Places: Elk Grove Index

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Fact: The City of Elk Grove incorporated on July 1, 2000, after three previous tries.

Fact: Stone Lakes Refuge, on the western edge of Elk Grove, was recently dedicated as a National Wildlife Refuge composed of 3,000 acres along the Pacific Flyway.

Fact: Public transportation is provided by e-tran. The city is the first in the nation with a 100 percent hybrid electric commuter bus fleet.

Fact: Donner party survivor, Elitha Cumi Donner Wilder, who was 14 years old when she was trapped in Donner Pass in the winter of 1846–47, eventually settled in Elk Grove and lived until she was 91. She is buried in Elk Grove Cemetery.

Fact: The first telephone service was established in 1912.

Fact: In 2004, atheist Michael Newdow sued the Elk Grove Unified School District, where his daughter attended school, over the phrase in the pledge of allegiance “under God.” He argued that this part of the pledge of allegiance violated constitutional separation of church and state. The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, which dismissed it on the technicality that Newdow didn’t have the right to sue on his daughter’s behalf.

Fact: Due to its rapid growth, Elk Grove earned the title of the fastest growing city in the United States in 2006.

Fact: Petri Hawkins Byrd, the bailiff on the show Judge Judy lives in Elk Grove and drives to Los Angeles every other week for work.

Fact: Author, teacher and activist Mary Tsukamoto graduated from Elk Grove High in 1928. She and her family were later sent to internment camps during World War II. She co-authored a book on the experience with Elizabeth Pinkerton,”We the People — A Story of Internment in America.” She later taught in the Elk Grove Unified School district for 26 years. An Elk Grove elementary school was named in her honor and opened in 1992.

Fact: The Elk Grove Community Library was established in October 1908 as the first county free library of California. A new 13,785-sq.-ft. building housing the library on the corner of Elk Grove Boulevard and Elk Grove Florin Road is scheduled to open in late 2007 or early 2008.

Fact: In 1999, a major terrorist attack on propane tanks in the city was averted. The tanks, each holding approximately 12 million gallons of liquid propane, were part of the largest above-ground propane facility in North America. Two of the three members of the right-wing militant group were found guilty and the other member, in exchange for information about the attack, was separately charged.

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