Sample Local History Topics for History Day 2008-2009
The Individual in History: Actions and Legacies

Juan Bautista Alvarado: An Independent California

Minnie Coyle: The Story of Custom House Plaza and Monterey’s Urban Renewal

Charles Crocker: Monterey as a Tourist Mecca

Bing Crosby: Pebble Beach as a Major Golf Center

Richard Henry Dana: “Two Years Before the Mast” and the American “Discovery” of California 

Amelie Elkinton: The Work Progress Administration on the Monterey Peninsula

Eulalia Fages: California’s First Lady

Emily Fish: Extraordinary Lighthouse Keeper

John C. Fremont: Exploration to Conquest of California

Knut Hovden: Revolutionizing Monterey’s Canning Industry

David Jacks: From Land Baron to Land Preservation on the Monterey Peninsula

Jimmy Lyons: Birth of the Monterey Jazz Festival

Evelyn McCormick: Painting Locally for the New Deal’s WPA

Isabel Meadows: Preserving the Rumsien People's Heritage

Sam Morse: Pebble Beach

David and Lucile Packard: Monterey Bay Aquarium Project

Leon Panetta: Fort Ord Conversion

Pomponio: Voice of the Indian Rebellion against the Spanish in California

Laura Bride Powers: Movement to Preserve Historic Monterey

Bennett Riley: The Constitution of California 1849

Dr. John L. D. Roberts: Advocate for the Scenic Coast Highway to Big Sur

Father Junipero Serra: California Mission system

John Steinbeck: Monterey County’s Greatest Novelist 

Robert Louis Stevenson: The Writer’s Roots on the Monterey Peninsula

For primary source materials on local history and additional suggestions, contact the California History Room and the historical centers located on these lists:

Local history archives, libraries and historical organizations
Monterey Region Historical Collections Roundtable