all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. like us on facebook at c-span history. >> only can long, american history tv is featuring a santa rosa california, the seat of sonoma county, famous for its wine industry. together with our comcast cable partners, c-span cities tour staff recently visited many side -- sites from the city's rich history. learn more about santa rosa all weekend here on american history tv. charles: jaclyn and once -- charles: jack london was one of the highest-paid writers. he is one of the authors that was writing throughout the world, including the soviet union and russia at the time, japan -- he was translated into language after language. people found his writing compelling. he was deeply concerned about

the human condition, and much of what he wrote about, while it may have seemed on the surface like stories about dogs or the yukon, were often about the states of humanity and his concern for humankind. we're on jack london's beauty ranch, also known as the ranch of good intentions. this is where he lived until his death in 1916. the entrance to the cottage provides people with sort of an overview of jack's life. there are lots of pictures on walls, there is a video for them to see. they can get a sense of jack london and the 1905 to 1916 period. as they walk through the cottage, what they will see our -- see our mementos of his trip to the south seas, which he had taken with his wife. they will see the original study that he worked in, and then this

room that you are in now, which is a much larger study that he created after the wolf house, which was his dream house, burns to the ground. that burned it to the ground just a few weeks before he moved in. woodworkers were finishing the what with linseed oil. they took the rag and threw it into the fireplace, and unfortunately on a very hot august night, spontaneous combustion cause a fire and burned it to the ground. once that happened, jack london, while he talked about rebuilding, i think i understood that he probably was not going to live that much longer. he was aware that he was not healthy and decided to work on his farm and to work on the cottage that we are in today. so he added this particular room, which became a much larger study for him, to be able to work with his wife and with his manservant is so that he did get much more accomplished in the short time that he had left.

initially, his most famous book and probably his most famous book today is "the call of the wild." he also wrote one called "white fang," which was really a sequel to "the call of the wild." both were of exploring in the yukon, searching for gold. he wrote him. of stories about a number of different subjects. for a while, he was a vagrant, he wrote a book called "on the road." he wrote a book about the poor in the east end anof london. if you want to talk about the socialistic period, "the iron heel" is a fascinating book that was written about the revolution that would come after he died, actually, it was written in the future. many of his books are still quite readable. "the call of the wild" until recently was read by most schoolchildren. he even wrote science fiction. jack london probably would have

been writing longhand when people came upon him in his office. the typing was done either by his wife, charmian, or by his manservant. he was surrounded by books. he loved books. he would also see some technological innovations, things like the dictaphone, which had been invented by thomas edison but was used by london because it allowed him to dictate letters without him having to write them longhand. he, his wife, and his manservant could all work in here at the same time, whether it was working on books, correspondence, or farm. he was very productive here. in fact, 2/3 of his work was published after he moved here. books like "white fang" was published here in 1906, a year after he bought his ranch property. "little lady of the big house" was published while he was here.

jaclyn and claims that he works two hours a day writing, and he wrote 1000 words a day before breakfast, but a lot of time was spent because he was trying to build the beauty rants, the -- beauty ranch, the ranch of good intentions, so that it could be a model, and that took a lot of his time. one of the elements that he sought to perfect in order to help people was to create a much more productive ranch, a much more productive farm, so that people could be said, people fed, people could have jobs, people could be more successful. a lot of what he was doing was experimental. he was trying things that we expected to be successful, we expected that they would be written about, and people could learn about what he did, for example, historically, americans believe in manifest destiny. they believe that america has the god-given right to own the entire country from coast to coast. if you were a virginia planter, you could move out west. in west virginia, even start another plantation.

you could move south and start another plantation. the problem was, when you got to california, if you move west, you drown, so you had to figure out ways to reuse and to make the land sustainable over time. jack london believed that he could do that. he worked to learn as much as he could by reading everything that he could find written about agriculture in this area. he worked with the university of california to understand the most modern techniques. he worked with pioneers of the area to develop crops that would work here that might not work in other places or might just be innovative and unique and therefore provide some real benefit. this is a piggery that jack london built in 1915. when he built it, the scribes from san francisco were making fun of the fact that he spent $3000 to build a piggery. so, they called it to the palace hotel for pigs, making reference

to the finest hotel in san francisco, the palace. it was designed for over 200 pigs, and one man could actually manage the entire operation, feeding them, watering them, doing whatever needed to be done. this is one of the things that he did as example of his entrepreneurship. after his death, the family tried to keep the farm going. they found it was more and more difficult over time, and eventually they converted into a guest ranch. so, before and during world war ii, this was a place where people from san francisco or the local area could come and enjoy a weekend of horseback riding or enjoy the scenery. jack london park today is operated by jack london park partners. we are a not-for-profit organization that helped the state when the state of california was in financial trouble and was looking to close 25% of their parks. we volunteered to take this park over because we believed that we could make it an exciting and sustainable endeavor, and we have.

today, we have got about twice as many visitors as used to come to the park. about 100,000 people visit us every year. i think this is a great model for some facilities. we have historic buildings, we have a museum, we have that country, so we can support horsemen, hikers, we can support history buffs, and i think the combination of that with local community involvement can make for extraordinary success. >> throughout the weekend, american history tv is set in santa rosa, california. our cities tour staff recently our city tour staff recently traveled there to learn more about it rich history.

you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. atamerican history tv was gettysburg college for a moderated conversation with president dwight d. eisenhower's grandchildren. they talked about his military and political career, his legacy, and about the grandfather they remember. this discussion was part of the eisenhower institute ike 125 celebration, commemorating the 125th anniversary of his birth. this is 90 minutes. them in the singing of our national anthem. oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, what