Best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year from Goldfields Books. I hope 2018 is filled with wonderful discoveries and joyful events for you and yours.

This past year I worked on two publishing projects: my own book on Nancy Kelsey and ANCHR’s compilation of Northern California oral histories.

If you have not yet seen ANCHR’s new book you need to check it out — Conversations with the Past: Vibrant Voices from Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta & Tehama Counties. This book truly has something for every history buff’s interest.

In the 1970s, members of the Association of Northern California Records and Research (ANCHR’s predecessor) spent several years collecting and transcribing oral histories. These histories have languished in storage files for decades. We rediscovered them this year and decided these voices and their stories needed to be heard.

These personal accounts provide a priceless window to a past long gone. But they also show that people did back then what we do now — live their lives.

These memories range from personal accounts about the Bidwells, family cattle drives, early days in Paradise and Chico, hitching canoe rides on riverboat barges, Chico’s first teenage aviator, the discovery of Ishi in Oroville, western Colusa County Indian life and John Bidwell’s explorations, herding geese (it’s not what you might think it is), pioneer life in Orland and Newville including feuding Civil War veterans, memories of Modoc County, the town of Prattville and Big Meadows before Lake Almanor flooded the areas, railroad torpedoes, and President Kennedy’s visit to Lassen Volcanic National Park in 1963.

 The book costs $16.95 and is available at The Bookstore on Main St. in Chico, ABC Books, Discount Books in Oroville, My Girlfriend’s Closet in Paradise, and various museums and historical societies in Northern California. You can also order online at anchr.org.

Nancy Kelsey Comes over the Mountain is also available from the ANCHR website, and from me right here, and from Amazon.com. The book was a joy to research and to write. If you would like to hear Steve Ferchaud and me talk about our work on this book, you can hear us on a Nancy’s Bookshelf podcast.

And . . . if you would like to hear either the ANCHR team of editors, or me, talk about our books, please contact me at goldfieldsbooksca@gmail.com. We are available to speak to groups throughout the North State.

Steve and I peddling our books at ABC Books on Mangrove in Chico.