Baja California (state) (Alternity)

Baja California (BA), more often referred to as simply Baja, is a state located in its entirety on the Baja Peninsula in the West Coast region of the United States. Admitted to the Union as the 40th state on September 27, 1864, Baja California is the southernmost of the contiguous 'lower 54', and contains one of the driest climates in the US, with much of the state's population of 4,361,000 located in coastal cities like the state capital of San Pedro, largest city of La Paz (pop. 940,000), San Lucas, and the northern city of Tijuana, located just south of the California state border. Baja shares its sole land borders with California to the north and Arizona to the east, while also sharing maritime borders with the Mexican states of Sonora and Sinaloa to the east, across the Gulf of California. It is also one of only three US states (the others being Cuba and Puerto Rico) where Spanish is an official second language.

Counties
Baja is subdivided into twelve counties, which are further subdivided into fifteen townships per-county (San Pedro County, as the largest by size, possesses seventeen), for a statewide total of 182 townships. All twelve counties are listed below by population.



In Popular Culture

 * The hit 1989 American horror film Baja and its 1997 sequel Baja II are set in the fictional towns of Upperton in Guayma County and Lucaston in San Pedro County, respectively, along the state's Pacific Coast. Both films revolve around a series of supernatural/demonic occurances in the early 20th century, occurances related to the Oaxin Indians, a group of Native Americans that vanished from the region centuries ago. The original film is based on the Ben Corrin novel of the same name, which was published in 1985.

Namesake

 * The Dakota-class nuclear ballistic missile submarine USS Baja California (SSBN-748) – commissioned in 1989 – is named for the state. It is the first – and so far only – US Navy vessel to bear the name of the 40th state.