Cheryl Anne Stapp
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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California's Olden Golden Days
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
- Sep 21, 2022
- 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, 2022
- 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 10, 2022
- 3 min
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, 2022
- 2 min
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, 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
- Aug 4, 2021
- 2 min
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, 2021
- 2 min
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, 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
- Jan 20, 2021
- 2 min
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, 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
- 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 4, 2019
- 1 min
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, 2019
- 1 min
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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