California's Gold Season 1, Episode 45: Hearst Ranch

Living History

Inaugural Special

Huell Howser spends this special episode focusing his attention on the inauguration of governors of the state of California. Huell Howser spends this episode speaking with various individuals about the history of inaugurations and California governors. Near the end of the episode Huell attends the inauguration of Governor Pete Wilson. This episode also features Governor Wilson’s speech at the end.

58 min

National Special

Huell Howser spends this episode travelling to beautiful, natural locations in California along highway 395. Locations of note include the California Poppy Preserve, Big Pine, Yosemite, and Mono Lake.

58 min

Trees

The theme of this episode is trees! Join Huell as he looks back at two episodes showcasing the beauty of tree-themed roadside attractions, Trees of Mystery and Circus Trees.

56 min

Coachella Music Festival

This episode is all about the world renowned Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio. Each spring, this annual three day event attracts over 160,000 music lovers from literally all over the world and we were invited to attend the 2008 festivities for a behind the scenes look at how it all fits together. Not only did Huell hear some amazing music and see some amazing artists’ creations, but he also experienced first hand the positive energy of this festival. This is a first class event in every way its well organized, well run and the people are all first rate.

59 min

Desert Adventures

In this special, Huell goes back and revisits episode featuring some of his desert adventures. The first half of this special Huell travels to the Salton Sea to get an up close and personal look at “mudpots,” which only occur three places in the US. The second half features the 1996 footage of local desert resident Leonard Knight and his land art creation, Salvation Mountain, near Slab City. As an update to the story of Salvation Mountain, Huell catches up with Leonard Knight to see what else he’s added to Salvation Mountain.

54 min

John Muir Special

Join Huell on this special episode where he meets and speaks to John Muir*, the Scottish-American naturalist who was an early advocate for the preservation and conservation of the America’s beautiful wilderness areas. John Muir also founded the Sierra Club, a prominent conservation organization. Huell gets the rare opportunity to speak with the man himself and learn about his life, his philosophy, and his passion for Yosemite and the environment. In the second half of this special, Huell visits John Muir’s house in Martinez, California and takes an educational tour and learns the history of the house.

56 min

Farallon Island

Join Huell as he spends the day with the biologists who live on the Farallon Islands and learns about this wild and beautiful place which is just a group of islands and rocks found 27 miles off the coast of San Francisco, known as California’s Galapagos, they make up the the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge. These wild and remote islands are rich with not only flora and fauna, but human history as well.

59 min

In-N-Out Burger

Huell takes us on an hour-long California’s Gold special which looks at the history of In-N-Out Burger. This is the first time television cameras have ever been allowed to shoot inside a store. And this special also includes an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the In-N-Out Headquarters in Baldwin Park where it all started back in 1948.

59 min

Mount Wilson

Founded in December 1904 by George Ellery Hale, Mount Wilson Observatory would quickly rise to dominate astronomy worldwide. The Observatory hosts several of the most technologically advanced facilities in the world and is home to the 100-inch Hooker telescope. In this one-hour special, Huell spends the day at this magnificent location that is not only historic, but plays an important role in California’s scientific research.

59 min

Kaiser Steel

Huell meets the retired employees of Kaiser Steel in Fontana. Built in 1942, the mill supplied steel to the Kaiser Shipyard in Richmond during World War II. Although the company closed in 1983, the memories remain in the Kaiser Steel-Fontana Museum, where workers donate their artifacts to an ongoing exhibit. Huell also tours the site today, a working plant now called California Steel Industries.

56 min

B-2 Bomber Update

In this one hour special, Huell takes us back in time to 1997, when he visited Northrop Grumman, where the B-2 Stealth Bomber is built. Huell then goes to Edwards Air Force Base to take a look at the B-2 close up. What made this episode so special was that Huell and Luis were the first media representatives to be allowed in the cockpit of this top secret plane.

60 min