Cheryl Anne Stapp

What are you thankful for?   A week from tomorrow, we will celebrate our national Thanksgiving Day, officially proclaimed as such by President Lincoln in 1863. Prior to that, each region, mainly in New England and other northern states, had sporadically, and at different times, observed days of feasting and merriment after the autumnal harvests.   Before California became a state of the Union, even before its production of vegetables and grains amounted to much, its residents

A partial view of the former Rancho Refugio's 12,147 acres For practical reasons, the newly-minted United States of America adopted British common law, a legal system based on precedent and judicial decisions. One characteristic of common law was the tradition of primogeniture—the right of succession of the eldest son. Another was that married women were not recognized as “persons” in their own right, qualified to own property or anything else. Upon marriage, a woman became h

Enjoying wine at a family gathering in Anaheim c. 1860   Nowadays we think of it as the home of the Magic Kingdom, the place where...

Intensely blue, majestic in size, and surrounded by massive jagged peaks, its landscape of vibrant colors inspires a sense of grandeur....

Hall Jackson Kelley Dozens of foreigners, mostly men, entered California in the mid-1830s. In the main they were fur trappers, shipping...

He knew, when he volunteered to act as courier, that his mission would be a dangerous, wild ride. The assignment: to deliver a message...

Two weeks from tomorrow, we celebrate our national Thanksgiving Day.

Its detractors said it was fraudulent; said it was some sort of diabolical magic. Said it was witchcraft. Nevertheless,...

Frontiersman Christopher “Kit” Carson—a legend in his own lifetime— was in California several times during its Mexican period, as a...

For centuries, the Upper Napa Valley was home to several villages of indigenous people, hunter-gatherers who recognized the beneficial...

Adopted by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence publicly announced to the world the decision...

Dropped into a pre-drilled hole and gently tapped into place, a 17.6-karat golden spike ceremoniously joined the Central Pacific Railroad...

It was May 1855, and U.S. Secretary of War Jefferson Davis had just realized a years-long goal, to establish an army “camel corps,” for...

Its name is an Angelized version of an archaic Spanish word for “pelican,” although those birds no longer roost there. Since the mid-19th...

NEXT SUNDAY NIGHT WE BID FAREWELL TO 2023 AND WELCOME THE NEW YEAR 2024 IN FAMILIAR, TIME-HONORED WAYS: WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY, WE TOAST...

The Mexican-American War came to Pacific shores in July 1846, when U. S. Navy warships invaded the seaports at Monterey and San Francisco...

As early as 1850, San Francisco was firmly established as California’s premier commercial center, and its port the greatest maritime...

San Francisco’s infamous Barbary Coast began as Sydney-Town as early as mid-1849, so named for the glut of escaped or released men from...

Ever since the westward migration of the 1840s and 1850s brought dogs in large numbers to California, stray and abandoned animals have...

History books rarely say anything about it, but the pioneers who trekked overland in the 1840s seeking a better life in the West brought...