Riverside County has a grand new display on the first floor of the Capitol building in Sacramento.  I really like this display a lot more than the last one, which did not reflect Riverside (the fourth-largest county now) well.  This one has graphics that include the UCR Belltower, the Cabazon dinosaur, the Lake Elsinore Storm's Diamond Stadium, Temecula balloons, golf clubs and tennis rackets.

The new display also does a better job at covering the eastern part of the county, the Coachella Valley, with mention of the resort industries and a few pictures of Indian Wells and Palm Springs in there.

This is no doubt a more intriguing diorama than the previous one, and will serve several years to educate the schoolchildren who visit the cases up in Sacramento.

In case you can't read the statistics posted on the sign (right click to see full picture), here they are:

• Fastest growing large county in California with a population exceeding 2 million residents.
• Larger population than the entire population of 13 US states including Nebraska, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.
• Population expected to double by the year 2040 and approximately 145 people become new residents every day.
• Accounts for 5% of California's population and is the 4th most populated county in California.
• Geographically, it is the 4th largest county in California, stretching from Orange County to the border of Arizona, encompassing 7,303 square miles of land.
• Approximately 14 miles away from the California coast.
• Home to 7 Universities and Colleges including: University of California, Riverside, California Baptist University and La Sierra University.
• Educating approximately 394,687 children with a total of 434 public schools.
• Served by 13 major Highways with 4 land arteries into the Counties of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, San Diego and Orange.
• Agriculture is the largest business, with gross returns topping $1 billion.  The county's official crop report typically lists more than 60 different commodities with returns of more than $1 million each.
• Home to over 150 golf courses, many located in the desert resort communities of the Coachella Valley.
• Average daily temperature is approximately 80 degrees with more than 340 days of sunshine.

Photo courtesy of Benoit Capitol staffer Chris Sell