Cheryl Anne Stapp

Hall Jackson Kelley Dozens of foreigners, mostly men, entered California in the mid-1830s. In the main they were fur trappers, shipping...

He knew, when he volunteered to act as courier, that his mission would be a dangerous, wild ride. The assignment: to deliver a message...

Two weeks from tomorrow, we celebrate our national Thanksgiving Day.

Its detractors said it was fraudulent; said it was some sort of diabolical magic. Said it was witchcraft. Nevertheless,...

Frontiersman Christopher “Kit” Carson—a legend in his own lifetime— was in California several times during its Mexican period, as a...

For centuries, the Upper Napa Valley was home to several villages of indigenous people, hunter-gatherers who recognized the beneficial...

Adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence publicly announced to the world the decision...

Dropped into a pre-drilled hole and gently tapped into place, a 17.6-karat golden spike ceremoniously joined the Central Pacific Railroad...

It was May 1855, and U.S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis had just realized a years-long goal, to establish an army “camel corps,” for...

Its name is an Angelized version of an archaic Spanish word for “pelican,” although those birds no longer roost there. Since the mid-19th...

NEXT SUNDAY NIGHT WE BID FAREWELL TO 2023 AND WELCOME THE NEW YEAR 2024 IN FAMILIAR, TIME-HONORED WAYS: WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY, WE TOAST...

The Mexican-American War came to Pacific shores in July 1846, when U. S. Navy warships invaded the seaports at Monterey and San Francisco...

As early as 1850, San Francisco was firmly established as California’s premier commercial center, and its port the greatest maritime...

San Francisco’s infamous Barbary Coast began as Sydney-Town as early as mid-1849, so named for the glut of escaped or released men from...

Ever since the westward migration of the 1840s and 1850s brought dogs in large numbers to California, stray and abandoned animals have...

History books rarely say anything about it, but the pioneers who trekked overland in the 1840s seeking a better life in the West brought...

In days long ago, San Francisco had a horrific stray dog problem as hordes of scrapping, feral mutts roamed the city unrestrained. Most...

It was supposed to be the realization of a dream: a dynamic new town laid out on a low bluff overlooking the Sacramento River, where a...

Hubert Howe Bancroft is one of the most famous names in western America, as the man who became one of the first important and respected...

There were no animals of any kind on the rocky island when explorer Sebastian Vizcaino stopped there in 1602, naming it Santa Catalina in...