Cheryl Anne Stapp
Kit Carson in California
Frontiersman Christopher “Kit” Carson—a legend in his own lifetime— was in California several times during its Mexican period, as a...
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California's Olden Golden Days
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
May 293 min read
The Mystery of Peter Lebeck
No one really knows who Peter Lebeck was, but we do know that he died in the wilds of the Tehachapi Mountains, the victim of a grizzly...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
May 83 min read
Balboa Island
For eons, an ancient stream slowly carved a canyon through land that fronted on the Pacific Ocean, in the process steadily creating what...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Sep 7, 20223 min read
The Impressive Sepulvedas
A number of modern structures in California’s southland bear the name of a family who settled there in the long-ago days when the Spanish...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Nov 10, 20213 min read
Land Laws: Land Grants vs. Homesteads
During the centuries it belonged to Spain, and the few decades it was a province of Mexico, California had no homestead laws that gave...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Sep 8, 20213 min read
Creating California's Counties
In the aftermath of the Mexican-American War, California existed in a state of political limbo. The peace treaty, signed in February 1848...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
May 5, 20215 min read
So Many Flags Over California
Over the centuries many flags have flown over California soil: the flags of nations, explorers, military units, trading companies…even a...
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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
Dec 2, 20201 min read
California's Odd Shape
California’s southern border was resolved in 1848 by international treaty after the Mexican-American War, but until 1849 its northern...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jan 29, 20201 min read
A New Name: San Francisco
Perched on a sheltered cove in San Francisco Bay, the little hamlet known as Yerba Buena (good herb) had been so named by the Spanish...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jan 22, 20201 min read
The Gold That Changed the World
Friday January 24, 2020, will be the 172nd anniversary of the gold discovery in California. On a crisp winter day in 1848, a carpenter...
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