>> thank you for a wonderful talk. i hope you will join us at the reception to continue the conversation. [applause] >> i am a history buff. i enjoy seeing the fabric of our country and how things work. tvi love american history and artifacts. they didno idea history, that is something i enjoy. >> i love american history tv. it gives you that perspective. >> on the c-span family. announcer: this year, exploring american history. recent visitat our

to long beach comic california. you are watching american history all weekend every weekend on c-span3. rancho los alamitos is one of the rare sites that has a continuous history lasting more than 1500 years. if you follow that chain of occupancy, you are looking at the development of southern california. the site is important because it is where god descended from heaven, gave the laws to the people and descended back up to heaven. made tothe floor is give you a good sense. 3000 acres given under spanish rule.

of the people who received land under spanish rule were former soldiers who had been in the expeditions exploring southern california. -- that was true of man well manuel. when he died, the land was split among his children and it was formed in two ranches -- into ranches. that is all that is left. the rest was split up into other development and uses over time. >> we are standing in that rancho los alamitos adobe ranch house. this is where the adobe is, the wall surrounding us right now are adobe walls.

it was built, he built this adobe, it is sort of an outpost of his huge acreage. it was not owner-occupied at the time. it was a 40 foot by 60 foot adobe used to house horses when they were out here on this remote part of the holdings. over the years, the adobe was added to. there have been many owners, from the first spanish grantee to owners during the mexican period. the original adobe is completely encased in additions and there

are additions in this direction where the bedrooms are in the main part of this bedroom is in the adobe, but the little sunroom was in addition from about 1909. over here, we have the library, also inside part of the original adobe. this is rather an organic structure that grew to suit the families and cultures living inside it. right now, we are in the music room of the ranch house. this is a room outside of the adobe core. it was added to the house by john and susan bixby. john and susan bixby were the first bixby's to ranch here. the bixby family is a large family, originally from new

england, from maine, and they came out here right after the gold rush with cousins and they started out selling things to the miners. they had a butcher shop. they started buying up some of the land that was here in california after california became part of the united states and they started in central california, but ended up down here in southern california and at first, they purchased a ranch here in long beach, which was one of the original holdings. he lived there with his wife and he invited other bixby relatives to help him on the ranch as well as some of his wives relatives.

one of the cousins who came out to help was john bixby. he was a young man from maine, he had been a schoolteacher, carpenter, cabinet maker, quite young when he arrived in california. when he was on the ranch, he was learning how to become a rancher.

he met his sister-in-law, susan hathaway, and he married her. when the adjoining rancho became available-for-sale, john and susan purchased it. they began leasing the ranch in 1878 and purchased it with their partners in 1881. john and susan bixby had two children, a son and a daughter. after inheriting the ranch from their parents, susanna and fred tried operating the ranch together. did not work out so well so they divided the property between them and fred bixby inherited the ranch house in the central part of rancho los alamitos and he continued to ranch here. he did not continue any sheep operation. fred bixby acquired other ranches throughout california and arizona and mostly was engaged in cattle ranching. he also had a soft spot for horses. he kept his stallions at this ranch and he kept the mares at the coast. he had quite a horse breeding

operation going on. we have two shire horses on the ranch today. only 75 acres left. at the time he passed away, he had the largest shire horse breeding operation west of the mississippi. there were not any buyers of horses after he died. some of them were sold to other breeders, but most of the rest were just sold off and the breeding did not continue. the last bixby to live here at the ranch was fred bixby's wife and she passed away in 1961. their children, they had four

children, got together and talked about it and they decided that they should become an historic site available to all of the people of california. generations before, even susan bixby had the sense of the history of this place and even when she was making repairs and additions, it was with the history of the place in mind. even 100 years before it was donated to the city of long beach, there was a sense of the history of the place. the final donation to the city of long beach, the transfer, was made in 1968 and the family donated 7.5 acres to the city and all the buildings, the contents of those buildings, 95% of the furnishings that you see inside the ranch house our original to the family. this is the way they lived and

this is the way it looked while they were here. some of the barns were just a little bit outside the limits of the 7.5 it acres. except for the first barn, all of the barns were moved in just a little bit closer. as pamela seager told you, originally the city did a look to the ranch. and, we completed a restoration in 2014 to align the barns in a more gridlike pattern. as they would have been originally. the bixbys did make a lot of changes to the grounds. they had gardens here, but back then, you have to hand water everything. so, you were very careful about what you chose to grow here and how much labor it was going to

take. here, seead animals you had to have a sense that the intervals might come and eat what you were trying to grow and plant. john and susan bixby put in the first extensive gardens and the gardens just off of this room, called the old garden, were installed by john and susan bixby. when fred and florence took over, florence began slowly expanding the gardens. but one of the things that happened here in long beach in the early 1920's, was the discovery of oil. because the bixby's were very large landowners in long beach, a lot of the oil was under their land. including one that was a huge oil strike. this gave them a lot more income to play with than just the ranch would provide. florence bixby was able to hire

some of the premier landscape architects of the 1920's, including the olmsted brothers. we have four acres of beautiful landscaped gardens. pam: there are many levels, you get some relief from being in an environment. so the whole visitor experiences not terrifically structured. and just be in the gardens and not do anything beyond that. you can decide just to take a house tour. you can just explore the exhibits and watch the film. we try to keep it as unstructured and interesting as we can so the people can take

from it what they want. cities towards staff recently traveled to long beach, california, to learn about its history. c-span.org\cities tour. you are watching america's history on c-span3. each week, every week. reel america bring you stories to help provide context. i announcer: pearl harbor came. statistics, careful and accurate , had forecast this army, this navy. but in the production estimate, the axis was wrong because it miscalculated the potential

strength of the hidden army. the women. across the pacific to tokyo went news. had neverf women who lifted a finger outside of their own homes now suddenly had resolved to set the world house in order. these were the hidden army. these were the results they helped to achieve. when asked why they had joined the ranks of the hidden army, these women gave a variety of reasons. daughter.a son and that is a good enough reason for anyone. >> i am in a old maid and i do not have anyone until i had this job. now i have a family. i send aces of these every week to help them to get home soon. rent soto college but i

i can help. this way i will get my diploma and help. theks i was too heavy for the farmer told me i was worth my weight in gold. >> my husband is a prisoner in the philippines. if he had a few more of these shells, maybe he was to be fighting. whenever i get a bit tired, i think of him out on that death march. >> why did i take a defense job? funny question, never thought of that before. do you have to have a reason? we're in a jam aren't we? you have to excuse me, i am too busy to answer questions like that. ♪

>> you can watch the entire film on reel america sunday at 4 p.m. eastern. this is american history tv on c-span3. wheaton college history ieofessor tracy mckenz teaches a class on the civil war between unionism and emancipation. he describes how public support correlated with whether union forces were perceived to be winning the civil war. he also argues that lincoln's reelection and even his presidential nomination was seen as unlikely because of the state of the war in 1863. his classes about an hour.