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California Cedar Products Company Business Information, Profile, and History

400 Fresno Avenue
Stockton, California 95203
U.S.A.

Company Perspectives:

California Cedar Products Company has been built upon generations of tradition and excellence in building strong customer relationships throughout the world, producing world class quality products, and continually innovating new manufacturing processes, new products, and new services.

History of California Cedar Products Company

Based in Stockton, California, the family-owned California Cedar Products Company (CalCedar) is the world's largest supplier of wooden slats used in the production of wood-cased pencils and over the years has branched into several other wood-related product lines. The company, owned by the Berolzheimer family, is comprised of four business groups. The primary product of the Pencil Products Business Unit are slats--flat blocks of wood sold to manufacturers to be made into pencils. CalCedar offers several types of slats, including Incense-cedar, the highest quality material available. The reddish-brown wood sharpens easily and is used for artist-quality pencils as well as cosmetic pencils. CalCedar's Ecoslat brand of slats is made from basswood, a less expensive material that is more suited to entry level pencils and mass market lines. ForestChoice slats target consumers that are mindful of the environment while providing the highest quality. The Incense-Cedar wood used in ForestChoice slats is harvested from a managed forest certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. Beyond standard size slats, CalCedar offers slats in a variety of sizes to create such specialty and novelty products as carpenter pencils, golf pencils, advertising pencils, and oversized pencils. CalCedar also has the capacity to manufacture pencils for customers, based on their specifications, to produce either raw, semi-finished, or fully finished pencils. Moreover, the company sells all the components of pencils, including graphite pencil cores of differing hardness and either round for standard pencils or square for carpenter pencils; wax-based color pencil cores; erasure plugs; and ferrules, the aluminum ring that fastens an eraser to the top of a pencil. CalCedar's Firelog Products Unit produces firelogs for its better known sister company Duraflame, a business that grew out of CalCedar in the late 1960s. The Consumer Products Business Unit offers such consumer wood products as the CedarPro line of Incense cedar siding, decking, and pattern products, as well as the Shastina and Frontier lines using lesser grades of woods. CalCedar's products are sold around the world. To cut costs, all of the company's milling operations are now carried out overseas, primarily in China.

Pencil-Making in 19th-Century Germany

The German ancestors of the American Berolzheimers who own CalCedar were involved for 40 years during the 1800s in the pencil-making trade in the Bavarian town of Furth, located in Western Germany, the primary source of a clay that is used to mix with graphite to produce the pencil core. The history of the pencil actually dates back to the ancient Egyptians, who used a lead disk to draw guide lines on papyrus. Over the centuries, the disk became a lead rod encased in wood. The switch to the more suitable material of graphite occurred in the mid-16th century, but there were few pure deposits in the world, so much of the graphite used in pencils was crushed in order to remove impurities and then reformed into sticks by means of a binder. It was an officer in Napoleon's army, Nicholas Jacque Conte, who first mixed ground graphite with clay, which he then fired in a kiln to produce pencil cores. Not only was the clay an excellent binder, it also allowed Conte to vary the amount he used in order to create a range of grades, from hard to soft, a method that became standard around the world.

Daniel Berolzheimer immigrated to America from Germany in 1856 and established the Eagle Pencil Company, opening a pencil shop on John Street in New York City and a nearby factory in Yonkers. It was also during this period that a number of developments in the pencil industry were taking place in the United States. A Massachusetts cabinetmaker named William Monroe invented a machine that could produce slats suitable for making pencils. The first modern pencil factory was opened in New York City in 1861 by Eberhard Faber, who also had family ties to Bavaria. In that same year, Daniel Berolzheimer's son Heinrich took over the family business and opened a massive pencil factory that encompassed an entire block on East 13th and 14th Streets in what is today's East Village section of Manhattan. While Faber became better known for its erasers, the Eagle Pencil Company became a major, worldwide force in the pencil industry. In addition to a showroom on Broadway, the Fifth Avenue of its day, the company maintained agencies around the world and owned cedar mills in Florida, Alabama, and Tennessee. In addition, Eagle patented the first mechanical pencil in 1879 and even developed an early fountain pen, which unfortunately relied on fragile glass cartridges, preventing the Berolzheimer name from becoming associated with pens as well as pencils.

Breaking Away from Family Business in 1927

One of the great-grandsons of Daniel Berolzheimer, Charles Berolzheimer, struck out on his own in the pencil business in 1927, moving west to California to buy a young firm called California Cedar Products Company, which relied on the ready availability of Incense-cedar in the forests of California and Oregon to produce both paneling and pencil slats. Eagle and other pencil manufacturers had for many years used the Eastern Red Cedar that grew in the Southeast, but because of a dwindling supply of this material many pencil companies began moving westward. Charles Berolzheimer not only had a solid background in the pencil business, he was also well educated. Fluent in seven languages, he traveled around the world making important contacts for CalCedar. He was also an innovator who pioneered new techniques in the pencil industry and was instrumental in the development of new, efficient saws and systems.

By the 1960s, when Charles Berolzheimer's two sons, Michael and Philip, were ready to become involved in the business, CalCedar had carved out a 30 percent share in the world market for pencil slats. However, the company now faced stiff new competition, specifically from Kimberly Clark Corp., a major forest-products company. CalCedar's hired management exacerbated the situation by instituting a policy requiring that customers buy some grades of cedar they did not want in order to obtain the best grade of cedar. In secret, Kimberly Clark offered to fill these orders at a reduced rate, prying away some of CalCedar's oldest customers. The younger of the two sons, Michael Berolzheimer, fresh from Harvard Business School, stepped in to troubleshoot the situation, traveling worldwide to listen to customer complaints. He then succeeded in having the controversial policy rescinded, and CalCedar thereafter undercut Kimberly Clark's prices. By 1969, not only did CalCedar repair the breach with its customers and fight off the challenge of Kimberly Clark, its aggressive stance resulted in the company increasing its market share to 50 percent, with annual sales increasing from $3 million to $10 million during this period.

Michael Berolzheimer also became involved in taking the business beyond pencil slats. CalCedar was selling some of its scrap wood locally, but a truck driver who knew that the warehouses contained a lot more scrap than could be sold in the immediate area asked if he could try selling it at gas stations and convenience stores throughout northern California. Michael enlisted his brother's support and the truck driver was given his chance. He quickly sold all of the scrap that CalCedar had available. The truck driver then approached Michael Berolzheimer with an even better idea. Showing him a fireplace log made out of sawdust and wax, the truck driver suggested that CalCedar could take advantage of its unwanted sawdust, which was being burned or carted off to landfills, to become involved in the artificial log business. In the 1960s, manmade firelogs were a minor product, with annual sales in the neighborhood of $2 million, and only a handful of regional companies were involved in the business. Nevertheless, the Berolzheimers thought it was worth a try. The first product CalCedar offered was called the California Cedar Family Log, introduced in 1968. It was far from a polished product, but in less than a year CalCedar sold 30,000 cases, enough to encourage the Berolzheimer brothers to invest $20,000 and create a separate company they named Duraflame, which was officially incorporated in July 1970. They were also influenced by a brother-in-law who conducted market research on the East Coast and told them that the large supermarket chains would make shelf space available for a firelog. While Michael worked with a Harvard marketing professor on a national plan to sell an improved version of the Family Log to supermarkets and other retailers, CalCedar engineers spent two years developing a premium processed log to assume the Duraflame name. The plan was to target the premium category of the nascent firelog industry rather than get caught up in regional price wars with the other manufacturers. As a result, Duraflame required a superior product to justify the higher price, a log capable of burning steadily for three hours. The CalCedar-engineered product fulfilled these requirements, and by 1972 Duraflame had established itself in a choice spot in the marketplace, generating sales in excess of $2 million.

Another development at CalCedar during this period was the establishment of P and M Lumber Products, Inc., the name drawn from the first letters of the company's co-owners, Philip and Michael Berolzheimer. The business operated a saw mill located at Mt. Shasta, California, milling cedar logs into pencil stock for CalCedar. Not only did this venture increase the amount of cedar slats available to CalCedar, it initiated a diversification effort at the company that led to the introduction of siding and decking products.

Early success for Duraflame led the company to produce more product than there was demand, especially during the 1974-75 recession. When the economy picked up, and with it the sale of firelogs, Duraflame was able to take advantage of its superior product to fend off competition, soon gaining a 50 percent share of the market and grossing some $15 million a year. In 1977, CalCedar, Duraflame, and other associated companies generated more than $50 million in sales, a significant improvement over the $7 million achieved in 1969. Duraflame sales accounted for about half of the $50 million. Michael was interested in launching other consumer products through the Duraflame company but met resistance from his brother. They also disagreed on other issues relating to Duraflame and as a result decided to shop the business. In July 1978, Duraflame was sold to Clorox Co. for $9 million. It appeared to be a perfect fit for Clorox, which in 1973 bought charcoal briquet maker Kingsford. (Coincidentally, Kingsford was established by automaker Henry Ford as a way to make use of his own excess saw dust and scrap created by the construction of the wooden frames of his Model T cars. Kingsford, Michigan, was where Ford located his processing plant.) Kingsford attempted briefly in the mid-1970s to enter the firelog business but was unable to develop a good enough product. Selling firelogs still made sense for Kingsford because in most markets shelf space used for its charcoal in the summer could be assumed by Duraflame logs in the winter. Nevertheless, Clorox and Kingsford were never able to make a success of Duraflame, and in 1982 the Berolzheimer family reacquired the company, which it was then able to successfully nurture into a well entrenched product.

Late 1990s and Beyond

In 1995, Charles Berolzheimer died. The company continued to maintain its place as a world leader in the pencil industry and looked to continue to grow. In 1999, CalCedar introduced the ForestChoice brand of Incense-cedar wood products. This move was in keeping with a longstanding concern for the environment as well as an appeal to socially conscious consumers. Pencils certified to come from forests managed in an environmentally suitable manner were also popular in the key European market. Also in 1999, the company expanded beyond Incense-cedar, obtaining the EcoSlat brand of basswood slats when it acquired Hudson I.C.S., in the process eliminating a significant competitor and adding market share. CalCedar also maintained its reputation for innovation, in 2000 launching a division to produce curtain-sided trailers, acting on a suggestion by two employees in response to a common problem the company had in hauling valuable Incense-cedar. In order to protect the wood, the truckers had to use heavy, unwieldy tarpaulins. What the CalCedar inventors came up with was a removable curtain-side system that solved the problem and proved so successful that it encouraged management to try marketing it.

Sister company Duraflame also continued to develop new products in order to sustain its leading position. In 2002, it introduced Open Air firelogs, formulated to burn better outdoors, produce less smoke, and emit a pleasant crackling sound. They were developed in response to the increasing popularity of outdoor fireplaces, patio fire fixtures, and Mexican style chimineas. In addition, Duraflame began to sell an orange-scented gel for lighting charcoal called Freshlight. The company received some unwanted publicity in 2003 when a dispute between the children of Philip and Michael Berolzheimer, who shared ownership of Duraflame, ended up in court, prompted by the desire of Michael Berolzheimer's children to sell their portion of the company. While the two sides worked to settle the matter privately, Duraflame continued to operate without any noticeable disruption to consumers.

In the final years of the 20th century, CalCedar faced the challenge of competing in a global marketplace. In 1998, it laid off over 100 workers, then a year later asked labor for a 9 percent reduction in pay from the Teamsters Union, which had been representing production workers since 1963. According to management, without the contribution of a pay cut to an overall plan to reduce operating costs the company would have no choice but to move its operations to Mexico. A deal was ultimately reached, but the problem of cheap overseas labor would soon result in CalCedar transferring its manufacturing operation to China. In 2003, the company closed the last of its domestic saw mill operations, another major step in making the transition to Chinese production.

Principal Competitors: Louisiana-Pacific Corporation; Lydall, Inc.; North Pacific Group, Inc.

Related information about California

pop (2000e) 33 871 600; area 411 033 km²/158 706 sq mi. State in SW USA, divided into 58 counties; the ‘Golden State’; originally populated by several Indian tribes; discovered by the Spanish, 1542; colonized mid-18th-c; developed after gold discovered in the Mother Lode, 1848; ceded to the USA by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848; joined the Union as the 31st state, 1850; major US growth area in the 20th-c; now the most populous US state; capital, Sacramento; other chief cities, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland, San Diego; bounded S by Mexico and W by the Pacific Ocean; mountainous in the N, W and E, with dry, arid depressions in the S (Mojave and Colorado Deserts) and SE (Death Valley); Klamath Mts in the N; Coast Ranges in the W run parallel to the Pacific; Sierra Nevada in the E, rising to 4418 m/14 495 ft at Mt Whitney (state's highest point); foothills of the Sierra Nevada contain the Mother Lode, a belt of gold-bearing quartz; the Sierra Nevada and Coast Ranges are separated by the Central Valley, drained by the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers, a major fruit-producing area; climate gives a wet and a dry season, with most rainfall November–March; record heatwave with 136 deaths (Jul 2006); legislation proposed to cut carbon dioxide emissions, 2006; a zone of faults (the San Andreas Fault) extends S from N California along the coast; earth tremors commonplace; major earthquakes in San Francisco, 1906, 1989, and in Los Angeles, 1993; devastating wildfires in the south, 2003; centre of the US microelectronics industry in Silicon Valley; oil, natural gas, and a wide range of minerals; vegetables, grain, livestock; food processing, machinery, defence industries, transportation equipment, fabricated metals, cotton, wine (vineyards in over 40 Californian counties); increasing Hispanic and Asian populations; a major tourist state, with several national monuments and parks (Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Sequoia, Redwood), the film industry, Disneyland.

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California is a state spanning the southern half of the west coast of the contiguous United States. With a population of 37 million and an area of 158,402 square miles (410,000 km²), California is the largest U.S. state in population and the third largest in area. Spain colonized the coastal areas of the territory starting in 1769. As a result of the Mexican War of Independence, California became a part of the Mexican Republic in 1821. It was captured by the United States in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) which was concluded with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The California Gold Rush of 1848-1849 brought about 90,000 additional U.S. immigrants into the state, and California became the 31st state of the Union in 1850.

Although the state's sunny climate has given it a historic reputation for being laid back compared to the East Coast, the $1.55 trillion (as of 2005) California economy is larger than all but the top 7 national economies in the world www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2006/01/data/dbcoutm.cfm?SD=2005&ED=2005&R1=1&R2=1&CS=3&SS=2&OS=C&DD=0&OUT=1&C=512-941-914-446-612-666-614-672-311-946-213-137-911-962-193-674-122-676-912-548-313-556-419-678-513-181-316-682-913-684-124-273-339-921-638-948-514-686-218-688-963-518-616-728-223-558-516-138-918-353-748-196-618-278-522-692-622-694-156-142-624-449-626-564-628-283-228-853-924-288-233-293-632-566-636-964-634-182-238-453-662-968-960-922-423-714-935-862-128-716-611-456-321-722-243-965-248-718-469-724-253-576-642-936-643-961-939-813-644-199-819-184-172-524-132-361-646-362-648-364-915-732-134-366-652-734-174-144-328-146-258-463-656-528-654-923-336-738-263-578-268-537-532-742-944-866-176-369-534-744-536-186-429-925-178-746-436-926-136-466-343-112-158-111-439-298-916-927-664-846-826-299-542-582-443-474-917-754-544-698&S=NGDPD&CMP=0&x=31&y=8 and is responsible for 13% of the United States' $13 trillion gross domestic product (GDP). The state's major predominant industries include agriculture, entertainment, light manufacturing, and tourism. California is also the home of several significant economic regions such as Hollywood (entertainment), the California Central Valley (agriculture), Silicon Valley (computers and high tech), and the Wine Country (wine). The states of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Wyoming, were claimed by Spain and Mexico but were almost totally undeveloped, with about 100 settlers in Arizona.

The name California is most commonly believed derived from a storied paradise peopled by black Amazons and ruled by Queen Califia. The myth of Califia is recorded in a 1510 work The Exploits of Esplandian, written as a sequel to Amadís de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer García Ordonez Rodriguez de Montalvo.Person-Lynn, Dr. Kwaku. The island everywhere abounds with gold and precious stones, and upon it no other metal was found.Person-Lynn, 2004.

It is thought that the myth of Califia later helped fuel Spanish exploration in the New World.

Others suggest the word California may come from the early Spanish explorers who entered California via the hot southern regions and referred to California as being "hot as an oven" or a "lime oven" ("cali > hot", "fornus->forno > oven" + ending "ia" for a place;

Geography

California borders the Pacific Ocean, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and the Mexican state of Baja California. With an area of 160,000 square miles (411,000 km²) it is the third largest state in the U.S and is larger than Germany in size. Most major cities are at or near the Pacific coastline, notably Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Long Beach, Oakland, Santa Ana/Orange County, Riverside/Moreno Valley, San Bernardino and San Diego. However, the capital, Sacramento, is in the Central Valley. In the middle of the state lies the California Central Valley, a huge, fertile valley bounded by the coastal mountain ranges in the west, the granite Sierra Nevada to the east, the volcanic Cascade Range in the north and the Tehachapi Mountains in the south. With dredging, several rivers have become sufficiently large and deep that several inland cities (notably Stockton and Sacramento) are seaports. The southern part of the valley, which is part desert, is known as the San Joaquin Valley (drained by the San Joaquin River), while the northern half is known as the Sacramento Valley (drained by the Sacramento River). The Channel Islands are located in the southern part of the state, stretching from Santa Barbara to Orange County. They and the largest island, Santa Catalina Island are attractive to visitors.

In the center and east of the state are the Sierra Nevada (meaning Snowy Range in Spanish), which include the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet (4421 m). Also located in the Sierra are the world-famous Yosemite National Park and a deep freshwater lake, Lake Tahoe, the largest lake in the state by volume. To the east of the Sierra are Owens Valley and Mono Lake, an essential seabird habitat. In the south lay the Transverse Ranges and a large salt lake, the Salton Sea. To the northeast of the Mojave lies Death Valley, which contains the lowest, hottest point in North America, Badwater Flat. Indeed, almost all of southeastern California is arid, hot desert, with the Coachella Valley and Imperial Valley routinely experiencing extreme high temperatures during the summer. The Coachella Valley in Riverside County is famous for its popular tourist destination Palm Springs, California. Other Coachella Valley communities include Bermuda Dunes, Desert Hot Springs, Indian Wells, Palm Desert, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage, Indio, Coachella and Cathedral City.

Along the densely populated and long California coast are several major metropolitan areas, including San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, Los Angeles-Long Beach, Santa Ana-Irvine-Anaheim, Riverside-San Bernardino, California and San Diego. Winter temperatures seldom reach freezing and summer temperatures rarely reach above the high 80's Fahrenheit (low 30's Celsius).

California is famous for earthquakes due to the presence of a number of faults, in particular the San Andreas Fault. While powerful earthquakes in the United States have occurred in other states such as Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Missouri (along the New Madrid fault), people are more aware of California's earthquakes due to their frequency and tendency to strike in highly populated areas.

California is also home to several volcanoes, some active such as Mammoth Mountain. Other volcanoes include Lassen Peak, which erupted from 1914 and 1921, and Mount Shasta.

Climate

Different regions of California have very different climates, depending on their latitude, elevation, and proximity to the coast. Most of the state has a Mediterranean climate, with rainy winters and dry summers. The cool California Current offshore, enhanced by upwelling of cold sub-surface waters, often creates summer fog near the coast. however 4 °F and 35 °F (2 °C and 20 °C) between Santa Barbara and Death Valley.

Westerly winds from the ocean also bring moisture, and the northern parts of the state generally receive higher annual rainfall amounts than the south. The high mountains, including the Sierra Nevada, have a mountain climate with snow in winter and mild to moderate heat in summer.

On the east side of the mountains is a drier rain shadow. California's desert climate regions lie east of the high Sierra Nevada and Southern California's Transverse Ranges and Peninsular Ranges. The low deserts east of the southern California mountains, including the Imperial and Coachella valleys and the lower Colorado River, are part of the Sonoran Desert, with hot summers and mild winters; the higher elevation deserts of eastern California, including the Mojave Desert, Owens Valley, and the Modoc Plateau, are part of the Great Basin region, with hot summers and cold winters. During the summer months, especially from July through early September, the region is affected by the Mexican Monsoon (also called the "southwest monsoon"), which drives moisture from the tropical Pacific, Gulf of California, and/or Gulf of Mexico into the deserts, setting off brief, but often torrential thunderstorms, particularly over mountainous terrain.

In the northern portion of the Mojave Desert on the east side of the state is Death Valley, which is the hottest spot on the Western Hemisphere. The highest temperature in the Western Hemisphere, 134 °F (56.6 °C), was recorded in Death Valley on July 10, 1913. The State of California is part of the Nearctic ecozone, and spans a number of terrestrial ecoregions, and is perhaps the most ecologically diverse state in the United States.

California has a rather high percentage of endemic species. Furthermore, California is home to the largest trees in the world, the Giant Sequoias.

California's native grasses were perennials, which stayed green year-round in most of the state's subclimatesUnited States Department of Agriculturearticle on California's perennial native grasses.

National Parks and Monuments

Main articles: List of areas in the National Park System of the United States, List of United States national parks by state, and List of National Monuments of the United States.

To protect and preserve the state's biological diversity, natural beauty, and historic heritage, the U.S. National Park System has acquired control over a huge number of places within California. The most prominent by far is Yosemite National Park (which protects Yosemite Valley), followed closely by the Kings Canyon-Sequoia National Park complex (which protects the most massive trees in the world) and Redwood National Park (which protects the tallest trees in the world).

Half Dome, in Yosemite, figures prominently on the reverse side of the California state quarter.

History

The area was inhabited by more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans before European contact. On September 28, 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo landed in what is now San Diego Bay claiming it for Spain. Spanish traders made sporadic visits with the Manila Galleons as early as 1565. The British explorer Sir Francis Drake made contact in 1579. Sebastián Vizcaíno explored and mapped the coast of California in 1602.

Spain colonized the territory with the 1769 expedition of Gaspar de Portolà in conjunction with the creation of the system of Military Districts and Spanish Missions in California between 1769 and 1823. During the outset of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), in the town of Sonoma forty U.S. settlers revolted and established the California Republic, an independent republic, June 14, 1846. The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought a huge population of immigrants into the area, and California became the 31st state of the United States in 1850.

The entire region originally known as California was composed of the Mexican peninsula now known as Baja California and much of the land in the current states of California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Wyoming, known as Alta California. California groups also were diverse in their political organization with bands, tribes, tribelets, and on the resource-rich coasts large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash, Pomo and Salinan. Except for the Mojave Indians living along the Colorado River no California Indians grew any domesticated crops.

The first European to explore parts of the coast was the Portuguese João Rodrigues Cabrilho in 1542 working for the Spanish Hernan Cortes. The first to explore the entire coast and claim possession of it was the English man Francis Drake in 1579. San Francisco for St. Francis of Assisi, San Jose for St. Joseph of Nazareth and San Diego for St. Didacus). These new arrivals used the Siskiyou Trail, California Trail, and Old Spanish Trail to cross the rugged mountains and harsh deserts surrounding California.

In this period, some nobles of Imperial Russia made brief attempts to explore and claim parts of California, particularly at Fort Ross, but these were limited by a lack of Imperial interest.

California was poorly settled until modern public health eliminated the endemic outbreaks of yellow fever, malaria and plague, caused from the area?s lack of frosts, which kills mosquitoes and fleas.

In 1846, at the outset of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), the California Republic was founded and the Bear Flag was flown, which featured a golden bear and a star. Citrus was widely grown (especially in the form of oranges), and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production of today.

During the early 20th century, migration to California accelerated with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. It is one of four majority-minority states.

The largest named ancestries in California are Mexican (25%), Filipino, German, Irish, and Asian citation needed. Mexican Americans and Chicanos predominate in Southern California such as the Imperial Valley, the Central Valley, Salinas, and parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco has the greatest concentration of Asian Americans in the continental United States, with Chinese Americans numerous in San Francisco, Alameda, San Mateo, and Santa Clara counties. Southern California has perhaps the largest Taiwanese American community in the United States particularly in San Gabriel Valley, and communities such as Cerritos, Irvine (in Orange County), and some in the South Bay, Los Angeles Area. Filipino Americans are particularly numerous in San Mateo and Solano counties, and in communities such as Baldwin Park, Covina, West Covina, and the community of Eagle Rock in Los Angeles. There are large Korean American communities in Koreatown of Los Angeles as well as East San Gabriel Valley, Cerritos, South Bay, Los Angeles, and in North Orange County. South Bay, Los Angeles also has a large Japanese American community too. The City of Long Beach has one of the largest Cambodian American communities in the United States. Westminster has one of the largest Vietnamese American communities and is often dubbed "Little Saigon". The community of Artesia and nearby Cerritos, as well as Fremont in the Bay Area have a large Asian Indian/South Asian American community. California also has one of the largest numbers of Armenian Americans and Persian Americans, with estimates of up to 500,000 persons in Southern California, and 20% of Beverly Hills being of Persian descent.

Languages

As of 2000, 60.5% of California residents age 5 and older speak English at home and 25.8% speak Spanish. Chinese is the third most spoken language at 2.6%, followed by Tagalog at 2.5% and Vietnamese at 1.3%.

The indigenous languages of California number more than one hundred and show great diversity making California one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world. All of California's indigenous languages are endangered, although there are now efforts toward language revitalization.

Since 1986, the California Constitution has specified that English is the common and official language of the state. 19%

The majority of California's Roman Catholic membership are of Irish and Hispanic ancestry.

As with many other western states, the percentage of California's population identifying themselves as "non-religious" is comparatively high in relation to the rest of the U.S.fact

Economy

As of 2005, California's economy is larger than all but seven national economies in the world. www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2006/01/data/dbcoutm.cfm?SD=2005&ED=2005&R1=1&R2=1&CS=3&SS=2&OS=C&DD=0&OUT=1&C=512-941-914-446-612-666-614-672-311-946-213-137-911-962-193-674-122-676-912-548-313-556-419-678-513-181-316-682-913-684-124-273-339-921-638-948-514-686-218-688-963-518-616-728-223-558-516-138-918-353-748-196-618-278-522-692-622-694-156-142-624-449-626-564-628-283-228-853-924-288-233-293-632-566-636-964-634-182-238-453-662-968-960-922-423-714-935-862-128-716-611-456-321-722-243-965-248-718-469-724-253-576-642-936-643-961-939-813-644-199-819-184-172-524-132-361-646-362-648-364-915-732-134-366-652-734-174-144-328-146-258-463-656-528-654-923-336-738-263-578-268-537-532-742-944-866-176-369-534-744-536-186-429-925-178-746-436-926-136-466-343-112-158-111-439-298-916-927-664-846-826-299-542-582-443-474-917-754-544-698&S=NGDPD&CMP=0&x=31&y=8 California is responsible for 13% of the United States gross domestic product (GDP), while the state population constitute only 12% of the United States population. The gross state product (GSP) is about $1.55 trillion ($1,550,000,000,000, as of 2004), making it greater than that of every other U.S. state, and most countries in the world (by Purchasing Power Parity).

California is also the home of several significant economic regions such as Hollywood (entertainment), the California Central Valley (agriculture), Silicon Valley (computers and high tech), and wine producing regions such as Santa Barbara and Northern California's Wine Country.

The predominant industry, more than twice as large as the next, is agriculture, (including fruit, vegetables, dairy, and wine). entertainment, primarily television by dollar volume, although many movies are still made in California; light manufacturing, including computer hardware and software; and the mining of borax.

Per capita personal income was $33,403 as of 2003, ranking 12^th in the nation. The Central Valley has the most extreme contrasts of income, with migrant farm workers making less than minimum wage. Recently, the San Joaquin Valley was characterized www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/links/CRS%20San%20Joaquin%20Valley%20Report.pdf as one of the most economically depressed regions in the U.S., on par with the region of Appalachia.

Many coastal cities include some of the wealthiest per-capita areas in the U.S., notably San Francisco and Marin County. The high-technology sectors in Northern California, specifically Silicon Valley, in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, are currently emerging from economic downturn caused by the dot.com bust, which caused the loss of over 250,000 jobs in Northern California alone. The international boom in housing prices has been most pronounced in California, with the median property price in the state rising to about the half-million dollar mark in April 2005.

California levies a 9.3% maximum variable rate income tax, with 6 tax brackets.

As for air travel, Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport are major hubs for trans-Pacific and transcontinental traffic. There are about a dozen important commercial airports and many more general aviation airports throughout the state's 58 counties.

California also has several important seaports. The giant seaport complex formed by the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach in Southern California is the largest in the country and responsible for handling about a fourth of all container cargo traffic in the United States. The Port of Oakland handles most of the ocean containers passing through Northern California.

Intercity rail travel is provided by Amtrak. Los Angeles and San Francisco both have subway networks, in addition to light rail. Metrolink commuter rail serves much of Southern California, and Caltrain commuter rail connects San Jose and Gilroy (commute hour only) to San Francisco. Altamont Commuter Express (ACE) connects Tracy, Livermore and other edge cities with San Jose. the North Bay and South Bay regions are not currently included in the system. San Diego has Trolley light rail and Coaster commuter rail services. Nearly all counties operate bus lines, and many cities operate their own bus lines as well.

Both Greyhound and Amtrak provide intercity travel services.

The rapidly growing population of the state is straining all of its transportation networks. If built, the system would provide a TGV-style high-speed link between the state's four major cities, and would allow travel between Los Angeles' Union Station and San Francisco's Transbay Terminal in two and one half hours.

Law and government

California is governed as a republic, with three branches of government: the executive branch consisting of the Governor of California and the other independently elected constitutional officers; the legislative branch consisting of the Assembly and Senate; and the judicial branch consisting of the Supreme Court of California and lower courts. The state also allows direct participation of the electorate by initiative, referendum, recall, and ratification.

The Governor of California and the other state constitutional officers serve four-year terms and may be re-elected only once. The California State Legislature consists of a 40 member Senate and 80 member Assembly. Members of the Assembly are subject to term limits of 3 terms, and members of the Senate are subject to term limits of 2 terms.

For the 2005–2006 session, there are 48 Democrats and 32 Republicans in the Assembly. Schwarzenegger was only the second governor in the history of the United States to be put into office by a recall of a sitting governor (the first was the 1921 recall of North Dakota Governor Lynn J. Schwarzenegger replaced Governor Gray Davis (1999–2003), who was removed from office by the October 2003 California recall election.

The state's capital is Sacramento. During California's early history under European control, the capital was successively located in Monterey (1775–1849), San Jose (1849–1851), Vallejo (1852–1853), Benicia (1853–1854), and San Francisco (1862). The capital's final move to Sacramento was on February 25, 1854 where it has been located since, except for a four-month temporary move in 1862 to San Francisco, which was due to severe flooding in Sacramento.

California's judiciary is the largest in the United States (with a total of 1,600 judges, while the state's federal system has only about 840). font-size: 95%;">

**Presidential elections results**
Year	Republican	Democratic
2004	44.36% 5,509,826	54.31%6,745,485
2000	41.65% 4,567,429	53.45%5,861,203
1996	38.21% 3,828,380	51.10%5,119,835
1992	32.61% 3,630,574	46.01% 5,121,325
1988	51.13%5,054,917	47.56% 4,702,233
1984	57.51%5,467,009	41.27% 3,922,519
1980	52.69%4,524,858	35.91% 3,083,661
1976	49.35%3,882,244	47.57% 3,742,284
1972	55.00%4,602,096	41.54% 3,475,847
1968	47.82%3,467,664	44.74% 3,244,318
1964	40.79% 2,879,108	59.11%4,171,877
1960	50.10%3,259,722	49.55% 3,224,099

California's legal system, like all other states (except Louisiana), is explicitly based on English common law but carries a few features from Spanish civil law, such as community property. Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment and the state has the largest "Death Row" population in the country (though Texas is far more active in carrying out executions).

At the national level, California is represented by two senators and 53 representatives, as of 2005. (Since California is the most populous state in the Union, its counts of Congressmen and Presidential Electors are also the largest.) The two U.S. Senators from California are Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. 33 Democrats and 20 Republicans represent the state in the U.S. House of Representatives.

California is considered a reliably Democratic state. Once very conservative, having elected conservatives such as Ronald Reagan as governor and William Knowland as senator, California has flipped sides in recent decades and became a Democrat voting state, having elected statewide liberals such as Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to the Senate.

Even some recent Republican politicians elected statewide, such as Governors Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger are considered members of the more moderate wing of the national party. California's Republican dominance in the mid-20th century had to do with strong GOP support outside San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles; Bush received a majority of votes in more than half the state's 58 counties, but still lost California's 55 electoral votes to John Kerry, who won 54.3% of the popular vote, by a margin of 9 percentage points due to Kerry's overwhelming totals in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.

In August 2006 Governor Schwarzenegger went against the Bush administration, in passing the strictest anti-pollution laws anywhere in the world.citation needed

Ballot qualified political parties

American Independent Party: link
Democratic Party: link
Green Party: link
Libertarian Party: link
Peace and Freedom Party:link
Republican Party: link

Important cities and towns

The state of California has 478 cities, the majority of which are within one of the large metropolitan areas. Sixty-eight percent of California's population lives in its two largest metropolitan areas, Greater Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Los Angeles

10,245,572	4,061	2,344	Los Angeles
2	Orange	3,072,336	789	3,606	Santa Ana
3	San Diego	3,066,820	4,200	670	San Diego
4	San Bernardino	1,991,829	20,052	85	San Bernardino
5	Riverside	1,953,330	7,207	214	Riverside
6	Santa Clara	1,773,258	1,291	1,304	San Jose
7	Alameda	1,510,303	738	732	Oakland
8	Sacramento	1,385,607	966	1,267	Sacramento
9	Contra Costa	1,029,377	720	492	Concord
10	Fresno	899,514	5,963	134	Fresno

Note: table was compiled using California State estimates from 2006 for population and Census 2000 for area and density

For a list of important suburbs within the above areas, see List of urbanized areas in California (by population).

25 wealthiest places in California

Thanks to the state's powerful economy, certain California cities are among the wealthiest on the planet. The following list is ranked by per capita income:

Belvedere, California – Riverside County $76,187
Malibu, California – $66,776

Note: Marin County ranks as the wealthiest county in the United States based on per capita personal income.

30 poorest places in California

Many California communities rank among the poorest in the western world according to the measure of per capita income. The following list is ranked by increasing per capita income, first number is state ranking:

1076 Tobin, California - Plumas County - $2,584

1075 Belden, California - Plumas County - $3,141

1074 East Orosi, California - Tulare County - $4,984

1073 London, California - Tulare County - $5,632

1072 Cantua Creek, California - Fresno County - $5,693

1071 Indian Falls, California - Plumas County - $5,936

1070 Westley, California - Stanislaus County - $6,137

1069 Cutler, California - Tulare County - $6,254

1068 Mecca, California - Riverside County - $6,389

1067 Richgrove, California - Tulare County - $6,415

1066 San Joaquin, California - Fresno County - $6,607

1065 Woodville, California - Tulare County - $6,824

1064 Kennedy, California - San Joaquin County $6,876

1063 Mettler, California - Kern County - $6,919

1062 Mendota, California - Fresno County - $6,967

1061 Terra Bella, California - Tulare County - $7,034

1060 Parlier, California - Fresno County -$7,078

1059 Orange Cove, California - Fresno County - $7,126

1058 Parksdale, California - Madera County - $7,129

1057 Earlimart, California - Tulare County - $7,169

1056 South Dos Palos, California - Merced County - $7,170

1055 Winterhaven, California - Imperial County - $7,220

1054 Shackelford, California - Stanislaus County - $7,250

1053 Palo Verde, California - Imperial County - $7,275

1052 Biola, California - Fresno County - $7,375

1051 Kettleman City, California - Kings County - $7,389

1050 Arvin, California - Kern County - $7,408

1049 Coachella, California - Riverside County - $7,416

1048 Bret Harte, California - Stanislaus County - $7,481

1047 Traver, California - Tulare County - $7,642

Education

Image:Berkeley glade afternoon.jpg|UC Berkeley
Image:Stanford campus aerial photo.jpg|Stanford
Image:RHall.JPG|UCLA
Image:USC Bovard Auditorium enh.jpg|USC

California's public educational system is supported by a unique constitutional amendment that requires 40% of state revenues to be spent on education.

The elementary schools are of varying effectiveness. Mandatory full-time instruction begins at age 6.

The preeminent state research university is the University of California, which employs more Nobel Prize winners than any other institution in the world and is considered the world's finest public university system. The nine general UC cam

Chronology

Key Dates:
1856: Berolzheimer family establishes Eagle Pencil Company in New York City.
1919: California Cedar Products Company (CalCedar) is founded.
1927: Charles Berolzheimer buys CalCedar.
1970: Duraflame is acquired.
1978: Duraflame is sold to Clorox.
1981: Berolzheimer family reacquires Duraflame.
1995: Charles Berolzheimer dies.

Additional topics

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