Cheryl Anne Stapp
Poker Faces in Gold Country
The gold-fevered young men who swarmed into California expecting to get rich quick, soon discovered that finding their fortune wasn’t so...
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California's Olden Golden Days
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Aug 5, 20202 min read
Gambling in Gold Country
The thousands of greenhorn gold rushers who invaded California in 1849 were quickly followed by those who came to “fleece” the miners of...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jul 29, 20202 min read
First Great Gold Camp on the Feather
In July 1848, a young man named John Bidwell discovered gold on the Middle Fork of the Feather River. His discovery was not by chance....
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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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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jul 8, 20201 min read
Formerly, The Forks
Downieville sits in a magnificent, rugged, wooded natural amphitheater surrounded by lofty, pine-covered peaks. The town, founded in late...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jun 17, 20202 min read
They Saw the Elephant
The wanna-be rich-quick gold prospectors who swarmed into California hoping— but failing— to find an easy fortune, boosted the folklore...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jun 3, 20202 min read
Bad Guy Mulligan
New Yorker Billy Mulligan and his gang of young toughs came west with the California Gold Rush, arriving in San Francisco by ship in late...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
May 27, 20202 min read
Kansas to California, 35 Days!
In June 1907, when faster, cheaper railroad networks had long since replaced cross-continental stagecoach transportation, a gentleman...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
May 6, 20202 min read
RIP, James Marshall
James Wilson Marshall, the celebrated discoverer of California gold, never personally profited from his find though it made other men...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Apr 29, 20201 min read
Raging Infernos
Every town or village was vulnerable to fire during the early Gold Rush years, and few escaped its ravages. Thousands of prospectors in...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Apr 22, 20202 min read
Bruff's Gold Rush Hysteria
Joseph Goldsborough Bruff is a well-remembered participant in the California Gold Rush. A committed diarist and talented amateur artist,...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Apr 8, 20202 min read
The Mechanical Water System
Sacramento’s Water Works Building was the city’s answer to its need for a reliable water supply system that could prevent a small fire...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Apr 1, 20202 min read
Pegleg's Lost Mine
Few things inflame men’s imaginations as the idea of a hidden fortune in gold— so the tale of Pegleg Smith and his lost gold mine has...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Feb 12, 20201 min read
Mexican Pioneer Don Ignacio Martinez
Martinez, California, and the adjacent town of Pinole, date their names, indeed their very existence, back to the days of Mexican rule....
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Feb 5, 20201 min read
Gold Mining Tools - the Cradle
The first major gold rush in the United States occurred in northern Georgia, predating the California Gold Rush by nearly twenty years. A...
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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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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Nov 27, 20191 min read
Thanksgiving Holiday
President Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving as a national holiday in September 1863. Prior to that, the observance was sporadically...
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