Cheryl Anne Stapp

More than one gold rush mining camp was dubbed “dog town” by its inhabitants—miner’s slang for coarse, thrown-together encampments of...

Teenaged Eliza Marshall emigrated with her family from England to the United States in 1839. They settled in Pawtucket, in the section of...

Mark Twain said he based his short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” on what he thought, at the time, was a...

Not long after Marshall’s January 24th gold discovery at Coloma, three men stumbled upon a second gold find downriver—which became one of...

On a chilly winter day 174 years ago this month, a construction site foreman named James Marshall picked up a few small flakes of gold...

Whether they came to California overland or by sea in 1849, hordes of predominately young men were joyfully exuberant, for they were...

California’s north-south cultural split began as early as 1821, the year Mexico won its independence from Spain and acquired the province...

In the aftermath of the Mexican-American War, California existed in a state of political limbo. The peace treaty, signed in February 1848...

There is no doubt that Americans have a passion for cheese: in snacks, sandwiches and main dishes. Why, Crayola even named one of its...

Jared Sheldon, a carpenter by trade, officially received a Mexican land grant of 22,130 acres along the Cosumnes River in 1844—in payment...

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...

During the California Gold Rush, a number of steam-powered ships chugged up and down between San Francisco Bay and the major northern...

So many legends surround the nineteenth century stage driver Charley Parkhurst that it’s difficult now to separate fact from fiction. In...

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...

Nineteenth century singles had limited ways in which to meet someone to marry, especially those singles who lived in rural areas. This...

Virginia Reed was twelve when her parents and younger siblings set out for California from their Illinois home in April 1846, traveling...

Praised as the most delightful first-person account of California’s gold mines, The Shirley Letters is a collection of 23 letters written...

In the spring of 1850—bedazzled by sensational reports coming back from the California gold fields—Margaret and Ledyard Frink excitedly...

In her own lifetime Eliza Farnham was nationally known as an author, and as an exceptional woman on the leading edge of several social...

Valentine’s Day was not completely unnoticed in gold-crazed California, although females—only 8 percent of the statewide population in...