Cheryl Anne Stapp
The Terror of Merced County
Born to respectable, hard-working parents who had come to California as gold-rushers in 1849, Robert L. McFarlane quit the family farm in...
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California's Olden Golden Days
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Sep 22, 20213 min read
Icon of Days Gone By
Thanks to abundant product and clever ad campaigns from the 1890s forward, Death Valley, California, is arguably the world’s most famous...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Sep 15, 20212 min read
Stagecoach Accidents
Oftentimes, stagecoach accidents resulted in lawsuits for injuries received. This one, Sprague vs. Dillon, went to trial in San...
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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
Sep 1, 20212 min read
Traveling Medicine Shows
Traveling medicine shows that peddled miracle cures were common in 19th century America, especially in the western states. Part...
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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
Aug 11, 20212 min read
The Sloughhouse Graveyard
Jared Sheldon, a carpenter by trade, officially received a Mexican land grant of 22,130 acres along the Cosumnes River in 1844—in payment...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Aug 4, 20212 min read
Invasion at Monterey!
In 1818, California was still an outlying province of Imperial Spain, even as New Spain (later, the Republic of Mexico) and other...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jul 28, 20212 min read
The Splendid California Stage Company
The California Gold Rush revitalized the stagecoach industry, which was waning in New England by the end of the 1840s, due to the rise of...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jul 21, 20211 min read
California's Big Bad Cat
In the Late Pleistocene Epoch, a member of the cat family roamed prehistoric California. Scientifically known as Smilodon, this...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jul 14, 20211 min read
Protecting the West in the Civil War
As Civil War hostilities rapidly escalated in July 1861—and United States Army personnel stationed in California left for eastern...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jun 23, 20213 min read
Steamboats on the Rivers
During the California Gold Rush, a number of steam-powered ships chugged up and down between San Francisco Bay and the major northern...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jun 16, 20212 min read
Hideaway in Plain Sight
In the 1850s the Mountaineer House was a well-known tavern and busy stage stop where multiple stagecoach lines rolled in daily to change...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jun 9, 20211 min read
Historical Destinations
Might you be planning a summer road trip, now that California’s Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted? If so, don’t miss stopping in at...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jun 2, 20212 min read
Charley's Secret
So many legends surround the nineteenth century stage driver Charley Parkhurst that it’s difficult now to separate fact from fiction. In...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
May 26, 20213 min read
Bayley's Grand Dream
The palatial hotel that A. J. Bayley built long ago in California’s gold country still stands, though it’s empty now, and encircled by a...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
May 19, 20212 min read
Birds of Blue Feathers
The California quail, also known as the valley quail, topknot quail, and California partridge, is a prized game bird known for its...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
May 12, 20212 min read
The Legacy of California's Missions
Two hundred and fifty years after Hernán Cortés claimed Mexico and the vast lands north of it for Spain, it came to the attention of the...
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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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