, Contra Costa County, California, USA. View is to the south-
southeast from Concord, California, approximatley [sic] 14 miles
(22 km) distant," U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Digital Visual
Library, date unknown. Larger. One of California's most
important industries is tourism, which is helped not only by our
state's varied and beautiful natural settings but also by squads
of talented travel writers who continue a long tradition. An
early pioneer of California travel writing was Englishman James
M. Hutchings , an unsuccessful forty-niner turned writer and
promoter. He opened the first hotel in Yosemite Valley and in
1860 published Scenes of Wonder and Curiosity in California ,
which includes this enticing description of the view atop Mount
Diablo The Pacific Ocean; the city, and part of the bay of San
Francisco; Fort Point; the Golden Gate; San Pablo and Suisun
Bays; the government works at Mare Island; Vallejo; Benicia; the
valleys of Santa Clara, Petaluma, Sonoma, Napa, Sacramento, and
San Joaquin, with their