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California's Olden Golden Days
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Sep 183 min read
California's Forgotten Founder
His name was José de Gálvez, and his title visitador-general —which outranked Spain’s resident viceroy in Mexico City—was conferred by...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Mar 133 min read
Doña Francisca Vallejo
A dark-eyed beauty, Francisca Carrillo was born in San Diego when California was still a province of Imperial Spain, and raised in the...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Feb 212 min read
California: What's in a Name?
Many American states derived their names from native American Indian words, some from European monarchs; a few from early French or...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Feb 73 min read
Pirate Invades Monterey
In 1818, while the future Republic of Mexico and other Spanish-owned regions in South America were fighting a war of independence against...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jan 18, 20233 min read
The First Californians
Many centuries before European explorers found California—for at least 10,000 and possibly as many as 20,000 years—an indigenous people...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Sep 21, 20222 min read
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, 20223 min read
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 10, 20223 min read
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, 20222 min read
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
Nov 10, 20213 min read
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
Aug 4, 20212 min read
Invasion at Monterey!
In 1818, California was still an outlying province of Imperial Spain, even as New Spain (later, the Republic of Mexico) and other...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
May 12, 20212 min read
The Legacy of California's Missions
Two hundred and fifty years after Hernán Cortés claimed Mexico and the vast lands north of it for Spain, it came to the attention of the...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
May 5, 20215 min read
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
Jan 20, 20212 min read
Land of Geographic Extremes
California’s odd shape permits its northern port city of Eureka to be the most westward city in the continental United States—yet its...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Oct 23, 20191 min read
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
Sep 18, 20191 min read
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 4, 20191 min read
Spain Secures its Claim
When Franciscan friars Father Crespi and Father Junipero Serra came to colonize California in 1769, they looked upon this undertaking as...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Aug 28, 20191 min read
Days of Old
A mere 300 years ago, while colonies on America’s Eastern Seaboard were developing, California’s vast stretches of geographically...
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