California Vacation Home Rentals
Stay luxurious vacation homes, some located right on the beach. Many feature a peace of history. Non-Smoking and fully equipped with appliances. Nightly and weekly rates are both available.

California LDS Church
More Resources for California LDS
California Mormons - LDS Lifestyle
LDS Temples and Landmarks
California LDS YSA Groups
LDS Special Interest - unique congregations and groups including Spanish, Chinese, Deaf, Tagalog and others.
BSA Scout Camps
LDS Festivals
LDS Institute of Religion
Mormon Battalion - California History

California Christmas Festivals

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The Mormon Battalion was the only religious unit in American military history, serving from July 1846 to July 1847 during the Mexican-American War. The battalion was a volunteer unit of about 500 Latter-day Saint men led by Mormon company officers, commanded by regular army officers. The battalion eventually made a grueling march from Council Bluffs, Iowa to San Diego, California.

While in California they engaged in public works projects, road-building, local security and also help to discover gold at Sutter's Mill.

In 1851, several former battalion members led a group of colonists back from Utah to settle present day San Bernardino. But that settlement was abandoned in 1857.

Mormon Battalion Visitors Center - Old Town San Diego
LDS Church operated museum commerating the 1847 completion of the longest infantry march in US History, over 2000 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa to San Diego. The Mormon Battalion consisted of five companies that totaled over 500 men. Multimedia presentations, historic artifacts and paintings.
Mormon Battalion Commemoration [4th Sat of Jan] - Annual Military Parade and Dutch Oven Bakeoff in San Diego Old Town State Park - Children's crafts and games, pioneer music, living history reenactments, wagon rides.

Mormon Battalion Visitors Center - Old Town San Diego
Church operated museum commerating the 1847 completion of the longest infantry march in US History, over 2000 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa to San Diego. The Mormon Battalion consisted of five companies that totaled over 500 men. Multimedia presentations, historic artifacts and paintings.

Mormon Battalion River Crossing Monument
West Wetlands Park, Yuma AZ.

Fort Moore Pioneer Monument
Hill Street - Chinatown - Los Angeles, CA. -
Site of Fort built and manned by Mormon Battalion 1847 during occupation of Los Angeles in the Mexican-American War.

Heritage Farms Oak Glen
Mormon Pioneer Trek Reenactment
Mormon Battalion Reenactment
Several Working Living History Farms and Apple Orchards are located near scenic Oak Glen, high in the hills above Yucaipa. The farms grows apples, blackberries, cherries, pumpkins and raspberries. Several homesteads host a wide range of living history festivals and themed dinner shows from the civil war, colonial era, pioneer era and other great legends.

Latter-Day Saint Church - LDS
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints aka Mormon features uniform traditional family-centered religious worship at many located in the area. Special programs include women's relief society, youth groups, scouting, welfare services, family history centers, sports and cultural events, and daily religious study groups (seminary and institute). The LDS Church is the third largest religious denomination in America (coming behind Catholics and Protestants).

Family Search - Genealogical Resources for California
Researching your Early Family History in California - try these resources:
California Genealogy - Collections of Early California cemetary records, obituaries, mission stories, 49 pioneer stories and more.
California History Project - County Genealogy Groups and Early Newspapers
California Pioneer List - a list of settlers to California who migrated to or were born in California prior to 1880
California Historical Society - early pioneer history
California State Library - Official State History Collections.
Cindy's List - Directory of California Family History Sites

Family Search - Google Books
Researching your Early Family History in California - try Google Books:

History of the Mormon Battalion University of Michigan Library - 390 pages; A Concise History of the Mormon Battalion in the Mexican War 1846-1847 First person account of the march of the Mormon Battalion is a day by day account of the "longest recorded march in military history."

California Saints A 150 Year Legacy in the Golden State From aiding in the early development of San Francisco, San Diego and Sacramento to the ministry of Howard W Hunter as the first President of the LDS Church from California, Cowan and Homer share with us California's rich LDS history.

Gold Rush Saints California Mormons And the Great Rush for Riches Owens & Bagley - University of Oklahoma Press; From 1846 to 1857 Mormons played a crucial role in shaping events in California and the West. They were the first American settlers of San Francisco, and without them, John Sutter might not have built his sawmill and thus discovered gold in 1848. In Gold Rush Saints, Kenneth N. Owens combines narrative history and documentary accounts to reveal a hidden wealth of California and Mormon history. The first-person accounts of pioneer Mormons, both men and women, offer new perspectives on myths and realities of gold rush California.

La Jolla Hyatt Regency 3777 La Jolla Village Drive , La Jolla, CA 92122; Location: La Jolla Village Dr Exit from I-5 Freeway One Block from San Diego Mormon Temple The Hyatt Regency La Jolla at Aventine is San Diego's landmark destination and a Mobil 4-Star and AAA 4-Diamond Award winner. Creative genius Michael Graves provides the perfect compliment of business and recreation.

La Jolla Best Western Resort 7830 Fay Avenue , La Jolla, CA 92037 ; Location: Two Blocks from La Jolla Beaches / One mile for SD Temple Escape to the La Jolla Best Western Inn by the Sea. A 100% non-smoking California Vacation Resort. Located two blocks from the beautiful beaches of La Jolla in California. Stay at this recently renovated hotel in the picturesque village of La Jolla in southern California.

Palm Springs Hilton Resort Hotel A year-round desert retreat situated in the fashionable downtown Village of Palm Springs at the foot of the San Jacinto Mountains. Upscale shops and boutiques, art galleries, cafes, museums, nightclubs and theater are right at the doorstep. The resort is walking distance to the Convention Center and Spa Casino The Hilton Palm Springs Resort hotel sits on seven lushly landscaped acres with attention to detail that extends from the imported Italian Travertine flooring in our lobby when you arrive, to the hallways and guestrooms of the resort.

Recap of the LDS Prop 8 Experience - Meridian Magazine [04-Nov-2008] A great article, The Perils of Raising the Title of Liberty, reviews the lessons learned by California Mormons in what it means to stand for your beliefs in a modern world.