Cheryl Anne Stapp
Railway Mail Mascot
Owney may have been just a dog, but 19th century newspapers across the nation delighted in reporting his world-traveling odyssey as if he...
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California's Olden Golden Days
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Jan 1, 20201 min
New Year 2020
HAPPY NEW YEAR! MAY 2020 BRING YOU SUCCESS IN ALL YOUR ENDEAVORS, HAPPINESS AND PROSPERITY
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Dec 26, 20191 min
The Forlorn Hope
Weary and low on supplies, the Donner Party arrived at the pass through the Sierra Nevada at the end of October 1846; but it was already...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Dec 25, 20191 min
Christmas Day 2019
WISHING YOU AND YOURS A JOYOUS CHRISTMAS DAY FILLED WITH LOVE AND GOOD CHEER
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Dec 18, 20191 min
Trapped in the Snow
The worst tragedy in the annals of western migration befell members of the Donner Party, who were trapped in the snow-bound Sierra Nevada...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Dec 4, 20191 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
Nov 27, 20191 min
Thanksgiving Holiday
President Abraham Lincoln decreed Thanksgiving as a national holiday in September 1863. Prior to that, the observance was sporadically...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Nov 20, 20191 min
California's Counties, Then & Now
California was admitted to the Union as the 31st state on September 9, 1850. That year 27 original counties were created, with Mariposa...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Nov 13, 20191 min
Supplies for the Journey West
The pioneers who trekked west in covered wagons in the 1840s knew they had to take enough food to last six months. Trading posts between...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Oct 30, 20191 min
Beware the Witching Hour
As legend tells us, All Hallows Eve is the night when spirits of the dead haunt the homes and neighborhoods they knew when they were...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Oct 23, 20191 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, 20192 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
Oct 9, 20191 min
Over the Cliffs
Have you ever wondered how the westward-emigrating pioneers of the 1840s and 50s managed to get their covered wagons over the cliffs and...
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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Sep 18, 20191 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, 20191 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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Cheryl Anne Stapp
Sep 4, 20191 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, 20191 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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