California's Olden Golden Days

Cheryl Anne Stapp

Oct 27, 20212 min read

Rivers in the Skies

Is the “atmospheric river” that deluged California last week a precursor of what is to come? Back in the day, they called such phenomena...

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Cheryl Anne Stapp

Oct 20, 20212 min read

Quilting: A Frontier Social Event

Quilt making in the nineteenth century was more than just the home-crafted production of usable warm bedding: it was more often than not...

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Cheryl Anne Stapp

Oct 13, 20212 min read

Cup of Gold

What a wondrous, stunning sight the crew must have seen as the Russian ship Rurik dropped anchor in a sequestered cove of San Francisco...

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Cheryl Anne Stapp

Oct 6, 20213 min read

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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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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