Up Next
Back to Show
Lost LA
Hanging Trees: The Untold Story of Lynching in California
What do Southern California’s hanging trees say about the region’s attitudes toward its bloody past? Some actual hanging trees survive, albeit in obscurity, like the oak in Orange County where Andres Pico’s posse hung two desperadoes from Juan Flores’ gang. But others of more dubious historicity, like the “Hangman’s Tree” in Knott’s Berry Farm, seem to romanticize a period marked by great violence and ethnic strife; Los Angeles’ homicide rate of 1,240 per 100,000 in the 1850s is the highest ever reported in U.S. history, and much of the violence had racial dimensions. How can we separate the history from the legend?
Sign up now for inspiring and thought-provoking media delivered straight to your inbox.
Support Provided By
26:39
This episode explores how surfers, bodybuilders, and acrobats taught Californians how to have fun and stay young at the beach — and how the 1966 documentary The Endless Summer shared the Southern California idea of the beach with the rest of the world.
26:40
California’s deserts have sparked imaginations around the world. This episode explores the creation of the Salton Sea; the effort to preserve Joshua Tree National Park; and how commercial interests created desert utopias like Palm Springs.
51:47
"Lost L.A.: Descanso Gardens" explores the history of one of southern California's most-beloved public gardens.
26:50
Americans have long looked at the California shore and seen the end of the continent. Instead, this episode interprets that sandy edge as the beginning of a Pacific world.
25:06
See how the many restrictions many Angelenos had to navigate, exposing Los Angeles as a place of coded segregation and resistance.
23:50
Los Angeles is often identified with Hollywood, but there's more to the entertainment industry than its facade of movie stars and blockbuster films.
25:32
Wood, iron, steel, concrete -- these are the materials that gave form to Los Angeles and shaped its identity in the national imagination. This episode also questions the cultural legacy and environmental costs of the city's relentless growth.
26:50
American history has long been told as a triumphant march westward from the Atlantic coast, but in southern California, our history stretches back further in time.
28:32
In this episode, "Lost LA" examines how the modern metropolis has reshaped its own topography. The program explores downtown L.A.'s lost hills and tunnels, as well as the vanished canals of Venice Beach.
20:57
In this episode, "Lost LA" explores the various ways Southern California's inhabitants have used the hills around Dodger Stadium.