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 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 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
- Apr 19
- 3 min
Serving California by Sea
In the Age of Sail, not everyone who entered California’s harbors came to settle. In the early 1820s, the ships of many nations began...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Nov 10, 2021
- 3 min
Land Laws: Land Grants vs. Homesteads
During the centuries it belonged to Spain, and the few decades it was a province of Mexico, California had no homestead laws that gave...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Nov 3, 2021
- 3 min
Early & Ongoing Partition Troubles
California’s north-south cultural split began as early as 1821, the year Mexico won its independence from Spain and acquired the province...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Aug 25, 2021
- 2 min
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
- May 5, 2021
- 5 min
So Many Flags Over California
Over the centuries many flags have flown over California soil: the flags of nations, explorers, military units, trading companies…even a...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Jun 10, 2020
- 2 min
Chasing Horse Thieves
Horse thieves harassed Californians for well over 100 years. Horse stealing began in the late 18th century, when Spanish missionaries and...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Apr 1, 2020
- 2 min
Pegleg's Lost Mine
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...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Feb 12, 2020
- 1 min
Mexican Pioneer Don Ignacio Martinez
Martinez, California, and the adjacent town of Pinole, date their names, indeed their very existence, back to the days of Mexican rule....
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Dec 4, 2019
- 1 min
Sacramento's First Settler
Swiss immigrant John Augustus Sutter arrived in the Sacramento Valley in 1839, when California was still a province of Mexico. As a...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Oct 23, 2019
- 1 min
Yankee Ships Capture Pacific Trade
Shortly after the close of the American Revolution, Boston whalers began navigating in California waters, hunting the prized sea otter....
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Oct 16, 2019
- 2 min
Pattie's Tall Tale
Are tall tales accepted as fact just because the story is published in a memoir—and therefore, “must be” true? Consider the smallpox...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Sep 18, 2019
- 1 min
California's Original Southern Border
During the three hundred-plus years Spain claimed ownership of California by right of conquest, Spain’s official religion took a part in...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Sep 11, 2019
- 1 min
The Republic of Mexico Acquires California
Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821—in general (though the specifics were different) for much the same political and...
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