FREEDOM, Calif. — I used to be driving house from a reporting journey to Santa Cruz County on Friday after I noticed the plain inexperienced and white freeway signal, simply off Freeway 1. It had an arrow pointing north alongside the phrase FREEDOM.
Jackpot! I slowed my getting older Jeep, to the annoyance of the pickup driver behind me, simply sufficient to take a not-great cellphone picture out my window earlier than making my approach house to the South Bay.
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As I wrote final week on this e-newsletter, I’m prepared to journey out of my approach to report from a city with an attention-grabbing identify. I had stopped in Freedom — a census-designated place with some 3,000 residents in southern Santa Cruz County — to do exactly that.
It wasn’t nearly Freedom, however redemption
The morning the e-newsletter on datelines landed, I awoke to a textual content from my colleague, pal and fellow California historical past nerd Gustavo Arellano: “Whither Weed???”
Which means Weed, inhabitants 2,500, in Siskiyou County.
I’ve been to Weed a number of instances. I’ve even purchased a couple of “I [Heart] Weed” stoner-humor knickknacks for associates. Alas, I’ve by no means reported a narrative from there, I confessed to Gustavo.
“REVEAL YOUR SHAME!” he texted again.
Problem accepted. Listed below are a couple of colorfully named California locations I’ve visited however from which I’ve not (but!) earned a dateline: Tough and Prepared in Nevada County; Seemingly in Modoc County; Butt Valley in Plumas County; Hayfork in Trinity County. And, sure, Weed.
Although, I’ve earned datelines from Blackwell’s Nook, Cool, Peanut, Weedpatch and Volcano.
Right here’s the lowdown on Freedom (beforehand Whiskey Hill)
The unincorporated group blends proper in with the adjoining, integrated metropolis of Watsonville. In search of proof of Freedom, I discovered: Freedom Elementary College and the Freedom Department Library.
I additionally discovered an easy-to-miss metallic plaque on an exterior wall of the Picket Nickel Bar & Grill (which is on Freedom Boulevard however not technically in Freedom). The plaque acknowledges the city’s wild previous as a spot referred to as Whiskey Hill, “a tiny village the place violence, hangings, consuming, and bull and bear fights have been part of every day life.”
The Freedom Department Library in Freedom, Calif.
(Hailey Branson-Potts / Los Angeles Occasions)
“Because the city turned extra civilized, the identify was modified to freedom,” reads the signal, hung in 1982 by members of the Order of E Clampus Vitus, a fraternal group that celebrates obscure native historical past.
Georg Romero, a historian for the Watsonville-based Pajaro Valley Historic Assn. and a retired library director for Cabrillo Faculty, was sort sufficient to dig into the archives and ship me a couple of outdated newspaper articles describing how Whiskey Hill, then Freedom, got here to be.
Within the 1860s, the hamlet of Whiskey Hill consisted of “a dozen shacks, every of which contained a bar and allotted firewater,” in keeping with a July 1937 article within the Watsonville Chief newspaper. At one rowdy gathering, the newspaper claimed, “a person was shot by the pinnacle, the bullet going in a single temple and out the opposite. A serape was thrown over him and he was left to run out in a nook whereas the dance and merry-making went on.”
The city additionally was identified for its vicious bear and bull fights hosted for spectators who paid $1 for a seat within the shade and 50 cents for a spot within the solar. In line with a 2007 column within the Register-Pajaronian newspaper by the late native historian Betty Lewis, a bear could be “chained to a put up in the midst of the sector, and an indignant bull was let free.” Because the animals fought, brass bands performed and clowns entertained.
In the end, Whiskey Hill sobered up. In the summertime of 1877, Lewis wrote, a small group of residents met at an area schoolhouse and determined upon a extra respectable city identify: Freedom.
Immediately’s prime tales
Regulation enforcement officers work on the scene of a taking pictures Saturday in Baldwin Park that killed a police officer and a civilian.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Occasions)
Sheriff’s officers establish the Baldwin Park taking pictures suspect
- The suspect accused of fatally taking pictures two folks together with a Baldwin Park police officer over the weekend has been recognized as 22-year-old Eduardo Roberto Medina-Berumen.
- Two officers — Samuel Riveros and Anthony Pimentel — have been struck and have been rushed to a hospital. Riveros, 35, of Pasadena didn’t survive.
- Officers additionally discovered a person affected by deadly gunshot wounds within the entrance yard of the house the place the suspect was discovered.
- Investigators are nonetheless working to find out a motive within the taking pictures.
After half a century, California legislators are on the verge of overhauling a landmark environmental regulation
- Lengthy celebrated and derided, the California Environmental High quality Act is going through its strongest overhaul in generations.
- Two proposals have superior quickly by the Legislature: one to wipe away the regulation for many city housing developments, the opposite to weaken the foundations for many all the pieces else.
- Authorized consultants say the efforts could be probably the most profound adjustments to CEQA in generations. Negotiations might result in new legal guidelines taking impact inside weeks.
Walt Disney will reside once more as a robotic. His granddaughter says he by no means needed this
- This summer season, Walt Disney will reside once more in robotic type as a part of a brand new Disneyland attraction. The best way his granddaughter Joanna Miller sees it, it’s an abomination.
- “Dehumanizing,” she wrote in a Fb put up that went viral amongst Disney’s huge fandom. “Individuals are not replaceable. You possibly can by no means get the casualness of his speaking.”
What else is occurring
Commentary and opinions
This morning’s must-reads
Different should reads
In your downtime
A plate of roast duck from Roast Duck by Pa Ord.
(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Occasions )
Going out
Staying in
A query for you: What’s one of the best recommendation you’ve gotten out of your father or father determine?
E mail us at essentialcalifornia@latimes.com, and your response would possibly seem within the e-newsletter this week.
And at last … your picture of the day
ACA Groves’ Norman Kachuck is preventing for the survival of the California avocado.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Occasions)
Immediately’s nice picture is from Occasions photographer Robert Gauthier at ACA Groves farm, the place a farmer is preventing to avoid wasting the enduring California avocado.
Have an excellent day, from the Important California group
Hailey Branson-Potts, employees author
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, Sunday author
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
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