Cheryl Anne Stapp
Hucksters and Scalawags
Families who trundled overland in covered wagons during the 1840s, hoping to build a better life in the West, didn’t always know to be...
California's Olden Golden Days
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Sep 21
- 2 min
Susceptible to Seizure
In centuries past, and as global knowledge expanded in the Age of Sail, any attractive land that was scantily occupied and poorly...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Sep 14
- 2 min
Overland in Covered Wagons
What made some pioneer wagon trains successful, and others not? Partly luck, of course. But more than that, good fortune turned on the...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Sep 7
- 3 min
The Impressive Sepulvedas
A number of modern structures in California’s southland bear the name of a family who settled there in the long-ago days when the Spanish...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Aug 31
- 4 min
Cement Craze
Thousands of people poured into California during the 1850s: gold miners, merchants, farmers, families, professionals and tradesmen of...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Aug 24
- 2 min
500 Acres of Beer Makings
Hundreds of Sacramento seniors still remember the acres of hop fields that stood tall along Fair Oaks Boulevard when they were kids....
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Aug 17
- 3 min
A Good Man
Yet another new governor—in fact the sixth governor that authorities in Mexico City had appointed since 1822—arrived at Monterey, the...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Aug 10
- 3 min
Myth of an Island Queen
Once an intriguing fable captures the collective human mind, it is very hard to dismiss it—especially if the stark truth is less...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Aug 3
- 2 min
The Finest Wines in the World
Wine is big business in California. In 4,763 wineries large and small throughout the state, California vintners produce 87% of America’s...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jul 27
- 2 min
Historic Riverboat
It’s a hotel, restaurant and special events facility permanently moored at the Old Sacramento Riverfront now, but ninety-odd years ago...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jul 20
- 2 min
A Spectacular Gateway
Famed explorer John Charles Frémont, the leader of several U.S. Army Topographical Corps mapping expeditions across the West, gave the...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jul 13
- 5 min
Affair of Honor
Dueling was outlawed in California at its pre-statehood Constitutional Convention in the fall of 1849. However, the penalty imposed for...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jul 6
- 2 min
A History Museum's History
Today’s Sacramento History Museum, which opened to the public in 1985, is housed in a replica of the city’s 1854 City Hall and Waterworks...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jun 29
- 3 min
The Gem
In its heyday, Columbia was known as the “Gem of the Southern Mines” for its prodigious output of gold, averaging $100,000 or more per...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jun 22
- 3 min
Boom & Bust in Bodie
Once it was a good-sized mining settlement—a rip-roaring, wild-west boomtown. Today Bodie is a wind-swept ghost town, a tourist...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jun 15
- 3 min
California's Film Industry
Hollywood! To movie fans all over the world, the name is synonymous with glamour, stardom, and cinematic dreams; a place also known—by...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jun 8
- 3 min
The Sacramento: River of Gold
At 447 miles in length the Sacramento River is the longest river that flows through California, with a watershed that encompasses more...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jun 1
- 3 min
Ocean Shore Railroad
In May 1905, the public was thrilled when newspapers announced that a new enterprise was to build a railroad on a scenic route between...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- May 25
- 3 min
Proof is in the Picture
In mid-nineteenth century California, rich men tended to own racehorses, or perhaps sponsor a horse or two owned by someone else; or at...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- May 18
- 1 min
Dog Town Diggings
More than one gold rush mining camp was dubbed “dog town” by its inhabitants—miner’s slang for coarse, thrown-together encampments of...
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