Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Sometimes, it's amazing to think that anything can survive in Southern California.
00:08When you soar across its towering mountains of sand, race across a valley that's also
00:16the hottest place on Earth, and discover volcanic craters that could easily be mistaken for
00:22Mars.
00:24But people have always found a way to thrive in this harsh desert land.
00:29From a Native American tribe that left behind these mysterious symbols in the sand, to the
00:35Spanish missionaries who settled its shores, to the movie moguls who turned Los Angeles
00:41into Hollywood, there's no better way to discover the true spirit of Southern California than
00:47from the air.
00:48It was here that an aviation pioneer built a new bomber that could soar on just a single
00:54elegant wing.
00:56Tough recruits come here to prove they have what it takes to be SEALs and Marines.
01:02And it was here that a legendary sports team became famous for its magic on the court and
01:06some of the most high-energy games in the NBA.
01:10Thousands may flock to Southern California to catch a glimpse of their favorite stars,
01:16but others risk their lives to get here by crossing one of the most fortified borders
01:22and daunting stretches of wilderness in the world.
01:26A big part of the wonder of Southern California is that it's a land of extremes.
01:32From its fertile Central Valley to the parched shores of its vast Salton Sea, only here can
01:39you descend down to the lowest place in North America, but also stand right on the top of
01:45the highest spot in the lower 48.
01:49It's an epic journey that's only possible in the southern half of the Golden State,
01:55California.
02:15Southern California is home to some of the most extreme landscapes in the world, and
02:42there's none more extreme than its Death Valley.
02:47It's not only the driest place in America, it's also the hottest in the world.
02:53In 1913, temperatures here reached 134 degrees Fahrenheit, which remains to this day the
03:00hottest recorded temperature on Earth.
03:05One of the most stunning sun-baked landscapes in Death Valley is this one, the Eureka Dunes.
03:11This enormous pile of sand is up to 10,000 years old.
03:20It rises almost 700 feet from a dry lake bed here in Death Valley National Park.
03:27Soar along the spine of these dunes in the middle of summer, and it's easy to believe
03:31that these hot, towering ribbons of sand could never sustain life.
03:37But in fact, while the Eureka Dunes may be dry on the surface, they act like a giant
03:42sponge and are very good at holding moisture deep inside after it rains.
03:52It's how five different species of beetle are able to call them home, no matter how
03:56hot the surface gets on the outside.
04:03This is one of Death Valley National Park's most impressive forms.
04:09But there's another.
04:10It doesn't lie on top of the desert floor, but has been carved out of it.
04:16It's known as the Ubehebe Crater.
04:22Native Americans called this crater Coyote's Basket.
04:30It's a fitting name for this giant desert depression.
04:35The Ubehebe was created when hot magma deep below began rising towards the surface of
04:40the earth.
04:41As it pushed upwards, it heated water above, which turned into steam.
04:46That steam expanded and finally caused the earth around it to explode.
04:51That covered the area with magma and left a giant hole in its place.
05:00What makes Death Valley a truly daunting landscape for humans is not its ancient geological marvels,
05:07but this, a seemingly endless expanse of flat, cracked earth that covers more than 200 square
05:14miles.
05:15It's known as Badwater Basin.
05:18The floor of this valley is actually salt that drained down from the surrounding mountains
05:23and then dried up here.
05:25The patterns the dried salt makes are virtually untouched by humans or machines, and are one
05:30of the wonders of America's national parks.
05:34And they're constantly changing.
05:37Every time it rains in Death Valley, the salt crystals here form and reform into entirely
05:42new patterns.
05:46As seismic forces pushed the mountains around the basin higher and higher over millions
05:50of years, the basin itself got pulled further and further down.
05:56It now lies 282 feet below sea level, which means it has the lowest elevation of any place
06:03in North America.
06:06There's no doubt that this is one of the most extreme environments anywhere on earth, and
06:11it's one reason it inspired one of the most extreme sporting events in the world.
06:20Every year in July, for more than a quarter of a century, dozens of the world's toughest
06:25runners have descended on the desert in and around Death Valley.
06:30They come to take part in an epic foot race known as the Badwater Ultramarathon.
06:36They will have to cover 135 miles, nearly the equivalent of five normal marathons, and
06:44they'll have to make vertical climbs that total 13,000 feet.
06:49Those who don't reach the finish line in 48 hours or less are disqualified.
06:56Originally, the race started in the bottom of Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North
07:02America, and ended on the very top of California's Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the continental
07:09United States.
07:10Amazingly, the distance between these two extreme landscapes is less than 100 miles.
07:17Each ultramarathoner had to pick his or her own route across the desert to the finish
07:22line.
07:23But over time, the National Park Service grew concerned about the runners' safety.
07:28So in 2014, racers weren't allowed to cross Death Valley itself.
07:33The race ran through nearby Owens Valley instead.
07:37Here, they head out of the town of Lone Pine.
07:41Temperatures during the race can reach 120 degrees or higher.
07:46What starts as a run ends up being a long, hot walk.
07:51If runners don't pace themselves and stay hydrated, they can suffer kidney failure, brain damage,
07:56or even death.
07:58The air may reach 120 degrees, but the pavement can hit 200 and has even been known to melt
08:04running shoes.
08:06The extreme heat is one reason this race is invitation only.
08:11Support teams work to keep a careful eye on their runners and are trained to identify
08:15signs of impending illness.
08:17They keep them cool with water and bands of ice around their necks.
08:27And over the years, a few of the most extreme athletes have succeeded in running the Bad
08:32Water Route alone, unassisted.
08:36The last stretch heads up the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the finish line under the trees
08:42here at the trailhead of Mount Whitney.
08:47There are no money prizes in this race.
08:50Those who finish before their 48 hours are up are awarded a Bad Water belt buckle.
08:56For most who participate, just knowing that they've completed the toughest foot race on
09:01Earth is the best reward of all.
09:09But not all runners stop at the finish line.
09:14Some continue on for 11 more miles and 6,000 more vertical feet further up the mountain
09:21to summit the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states, Mount Whitney.
09:29Every year, almost 25,000 other climbers try to reach Mount Whitney's summit.
09:35The journey to get here is not for the fate of heart.
09:38It requires following a narrow trail that snakes past chasms and cliffs.
09:44One slip and the climber can quickly plunge to his or her death.
09:50Those who reach Mount Whitney's 14,505-foot summit stand literally on the very top of
09:58the lower 48.
10:04It's something that's only possible in Southern California.
10:15The dramatic landscapes of this state may appeal to those eager to push themselves to
10:19the extreme for fun, but every year, here on California's southern border, hundreds
10:26of illegal migrants risk their lives trying to cross one of the most desolate landscapes
10:31in America without getting caught.
10:36This is one of the most stunning sights in Southern California, a place known as the
10:45Algodones Dunes.
10:48They cover the border where the U.S. ends and Mexico begins.
10:52A new 15-foot high fence stretches right over the sand.
10:59It was built in 2008, part of the 224 miles of new fence built on the Mexican border during
11:05the Bush administration.
11:08It was designed so sand could flow through its steel beams while keeping migrants and
11:13smugglers out.
11:16Even if you could get up and over the fence, you'd have to survive a long hike across
11:22these baking hot ribbons of sand.
11:28The Algodones Dunes lie at the eastern edge of California's border with Mexico, near Yuma,
11:34Arizona.
11:35From here, the border runs west, past the town of Calexico and into a desolate landscape
11:41known as the Jacumba Wilderness.
11:48The Department of Homeland Security considers this rugged and remote area a natural deterrent
11:54to illegal migrants.
11:56Human smugglers are known to charge a premium for helping them cross here.
12:01It's one reason there's not much of a border fence at all, just a low barrier to keep vehicles
12:07from racing across the U.S. line loaded with people or drugs.
12:12Once they reach Interstate 8, they can be hard to catch.
12:18But to the west is one of the most fortified stretches of border in the world.
12:25The high fence runs right into the Pacific Ocean, here just south of San Diego.
12:34High above, cameras and sensors keep watch 24-7 to make sure no one tries to jump the
12:40fence or swim around it.
12:44For families who come here, there's no doubt about where Mexico ends and the U.S. begins.
12:52This fence separates millions of people whose families live on both sides.
12:57When they want to visit each other, most come here, to the busiest land border crossing
13:03in the world, a place known as San Ysidro.
13:10It lies on the north edge of the Mexican city of Tijuana.
13:18Crossing into Southern California here can take a lot of patience.
13:23Lines of cars stretch back for miles into Tijuana's neighborhoods.
13:27Up to 50,000 northbound vehicles cross the border at San Ysidro every day, which makes
13:32it a tough job for U.S. border protection.
13:35Many cars are stopped on the U.S. side for a thorough scan.
13:39Overhead, 25,000 pedestrians walk out of Mexico every day.
13:45But for the Mexicans who first came north to explore the wonder and riches of what's
13:50now Southern California, it was no such thing as crossing the border.
13:55That's because all the land that's now California once belonged entirely to Mexico, and before
14:00that, to Spain.
14:03For most of its human history, the area that's now California was actually covered by a colorful
14:08patchwork of different Native American tribes and their tribal territories.
14:13There were once more Native American groups here than in any other U.S. state.
14:18But in the 1700s, Spanish armies began moving north from present-day Mexico.
14:23Guns and disease succeeded in wiping the tribes and their territories off the map, as Spain
14:28imposed a vast colonial empire it called New Spain in their place.
14:36The Spanish first discovered Southern California in 1542, when an explorer named Juan Cabrillo
14:43led a three-ship naval expedition north, into what's now called San Diego Bay.
14:51Cabrillo is remembered here at this monument high above San Diego, since he and his men
14:56were the first Europeans to see this sparkling natural harbor.
15:01But they weren't the first humans here.
15:04Three members of the Kumeyaay tribe were waiting to greet the Spaniards when they stepped ashore.
15:09Cabrillo proceeded to lay claim to all the land here, in the name of the Spanish crown.
15:16The Kumeyaay weren't happy seeing their land invaded, and fought back, wounding three of
15:22Cabrillo's men.
15:25But it was the beginning of the end for the Kumeyaay, and the rest of California's other
15:29native tribes.
15:32It took more than 200 years for Spain finally to establish a permanent colony here.
15:37In 1769, a Franciscan friar named Junipero Serra led a band of Spanish priests and soldiers
15:44back to San Diego Bay.
15:48His mission was to bring Catholicism to the region's native people.
15:53His first church, reconstructed here, was called Mission San Diego de Alcalá.
15:58Soon, 20 more missions were rising across California.
16:03Some of them lie at the center of the state's largest cities, from San Diego to San Francisco.
16:10But the one here in San Diego, which fell into ruin and was reconstructed in 1931, was
16:16the mother of them all.
16:18Which is why it's one of San Diego's most popular historic sites.
16:25In Serra's day, Spanish galleons sailed right into San Diego Bay, others anchored off the
16:32coast.
16:33If the captains of those ships returned today, they would stand in awe at the sight of this.
16:44A U.S. Navy hovercraft, launching from Coronado Beach, the infamous training ground of the
16:51U.S. Navy SEALs.
16:53The U.S. military calls these giant machines LCACs, or Landing Craft Air Cushion.
17:00They're specially equipped for amphibious assault, to whisk troops, weapons, and even
17:05tanks from ships to shore, right across the surf.
17:14Coronado Beach has been the West Coast home base of the SEALs since 1961.
17:20Every potential recruit to this elite force has to come to this stretch of sand just outside
17:24San Diego, and face a grueling 26-week program to find out if they're tough enough to be
17:30awarded the SEALs' treasure, Gold Trident Pin.
17:36Their fourth week here is called Hell Week.
17:38The Navy calls it the toughest training in the U.S. military.
17:43On the beach, they carry out missions in team building.
17:47There are tough obstacle courses, and they have to carry 300-pound logs in teams across
17:52the sand.
17:54Offshore, they launch from vessels, and then head into the beach as they're trained in
17:59a variety of missions, from nighttime raids, to extractions under fire, to setting underwater
18:05explosives, and everything else that makes SEALs some of the most highly skilled members
18:11of the U.S. military.
18:14Today, San Diego is a hub for military training.
18:19Nearby, new recruits are finding out what it takes to be a member of the U.S. Marines.
18:26They fight each other with padded poles called Pugil Sticks to simulate combat with rifles
18:31and bayonets.
18:32At the end of every bout, only one Marine can be standing.
18:38Nearby, others learn martial arts and train in hand-to-hand combat.
18:45In 12 weeks, new Marines will go from being fresh recruits to full members of a platoon.
18:52Southern California has played an important role in the history of the U.S. military for
18:56more than a century, and not just with boots on the ground.
19:02Once, the skies above the Los Angeles Valley were home to some of the most innovative aircraft
19:08in the world.
19:10They still are today.
19:13One of the most legendary is this one, the Northrop N-9MB, better known as the Flying
19:20Wing.
19:21It's a prototype of the now-famous B-2 stealth bomber.
19:26It was the brainchild of aviation pioneer Jack Northrop.
19:31In the 1920s, he started imagining a new kind of plane that could reduce drag.
19:36Instead of it having two separate wings, a fuselage, and a tail, he imagined it as just
19:42a single elegant wing.
19:45In 1941, Northrop was awarded a contract to build four prototypes of his revolutionary
19:51new bomber.
19:53They would be one-third the size of the real planes that the Air Force wanted.
19:58The first Flying Wing ended up crashing and killing its test pilot.
20:03This wing is the only one of four original prototypes that survived.
20:08In the 1920s and 30s, Southern California was the heart of America's aviation industry.
20:16The dry climate provided a high percentage of good days to fly every year, and the wide-open
20:21valleys gave companies the airspace they needed to test out new models.
20:29McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Boeing all got their start here in Southern
20:35California.
20:38But Northrop's Flying Wing was one of the most visionary aircraft ever developed here.
20:45By the 1950s, advances in jet aviation helped turn L.A. into a city famous for its professional
20:52sports almost overnight.
20:54In 1958, the owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers moved the team to L.A.
20:59After the city promised to build him a brand new stadium, the Dodgers soon became the first
21:04professional baseball team to use their own plane to travel to games all over the country.
21:09The new L.A. Dodgers won their first game 6-5.
21:13It was against their long-standing rivals, the Giants, who also moved west to San Francisco
21:18from New York that same year.
21:21The new Dodgers Stadium finally opened in 1962, on its perch here next to Elysian Park
21:28above Los Angeles.
21:32The Dodgers' move west was a financial success for the team's owner, which prompted the owner
21:37of the Minneapolis Lakers to move his team to L.A. just two years later.
21:42The Staples Center, where the Lakers now play, opened much later, in 1999.
21:48It has more than 19,000 seats for those who come to cheer on one of the most winning teams
21:52in NBA history, thanks to legends that include George Micah, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant,
22:00and coaches Pat Riley and Phil Jackson.
22:04During its famous Showtime era in the 1980s, Lakers games were some of the most highly
22:08charged and attended in the NBA.
22:11It was music, dancers, and a run-and-gun style of play on the court known for the fast breaks
22:16of stars Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
22:19Celebrities lined the front seats, cheering on a team that won five NBA championships
22:25between 1980 and 1991.
22:27Today, the Lakers share the Staples Center with L.A.'s other NBA team, the Clippers.
22:35The National Hockey League's L.A. Kings also call the Staples Center home, and won two
22:40Stanley Cup titles, right here on the ice, in 2012 and 2014.
22:45Today, downtown Los Angeles has one of the most impressive skylines in the nation, and
22:51is home to the tallest building on the West Coast, the U.S. Bank Tower.
22:55But one of the city's most visited landmarks isn't downtown.
22:59It's perched here, on its mountain in Brentwood, overlooking the city.
23:04This is the vast museum and research complex called the Getty Center.
23:09It's the richest art institution in the world, with gardens designed by artist Robert Irwin,
23:14and sleek buildings by architect Richard Meyer, that are sheathed entirely in Italian stone.
23:22Many Angelenos don't actually come here to stroll through its galleries, but just to
23:26enjoy this oasis of calm, and a stunning view over the city they call home.
23:34But L.A. may never have become much of a city at all if it wasn't for the discovery of black gold,
23:41and the questionable dealings of a few men, whose insatiable thirst turned these desert plots into fortunes.
23:52What makes California one of the nation's most unique states is the incredible number
23:58and variety of its geological marvels.
24:03From snow-capped volcanic peaks in the north, to its fields of lava,
24:10to a stretch of stunning wild coast known as Big Sur.
24:18But one of the most impressive landscapes in all of California straddles north and south,
24:24the dramatic granite forms of Yosemite National Park.
24:30They are the reason Yosemite is one of the most visited national parks in the nation.
24:35What makes the granite here so stunning is its polished surface.
24:40Roughly two million years ago, glaciers covered the Sierra Nevada mountains.
24:46As giant sheets of ice slid slowly down their flanks, boulders in the ice scoured and polished
24:52the granite that lay below, creating this landscape.
24:58One of the most prized sights in all of Yosemite emerged when the giant ice fields here finally melted,
25:04the Tuolumne Meadows.
25:12But fly east of the park, and the Sierra suddenly plunged down to a place known as Owens Valley.
25:21This arid valley, and the river that runs through it, have played a leading role
25:27in one of Southern California's most infamous tales.
25:32A tale of how a few men's ambition and greed sucked the life out of one California valley
25:38in order for Los Angeles to become one of the richest in the world.
25:43It's the story that inspired the 1974 Hollywood hit, Chinatown.
25:49By the 1890s, L.A. was a boomtown, fueled by oil and the arrival of the railway.
25:56As more and more people flooded in, speculators were on the prowl for new ways to turn desert plots into fortunes.
26:04One of those developers, an engineer named Fred Eaton, became the mayor of Los Angeles in 1898.
26:12Eaton believed that the only way his city was going to survive and grow in the 20th century
26:17was if it found a new supply of water.
26:21So he hatched a radical plan.
26:24He would take the water from a river valley 230 miles to the north, and direct it down to Los Angeles.
26:32He worked with his friend, William Mulholland, the city's head of water and power, to make it happen.
26:38But before they could take a drop of water from Owens Valley, they first needed to get their hands on water rights.
26:46In 1905, Mulholland started to buy up land in the valley, secretly, for the city of Los Angeles.
26:52He claimed it was for an irrigation project that would help local farmers and ranchers.
26:57But by the time the Los Angeles Times revealed what Eaton and Mulholland were really up to,
27:02the city of L.A. already owned a major stake in Owens Valley and most of its water.
27:08The next challenge was for Mulholland to get all that water down to L.A.
27:13It took one of the biggest engineering projects in U.S. history, which kicked off in 1907.
27:21Thousands of men worked six years on a massive new aqueduct.
27:25Forty-three of them died helping build the channels, tunnels, and gates
27:29that direct the riches of Owens Valley right down into the heart of Los Angeles, by gravity alone.
27:40On November 5, 1913, 40,000 Angelenos gathered below these artificial cascades on the edge of the Los Angeles basin
27:48and gazed up at Mulholland as he opened the gates and sent Owens Valley's water rushing down into L.A.
27:56There it is, he famously told the crowd. Take it.
28:02But despite Eaton's and Mulholland's claims,
28:05the city of Los Angeles didn't actually need much of the water from the aqueduct in the years that followed.
28:11During that time, much of it was used to irrigate the nearby San Fernando Valley instead,
28:16where Eaton's investor friends turned property they had bought for cheap into expensive green housing lots.
28:23In 1924, developers named this curving road along the crest of the Hollywood Hills
28:28Mulholland Highway, after the engineer who had brought them their water.
28:33Now called Mulholland Drive, it's been home to some of the most famous names in Hollywood,
28:38including Warren Beatty, Denzel Washington, and Madonna.
28:42This is the home of Jack Nicholson, who starred in the 1974 hit Chinatown,
28:47which was inspired by Mulholland's strong-arm tactics and the story of L.A.'s aqueduct.
28:53When Nicholson bought this house here in 1969, his long-time idol, Marlon Brando, lived right next door.
29:00Nicholson is reported to have called the mountain where they both lived, Bad Boy Hill.
29:05The two actors became good friends, and after Brando died in 2004,
29:10Nicholson bought his house for more than $5 million.
29:14He later tore it down, except for Brando's former swimming pool.
29:18Nicholson's own house became famous in 1977 as the scene of a crime that gripped Hollywood.
29:25It was here where director Roman Polanski, the director of Chinatown,
29:30committed his infamous rape of a 13-year-old model while Nicholson was out of town.
29:35Polanski pled guilty to the rape, but then fled the country to escape jail time and has never returned.
29:44Long before Mulholland Drive even existed, L.A.'s millionaires lived down on the valley floor.
29:51One of the first lived here, in this imposing mansion.
29:55He gained his celebrity by kicking off the transformation of this once dusty little desert town
30:01into the booming metropolis of Los Angeles.
30:06His name was Edward L. Doheny, and oil was what made him rich.
30:11In the 1890s, Doheny, a failed silver miner, discovered that tar was oozing from the ground in Los Angeles.
30:19He and a partner dug a well, and on April 20th, 1892, they struck oil.
30:26Soon, Los Angeles was covered with oil derricks that made Doheny a fortune.
30:31As tens of thousands arrived to work in the new oil fields, L.A. was transformed into a boom town.
30:38The story behind how Doheny did it inspired the plot of the Academy Award winning film,
30:44There Will Be Blood.
30:47Here in Englewood, pump jacks still work 24-7, sucking California's black gold out of the ground,
30:53just as they've been doing in L.A. for more than a hundred years.
30:57Today, Los Angeles is the second most productive oil county in the state,
31:03and has produced more than nine billion tons of oil.
31:07But as neighborhoods grew up around the oil fields,
31:10the oil industry has had to work hard to keep its operations from being eyesores.
31:16One of the strangest solutions they've come up with lies here, just off the coast of Long Beach.
31:21In the 1960s, the oil industry was booming.
31:25In the 1970s, the oil industry was booming.
31:28In the 1970s, the oil industry was booming.
31:31One of the strangest solutions they've come up with lies here, just off the coast of Long Beach.
31:36In the 1960s, oil companies built a series of artificial islands to hide their offshore drilling rigs
31:42that were tapping the riches of the Wilmington oil fields deep below.
31:46They designed them to look like tropical resorts by ringing them with palm trees
31:51and building structures that would look like luxury hotels.
31:55It's all so residents on Long Beach don't have to look out at dirty drilling rigs.
32:00Oil and water played major roles in the birth of Los Angeles.
32:05But in 1910, a new type of tycoon started arriving in town.
32:10Movie moguls from the East.
32:13Their profound impact on this city is symbolized by nine towering letters high in the Hollywood Hills.
32:21The Hollywood sign wasn't originally created to plug the movie business.
32:26It first appeared in 1923 to advertise a new residential development here called Hollywoodland.
32:33But after the Silver Spring brought Hollywood fame,
32:36the last four letters were lopped off and it's been just Hollywood ever since.
32:42In 1932, a failed starlet named Peg Entwistle jumped to her death from the H,
32:49which only helped burnish its legend.
32:52When the original letters started to collapse in the 1970s,
32:56a bunch of movie actors helped raise money to replace them.
33:00Rocker Alice Cooper sponsored one of the O's in memory of Groucho Marx.
33:06Today, most who visit Hollywood are happy to just catch a glimpse
33:10of these iconic 45-foot high white metal letters from afar.
33:15It's here along Hollywood Boulevard where they come to get close to their favorite stars
33:20on its legendary Walk of Fame.
33:26Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President E.M. Stewart came up with the idea for this star-studded walk in 1953.
33:32When Tinseltown's glamour was starting to fade,
33:37Stewart hoped the walk would bring it and the tourists back.
33:42They've been coming to Hollywood to gawk at his celebrity stars ever since,
33:46snap pictures of their favorites,
33:48or pause to mourn for a star that has recently passed away.
33:53But what many fans don't know is that celebrities have to be approved by a committee before they get a star.
33:59They or their sponsors also have to fork over $30,000,
34:04which is what a new star on the Walk of Fame costs today.
34:08The fan frenzy reaches its peak here,
34:11in front of a classic Chinese theater, the site of many Hollywood premieres.
34:16For decades, the theater's longtime owner, Sid Grauman,
34:20asked the actors who passed through to leave their handprints,
34:23footprints, and signatures in his courtyard in wet cement.
34:27Now, hordes of tourists come here eager to see the results.
34:32The Chinese theater was built in an age when most Hollywood movies were shot in studios right here in town.
34:38Today, just one remains, Paramount Pictures.
34:43It was founded by Jesse Lasky, Adolf Zucker, and Cecil B. DeMille in the 1920s,
34:49and remains the oldest running studio in Hollywood.
34:53Some of Hollywood's greatest early hits were made here, behind Paramount's iconic gates.
34:59Screen legends Mae West, Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, and Harrison Ford have all worked here.
35:06Out back are sets built to look like streets and alleys in New York and Chicago.
35:11They've appeared in episodes of Seinfeld, Frasier, and CSI.
35:15Paramount Studios even has its own lumberyard,
35:18so designers can create just about any set a director could dream of.
35:22Unless, of course, they want to shoot cowboys racing across the plains.
35:29When directors want a Western backdrop close to town,
35:33they often head here into the dusty Santa Clarita Valley just 30 miles away.
35:41This is the Valoiset Motion Picture Ranch,
35:44part of a large collection of outdoor sets built just for Hollywood and television.
35:51Shows from Gunsmoke to Dukes of Hazzard to Deadwood and 24 have all had scenes shot here in these hills.
36:00This set has a complete Spanish town,
36:03a perfect setting for the cowboy and Indian shoot-ups that were standard fare in Hollywood for decades.
36:10Actors arrive here, ready for their close-ups as gunslingers, sheriffs, stagecoach drivers, and more.
36:21But there's another compound, this one tucked away in the hills outside LA,
36:26where many in Hollywood have gone not to inhabit fictional characters,
36:30but to discover themselves as members of what some call a cult.
36:36For years, here at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains, south of Los Angeles,
36:41was a high-end spa called Gilman Hot Springs that catered to movie stars.
36:47But by 1978, it was going bankrupt and was sold to a secret buyer known only as the Scottish Highland Quietude Society.
36:56That reportedly paid for the property with $2.7 million in cash.
37:02That society was actually the Church of Scientology,
37:06which soon transformed the spa into its international headquarters.
37:12Today, its 500-acre campus is infamously known as Gold Base.
37:19In 1950, L. Ron Hubbard published his New York Times bestseller Dianetics,
37:25and a few years later in 1954, the Church of Scientology was born.
37:31Soon, new Scientology centers were opened around the world.
37:37John Travolta and Tom Cruise may now be the Church's most famous members,
37:42but they are just two of many celebrities who have been involved with Scientology over the years.
37:48Today, Gold Base is home to the offices of Church leader David Miscavige,
37:52and the Cinecastle, an entire movie studio where the Church produces promotional films and videos
37:59that it translates into 15 languages to lure new recruits from around the world.
38:06But some former members claim that Gold Base is also used as a harsh re-education camp.
38:12They claim that when high-ranking members threaten to defect,
38:15Church officials go on the offensive and send them here to be punished and reformed.
38:20In various court cases, books and documentaries,
38:23former Church members have described being held against their will in a building known as The Hole.
38:29Some say they've been forced to do menial labor and stay awake around the clock on little food for months at a time.
38:35Others have claimed that they were even physically and mentally abused by the head of the Church himself,
38:40accusations that he and the Church have vehemently denied.
38:45From the air, it's clear that security is tight around this vast hillside campus,
38:50with a fence, motion detectors, and cameras lining its perimeter.
38:56To become part of the Church of Scientology,
38:58new members have to sign a one-billion-year contract to prove their eternal commitment.
39:06Overlooking Gold Base is founder L. Ron Hubbard's ten-million-dollar mansion called Bonnyview.
39:12Hubbard never actually lived here before he died in 1986.
39:17But today, the Church keeps Bonnyview and its gardens in tip-top shape and fully staffed,
39:22allegedly kept ready for what they believe will be Hubbard's return to Earth.
39:31Southern California has always been a land for dreamers.
39:36The Spanish explorers who first arrived on its shores were some of the first,
39:41which helps explain how California got its name.
39:46In the 16th century, a popular Spanish romance novel told the story of the queen of an island paradise called California.
39:55It was imagined as a place ruled by brave women warriors, an earthly paradise full of gold.
40:06Spanish sailors long dreamed they might one day find such an island.
40:11When they first sailed up the Pacific coast,
40:13they decided to give the paradise they discovered here the name California.
40:21There are places in Southern California that have changed little since those colonial days.
40:29One of them lies here, in the state's remote southeastern corner.
40:33It's a land of towering ancient pinnacles scattered around the Colorado River,
40:39which now divides California from Arizona.
40:44In ancient times, this river flooded frequently
40:48and deposited layers of nutrient-rich soil along its banks that lured a series of Native American tribes.
40:57One of them left behind an archaeological mystery
41:00that still leaves scientists scratching their heads today.
41:07The dry, dusty soil of southeastern California may seem like a vast expanse of uninhabitable desert,
41:13but actually holds rich evidence of the people and cultures that once called this region home.
41:20In the 1930s, a pilot was flying to Los Angeles when he spotted a number of strange figures down below,
41:26etched into the Southern California desert.
41:29The largest of them measured in at 171 feet long.
41:34Soon, archaeologists revealed that these geoglyphs were probably hundreds of years old
41:39and had been well-preserved thanks to the harsh desert sun and lack of rain here.
41:45Whoever created them did it by scraping away the top layer of rocks
41:49in order to make designs and figures from the lighter rocks below.
41:53They lie outside the town of Blythe and are now known as the Blythe Intaglios.
41:58Scientists still don't know exactly who created them and why or what the individual figures mean,
42:04but there's one thing for certain.
42:06These impressive forms are rich evidence of California's ancient past
42:11and are best experienced from the air.
42:18Today, new kinds of patterns are appearing here on the desert floor.
42:23Eastern California is the heart of a new boom in solar energy
42:27as utility companies race to meet new state and federal guidelines for renewables.
42:34This facility uses 600,000 mirrors to harness the heat of the sun
42:39and generate enough electricity to power almost 90,000 homes a year.
42:45But when crews raced to construct it in 2011,
42:49they unearthed roughly 3,000 Native American artifacts here,
42:53including tools and human bones.
42:58But trying to carve out an existence in this harsh region can be a roll of the dice.
43:03Just ask anyone who lives here in a town called Bombay Beach.
43:08From the air, it looks like it could be an outpost on Mars,
43:12except, of course, for the lake.
43:15But the history of Bombay Beach is surprising
43:18and a warning to anyone tempted by the promise of living in an oasis in the desert.
43:25It all started back in 1905,
43:28when a levee holding back water from the Colorado River broke
43:32and the river started flowing west into what was then a dry desert valley here.
43:38It took engineers one and a half years to fix the leak,
43:42but by then it had created what came to be known as the Salton Sea.
43:48It's one of the most fascinating landscapes in all of California.
43:55It's the largest lake in the state, located in the middle of the desert,
44:00and created completely by accident.
44:03In the 1960s, developers moved in and turned it into a thriving resort destination.
44:09They sold housing lots by the dozens,
44:11sometimes taking prospective buyers up in planes to sell properties from the air.
44:16Today, the community of Bombay Beach is nothing like what it used to be.
44:21Once, it was home to a hopping resort,
44:24with a golf course and yacht club.
44:27Celebrities, including Frank Sinatra and the Beach Boys, used to visit.
44:32But the problem with the Salton Sea was that its only source of new water was runoff from surrounding fields.
44:39Over time, those fields leached DDT and other pesticides into the lake.
44:44They and other natural toxins started killing fish
44:47and endangered the flocks of birds that came to the Salton Sea to feed.
44:51As the lake started to die, people no longer wanted to leap into its salty waters
44:56or lie on its dusty shores.
45:00No one knows what will happen to the Salton Sea,
45:03but one thing is for certain.
45:05If it dries up completely,
45:07the fine grains of silt and salt in this 100,000-acre lake bed
45:11will be kicked up into the ocean,
45:13and the lake will be completely dry.
45:16The fine grains of silt and salt in this 100,000-acre lake bed
45:20will be kicked up into the air in great clouds of toxic dust,
45:24which could become an environmental disaster.
45:29The Salton Sea may have been created by accident,
45:32but fly north of Los Angeles,
45:34and you'll discover what can happen in California
45:37when water, hard work, and great weather combine
45:41to create one of the richest valleys in the world.
45:47Southern California may be known for its many forbidding landscapes,
45:52vast oil fields built to tap riches deep below,
45:58and engineering marvels that make life here possible.
46:03But Southern California isn't entirely a desert land,
46:07especially here in the Central Valley.
46:11The Central Valley begins around Bakersfield
46:14and then stretches 450 miles north,
46:17right across Central California,
46:19past the state capital of Sacramento,
46:22and all the way up to Redding,
46:24just about 100 miles short of the Oregon border.
46:31On many Central Valley fields,
46:33there's no sign at all that California is suffering the worst drought
46:37in its recorded history.
46:39Thanks to aquifers, sprinklers are hard at work,
46:43turning what would be otherwise dusty farmland
46:46into fields of gold.
46:49With some of the best soil in the nation
46:51and 300 days of sun a year,
46:53the Central Valley produces more than 25%
46:56of all the produce consumed in America.
46:59For every farmer here,
47:01life is a continuous battle
47:03to keep the soil in their naturally dry and dusty fields well-watered
47:07and to keep the Central Valley working its wonders
47:10as one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world.
47:15One of the biggest crops here
47:17is easy to spot from the air,
47:19at least after it's been harvested.
47:22Carrots.
47:2585% of all carrots consumed in America
47:28start their journey here,
47:30This one producer,
47:32Bolthouse Farms,
47:33processes 6 million pounds of carrots every day.
47:37It'll take just one hour for these carrots to be prepared for sale.
47:42First, they're washed in the trucks they arrive in.
47:45Then, they're loaded onto conveyor belts
47:47that whisk them around the plant
47:49as they are washed again,
47:51sorted,
47:52trimmed,
47:53peeled,
47:54and finally bagged for sale.
47:56In the 1980s,
47:57a carrot farmer named Mike Juracek
47:59wanted to find a way to use all the imperfect carrots
48:02that didn't make the grade.
48:04He decided to cut the leftover pieces
48:06into 2-inch lengths
48:07and then peel them to look like mini carrots.
48:10Today, baby carrots are available
48:12in just about every supermarket across the country.
48:16What makes the Central Valley so productive
48:19is a workforce of migrant labor.
48:22Back in the 1930s,
48:23a wave of migrants flooded into this part of the Central Valley
48:26after fleeing drought in Oklahoma and Texas
48:29and across the Great Plains.
48:31The U.S. government built labor camps
48:33to house the new arrivals.
48:35One of them, called Weedpatch,
48:37still stands here,
48:39southeast of Bakersfield.
48:41Up to 500 migrants lived here
48:43and eked out a meager existence
48:45working in the Central Valley's fields.
48:48The foundations of the simple houses they lived in
48:50are still here,
48:52and they stand as evidence of those tough times.
48:55Author John Steinbeck visited this camp in the 1930s
48:59and ended up basing his famous novel
49:01The Grapes of Wrath
49:03on characters he met here
49:05and their experiences
49:06fleeing the Dust Bowl
49:07for a better life in California.
49:09The Weedpatch camp was even featured in the book.
49:12The Weedpatch camp is a place
49:14The Weedpatch camp was even featured in the book.
49:17The hard work of migrants at camps like this one
49:20helped transform the Central Valley
49:22into what it is today.
49:24And even now,
49:25the Weedpatch camp still serves as home
49:27to seasonal migrants
49:29from Mexico and Central America
49:31who come to pick California's bounty,
49:33which includes about 250 different crops,
49:36from navel oranges to pecans
49:39to almonds, grapes, apricots, and asparagus,
49:42all from these fields
49:44that are just part of the wonder of Southern California.
49:48It's a stunning natural world
49:50that's been luring dreamers,
49:52adventurers, and others for centuries.
49:55From the ancient people
49:57who left their mark
49:58in what now seems like the middle of nowhere,
50:01to the tycoons
50:03who made the first fortunes in its arid valleys,
50:06to the movie moguls,
50:08stars and starlets who followed.
50:11Some come to train on its Pacific coast.
50:15Others to see if they can survive the desert
50:20and do whatever it takes
50:22to set foot on the highest spot in the lower 48.
50:26This is the true spirit
50:29of Southern California.
50:41Music
50:45Music
50:49Music
50:53Music
50:57Music