known examples of California's and China's Gold. A brief stop at the Golden State Bonsai Collection-North in Oakland introduces us to the Bonsai tree given to Chinese Envoy Anson Burlingame of the Lincoln Presidency. Burlingame opened China to the U.S. in the 1860s, and this souvenir from his tenure has been in the U.S. ever since.

First stop is Giant Rock --considered to be the worlds largest free standing boulder, and a long time sacred site to the Native Americans. In the 1950s it became a UFO airport according to George Van Tassel who claimed to be contacted by aliens there, and was host to UFO conventions till the late 70s. One of the things George was told to do by the aliens was to build the Integratron, which is our next stop. This amazing building/machine is supposed to restore youth, although never completed--Huell will get a "sound bath." Hold onto your seats, this will be a wild ride.

The first stop on our adventure is the Dutch Windmill in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, which was built in 1902, at a cost of $ 16,000. It is 75 feet high, and 33 feet in diameter at the base, its sails have a span of 102 feet and it was capable of pumping 30,000 gallons of fresh water per hour from underground to a reservoir on Strawberry Hill. Despite being a great success for a few years (so much so that a second windmill was built), by 1913 electric pumps were introduced, so the windmills began to become obsolete.

As we all know, California has some spectacular scenery and our great variety of trees makes up a large part of it. In this adventure, Huell visits three "big" trees that are a great example of California's Gold. First Huell travels to Santa Barbara to see the Moreton Bay Fig Tree. Given to a little girl as a gift from an Australian seaman, the sapling was planted in 1876. That little sapling is now the largest Moreton Bay Fig in the continental U.S. The tree is 42 feet around its base, 80 feet tall and has a branch spread of 176 feet.

Travel to the sand dunes of El Centro where portions of a wooden plank road, which once stretched from Imperial County to Yuma, Arizona have been preserved; and attend a reunion at Camp Lockett, which brings together members of the last mounted unit in the Army.

Travel with Huell to Sequoia National Forest to visit historic Buck Rock Fire Lookout. Established in the early 1900s, Buck Rock Lookout was one of the first fire detection locations in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The current lookout building, constructed in 1923, is historically significant as a representation of the earliest live-in towers in California. Huell climbs 172 stairs to an elevation of 8, 500 feet to interview the woman who currently staffs the lookout through the fire season, and to learn what it's like to live perched on the edge of a cliff!

It's huge, metal and reaches across the Golden Gate, but it's not a bridge. Join Huell as he visits the site of the WWII antisubmarine net built to keep Japanese subs out of San Francisco. Long before the Tiburon Sub-Net Depot was there, this small piece of land across the bay from San Francisco had many incarnations. Among them were: home to Native Americans, an original Spanish Ranchero, the largest Codfish drying plant on the west coast, a coaling station for the Navy, and it was where the cables for the Golden Gate Bridge were spun.

Manzanar War Relocation Center was one of ten camps at which Japanese American citizens were interned during World War II. It is located at the foot of the imposing Sierra Nevadas in the Owens Valley. Huell Howser is joined by experts and internees to learn about the camp's complex history. And although little remains of the camp itself, Huell discovers a permanent reminder of the internees' detention -- their names etched in concrete.

Join Huell Howser as he visits the McRoskey Airflex Mattress Company in San Francisco. The McRoskey family has been manufacturing mattresses since 1899 and they still make them in much the same way as they did back then - -and they are all assembled by hand. The McRoskeys have even keep a record of every mattress sold dating back to 1921.

Enjoy one of California's oldest and exciting traditions at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center at Cal Poly Pomona where, for over 60 years, monthly horse shows feature beautiful, pure-bred Arabian horses. Then hit the trail and trace the history of the Pony Express riders at the annual Pony Express Re-run in Sacramento as present-day riders re-enact this bit of Old West experience.

Visit the immaculate and lush grounds of Capitol Park in Sacramento, our state's official front and backyard and find azaleas, huckleberry, 100-year-old cedar trees and a Memorial Grove of trees transplanted from the battlefields of the Civil War to become apart of California's Gold.

Listen to the magic of mariachi music and follow its origins from Jalisco, Mexico to its present-day sounds on the streets of Los Angeles. The world renowned Los Camperos de Nati Cano are featured, as well as the student mariachis of Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, and mariachis on Olvera Street.

The largest island in San Francisco Bay is a heavenly sight to behold with its profusion of flora and fauna. But Angel Island also has a varied military history, including the detention of Chinese immigrants from 1910-1940. The episode examines this chapter of the island's past.

California's most recognized landmark takes center stage in an episode which focuses on its history (including rare footage of its construction) its beauty, and the incredible maintenance work that goes on daily to keep this towering structure in mint condition.

Take a sizzling trip to the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County and its many unknown desert destinations, including the tiny town of Amboy (on the side of old Route 66), historic homesteads, immense sand dunes, an extinct volcano and a beautiful, old train depot.

A unique adventure to two of California's rarely seen natural wonders: the Bristlecone Pine, the oldest, continuously living thing on this planet found in the White Mountains of the Eastern Sierra, and magnificent Le Conte Falls deep in the rocky and steep terrain of Yosemite National Park.

Huell travels to the mountains above Fresno to tour "Big Creek"' which was America's first large-scale integrated hydroelectric project, begun in 1911. This massive engineering marvel consists of 23 generating units in nine powerhouses with a generating capacity of approximately 1,000 megawatts, and six major reservoirs with a storage capacity of more than 560,000 acre-feet. Not only do we get a behind the scenes tour, we'll also meet and hear some great stories from a one of the first families that worked at this remote Edison outpost.

Step back in time to the olden days of making pottery the Gladding McBean way. The 118-year-old company in rural Lincoln, near Sacramento, is the nation's only remaining major manufacturer of terra cotta. From decorative to functional, McBean's terra cotta is acclaimed for its distinctive style which graces landmark buildings in big cities and small towns across our state.

Huell travels to Pismo Beach -- 10 miles south of San Luis Obispo -- and learns how its famous clams, plentiful in the region at the turn of the century, branded an identity for one of the last classic California beach towns.

Huell attends a lively recreation of an old-fashioned harvest near Modesto where the participants use vintage equipment and farming techniques while dressed in authentic attire.

Huell visits Yosemite's high country for a walk through spectacular Tuolumne Meadows.

The Desert View Tower stands 3,000 feet above sea level, three miles east of Jacumba in the Imperial Valley. The four-story, cut-stone structure was built in the 1920s by Bert Vaughn, who owned the town of Jacumba. The pre-highway trek to the Pacific Coast was arduous so Vaughn commemorated the pioneers who struggled across the arid desert. Join Huell as he climbs to the top of the tower to see the spectacular views of the desert below.

Join in the centennial celebration of the arrival of the first steam train to this isolated mid-coastal town. As part of the celebrations, the town's citizens have recreated the events exactly as they happened a century before. Huell passes through the historic tunnels and tressels in a period steam engine as he descends into this festive town.