Pacific Beach

Long before the surf shops of Pacific Beach in San Diego, this stretch of coast was a real estate gamble platted in 1887, its centerpiece a college meant to anchor a serious town instead of another seaside scheme. The guide follows Wyatt Earp, who spent stretches of 1888 racing a card-game horse at the Pacific Beach Driving Park, and the single afternoon exhibition that drew thousands of spectators to a beach with barely a hundred houses. You'll also hear about the lemon groves families planted after the boom collapsed, and the brief years this coast called itself the lemon capital of the world. Walk Garnet Avenue today and see how little of that history is still standing.