Destinations Hit by Natural Disasters Need Tourists Back—but Maybe Not in the Same Way as Before
Places like Maui and Asheville, North Carolina, rebuilding after wildfires and hurricanes, are doing so with a mind to sustainable tourism
Odd-Looking Blue Creatures Are Washing Up in Large Groups on California’s Beaches Once Again
Strandings of these jellyfish-like animals, sometimes called “by-the-wind sailors,” usually mean spring is coming
Sea Lion Bites Surfer Amid One of the Worst Outbreaks of Domoic Acid Poisoning That California Wildlife Rescuers Can Remember
Sea lions, dolphins and birds are sick and dying because of a toxic algae bloom in Southern California—and animal care organizations are overwhelmed by the scale
The Moving Story of Bringing Baseball Back to Manzanar, Where Thousands of Japanese Americans Were Incarcerated During World War II
In honor of his mother and others imprisoned at the internment camp, baseball player Dan Kwong has restored a diamond in the California desert
Gutenberg Bible Reunited With Rare 15th-Century Devotional Print Once Tucked Inside Its Pages
Two centuries after they were separated, the print and the Bible are on display together at the Huntington Library in California
Armed With Just a Badge, Los Angeles’ First Policewoman Protected the City’s Most Vulnerable in the Early 20th Century
Appointed in 1910, Alice Stebbins Wells patrolled dance halls, skating rinks, penny arcades and movie theaters, keeping these public spaces free of vice and immorality
Parts of California Are Sinking, and It Could Worsen the Effects of Sea-Level Rise, NASA Study Finds
The ground in many parts of the state—including Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Central Valley—is subsiding due to groundwater withdrawal, landslides and compacting of sediment
Chinook Salmon Are Swimming in This California River for the First Time in More Than 80 Years
The juvenile fish recently hatched from eggs that scientists deposited in the gravelly riverbed of the North Yuba River last fall
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wants You to Eat These Giant, Invasive Rodents
As part of National Invasive Species Week, the agency is calling on Americans to “eat the invaders,” including swamp-dwelling nutria
Can You Identify the Mystery Photographer Who Captured Thousands of Captivating Images of 1960s San Francisco?
Discovered in an abandoned storage locker, the 2,042 processed color slides and 102 rolls of black-and-white film depict key moments in the city’s history
Watch California’s Internet-Famous Bald Eagles Tend to Three New Eggs, Expected to Hatch Soon
Last year, the mated pair Jackie and Shadow also incubated three eggs—but none of them hatched. This year’s “pipping period,” when chicks may break out of their shells, begins in early March
Smithsonian Photo Contest Galleries
15 Dazzling Photos That Celebrate the Sights (and Sites) of Los Angeles
These images from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest show what makes the City of Angels and its next-door neighborhoods so heavenly
Donner Party Survivors Were Rescued on This Day in 1847 After Weeks of Frigid Conditions, Starvation and—Eventually—Cannibalism
Bad luck and poor decisions turned the already dangerous trek from Missouri to California into a fatal affair for roughly half of the Donner-Reed party
Driver Vandalizes Threatened Plants in Death Valley National Park
National Park Service officials haven’t identified the person or people who illegally drove more than two miles across Eureka Dunes, home to the federally protected Eureka dunegrass
See a Rare ‘Super Pod’ of More Than 1,500 Risso’s Dolphins Spotted off the Coast of California
Whale-watching tour operators encountered the mass gathering of cetaceans while looking for migrating gray whales
On This Day in 1900, the Bubonic Plague Hit the Continental United States, Spiraling Into an Epidemic That Killed 119 People
California officials denied—and tried to hide—the first plague epidemic that reached U.S. shores
See the First-Ever Photographs of the Elusive Mount Lyell Shrew, Finally Caught on Camera in California
A group of young researchers captured and photographed the animal on a three-day expedition to the Eastern Sierra Nevada
How A.I. Can Help Humans Battle Wildfires, From Advanced Camera Systems to Forecasting Models
A variety of new technologies aim to improve wildfire detection and help map the spread of blazes
Welcome to the Pyrocene
Human use of fire has produced an era of uncontrolled burning
The Discovery of Gold on This Date in 1848 at Sutter’s Creek Kicked Off the California Gold Rush and Transformed America
The unquenchable demand for gold spurred a mass migration and fueled the genocide of Native communities
Page 1 of 14