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California's Olden Golden Days
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Nov 29, 20233 min read
Agriculture & Art at the Mid-Point
It is famous for its raisins, for its geographic centrality midway between northern and southern California; and as a gateway to...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jul 19, 20232 min read
State Fair 2023
This year, the California State Fair—touted as the State Fair & Food Festival—runs from July 14 through July 30. As in past years, the...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jul 5, 20231 min read
Old West Aphorisms
We call them Aphorisms: those pointed, succinct, pithy observations through which we express a truth or general wisdom of what is, not...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jun 21, 20232 min read
Sunkist Growers
There have been citrus groves in California since the late 18th century, when the Spanish mission-builders brought seeds with them from...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Aug 24, 20222 min read
500 Acres of Beer Makings
Hundreds of Sacramento seniors still remember the acres of hop fields that stood tall along Fair Oaks Boulevard when they were kids....
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Aug 3, 20222 min read
The Finest Wines in the World
Wine is big business in California. In 4,763 wineries large and small throughout the state, California vintners produce 87% of America’s...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Apr 6, 20222 min read
The Russian River
It’s called the Russian River because there were Russian settlements on the river itself and at other nearby sites from 1812 to 1841....
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Nov 3, 20213 min read
Early & Ongoing Partition Troubles
California’s north-south cultural split began as early as 1821, the year Mexico won its independence from Spain and acquired the province...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Aug 25, 20212 min read
Dining at an Outback Outpost
In August 1839, after several days of sailing upstream on the Sacramento River, a Swiss citizen named John Sutter arrived in the...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Aug 18, 20212 min read
Golden State Cheese
There is no doubt that Americans have a passion for cheese: in snacks, sandwiches and main dishes. Why, Crayola even named one of its...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jan 20, 20212 min read
Land of Geographic Extremes
California’s odd shape permits its northern port city of Eureka to be the most westward city in the continental United States—yet its...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Oct 21, 20203 min read
The Old Rancho del Paso
This Sacramento Valley ranch is long gone, but its colorful history is legend…and its fame still reverberates in the names of streets,...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Sep 16, 20202 min read
Dressing the Stones
Today, commercial mills are complex, high-tech installations. Long ago, however, skilled artisans hand-carved granite millstones into...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jul 15, 20202 min read
The Next Big Gold Strike
Several weeks elapsed after the January 1848 gold discovery before people started believing it was genuine…and then events started...
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