Cheryl Anne Stapp
Outposts on the California Trail
The intrepid individuals who traveled 2,000 miles overland from the Missouri frontier to California in the 1840s had very few waystations...
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California's Olden Golden Days
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- May 24
- 4 min
Island Goats
There were no animals of any kind on the rocky island when explorer Sebastian Vizcaino stopped there in 1602, naming it Santa Catalina in...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- May 17
- 2 min
Auspicious Beginnings
Within a few months, the 1848 gold discovery turned pastoral California into a hotbed of mining and commercial activity. Seemingly...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- May 10
- 1 min
A Very Rare Gemstone
This gemstone—rarer than diamonds—is only found in San Benito County, California. Sometimes called the “blue diamond,” Benitoite...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- May 3
- 2 min
Civilizing Influences
In 1849, California’s Gold Rush population, statewide, was 92% male. As reported in the Eastern press, the state of affairs in that...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Apr 26
- 1 min
The Blacksmiths
The mighty smith of folklore was the blacksmith, who worked with iron and steel and whose hammer wielded more force than his fellow...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Apr 19
- 3 min
Sarah's Grand, Mysterious House
Seen from the outside, Winchester Mystery House is an enormous, grand jumble of fanciful turrets and spires. Inside, the sprawling...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Apr 5
- 2 min
Reality Check
California suffered its first painful economic readjustment in the mid-1850s, although the many reasons for it were not readily apparent...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Mar 29
- 2 min
Policewoman Alice Stebbins Wells
Since the 1890s, California law enforcement agencies had employed women in caretaker positions—as matrons, supervisors, and other...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Mar 22
- 2 min
Conservationist Minerva Hoyt
A woman born and raised amid the lush landscapes of 19th century Mississippi seems an unlikely candidate as a conservationist of...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Mar 15
- 2 min
Inventor Harriet Russell Strong
Harriet Russell Strong was a brilliant woman who overcame personal heartbreak and financial catastrophe to become an agriculturist, a...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Mar 8
- 2 min
Doctor Elizabeth Follansbee
Elizabeth Follansbee was the first woman to be a member of the faculty at a medical school in California, also the first woman admitted...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Mar 1
- 2 min
Lawyer Clara Foltz
Clara Shortridge Foltz never went to law school, yet she passed the California bar exam in September 1878, after studying law in the...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Feb 22
- 2 min
A Wicked Woman
They say that there were more women of ill repute than there were decent ladies, in California, during the early years of the Gold Rush....
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Feb 15
- 2 min
The Old Stage Lines
Stagecoach travel in California’s 1850s Gold Rush era— and beyond—was no sedate buggy ride in the park. Passengers frequently complained...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Feb 8
- 2 min
Fatal Contest
Haste was the imperative to bedazzled gold-rushers, men near-frantic to get to the gold fields and stake their claim on a promising slice...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Feb 1
- 4 min
The First Wagon Party
They are known as the Bartleson-Bidwell Party, or alternatively the Bidwell-Bartleson Party, the first organized group of emigrants to...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jan 18
- 3 min
The First Californians
Many centuries before European explorers found California—for at least 10,000 and possibly as many as 20,000 years—an indigenous people...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jan 11
- 2 min
Reform Dress for Ladies
The upstart new style in ladies’ fashions was quite unconventional. Yet it was seen everywhere across America throughout the 1850s...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jan 4
- 2 min
Men & Women Behind Bars
When California became a state in 1850, its elected lawmakers had a multitude of issues to resolve, not the least of which was to address...
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