Well, L.A. tops the list  of America's most polluted cities. But that won't stop me from loving the Southland .

I spent a few years of my youth in SoCal—many people do. It's the lure of endless sunshine for Midwesterners, and the Hollywood  dream for anyone with a little extra, uh, personality. And certainly, the legend of better-looking dates . You go there and find it's not true after all, but hey—you're only young once ...

The lure of Southern California is older than you think. It was Mexico's northernmost province: Mexican pioneers moved there after 1796 to set themselves up as Rancheros . A gold rush  happened there in 1842, on a much smaller scale than in '49, but it was California's first. In the 1880s , after railroads connected the region to the rest of the continent, high-pressure ads encouraged a huge migration and a land boom. The Dust Bowl of the 1930s  sent thousands limping to the promise of work and a piece of land. Since then, palm trees, orange groves and the fantasy of paradise have maintained a steady stream of people into Southern California. The reality that paradise is a postcard has kept the stream out as constant.

But fantasy or no, millions live there and call it home. Southern California is big, stretching as one urban area (almost) from Mexico  to Death Valley  in the east and Pismo Beach  to the north—and then the Northern California single urban area begins, reaching to Petaluma to the north and the Sierra to the east. OK, maybe I'm exaggerating, but anyone who drives in California will support the argument!

Beginning in 1858, Henry Wells and William Fargo were on the Board of Directors of the Overland Mail Co., which ran stagecoaches from Missouri to San Francisco by way of Southern California. That same year, Wells Fargo opened its Los Angeles office. A short time later, Wells Fargo controlled the Overland line, which moved north when the Civil War  commenced. Southern California was served from up north, but when service resumed in the south, the area continued to grow. Railroads connected L.A. to civilization in 1874, and the "boom of the '80s" made the Southern California that endures.

L.A. Our dirtiest city—"The dirt that dreams are made of ."