Some of the participants at the 2001 world model airplane championship contest in Lost Hills, California, took home more than suntans and souvenirs. One participant from the UK and one from Finland became very ill with a flu-like pulmonary disease. They had been infected with Coccidioides immitis, a fungus endemic to the Californian deserts and a few other similar sites in the New World. Their illness, coccidioidomycosis (also known colloquially and historically as Valley Fever, San Joaquin Valley Fever and Gilchrist's Disease) is a mycosis with a rich and remarkable history.