Cheryl Anne Stapp

Over the centuries many flags have flown over California soil: the flags of nations, explorers, military units, trading companies…even a...

Horse thieves harassed Californians for well over 100 years. Horse stealing began in the late 18th century, when Spanish missionaries and...

Few things inflame men’s imaginations as the idea of a hidden fortune in gold— so the tale of Pegleg Smith and his lost gold mine has...

Martinez, California, and the adjacent town of Pinole, date their names, indeed their very existence, back to the days of Mexican rule....

Swiss immigrant John Augustus Sutter arrived in the Sacramento Valley in 1839, when California was still a province of Mexico. As a...

Shortly after the close of the American Revolution, Boston whalers began navigating in California waters, hunting the prized sea otter....

Are tall tales accepted as fact just because the story is published in a memoir—and therefore, “must be” true? Consider the smallpox...

During the three hundred-plus years Spain claimed ownership of California by right of conquest, Spain’s official religion took a part in...

Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821—in general (though the specifics were different) for much the same political and...