Dreamers have always been drawn to California. Settlers from Mexico and Spain arrived in the 18th century. They ware conquistadores seeking the golden city of El Dorado; Franciscan missionaries zealous for souls; and colonists eager to start farms and ranches.

California remained a sleepy place until 1845, when gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill. Forty thouand fortune hunters swarmed into the territory. The Forty-Niners were followed by wave upon wave of farmers from back east and even fro as far away as China and Japan.

Hollywood Mountains

Today California is the place where drams come true-whether in the studios of Hollywood, in the labs of Silicon Valley, or in Disneyland's Magic Kingdom. It's a toos-up whether Los Angeles or San Francisco puts on better show. L.A. has the hot-test trends, the most celebrities, the best beaches and an offbeat sense of high culture. San Francisco has neighborhoods and a real downtown, cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge, magnificent vistas (especially from the Presidio), and a strong undercurrent of hip, antiestablishment culture.

Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco

But there's a lot of more to California than its cities. Some of the best wines in the U.S. are produced in the Napa, Sonoma and Russian River calleys. Avenue of the Giants and Redwood National Park safeguard the world's tallest trees. The Sierra Nevada is the most stunning mountains range in the country and the setting for Yosemite National Park and  Lake Tahoe. Death Valley weighs in as the lowest point in the western hemisphere, 282 feet below sea level.

In many respects, California is indeed a golden land. If it were an independent countriy, its economy would be the sixth largest in the world. The state leads the nation in agriculture (although farmers make up only one percent of the population). And while oil, minig, and the auto, air and high-tech industries pull in the bucks, it's the movie and television industries that give California its glamour.