Category Archives: Uncategorized

It’s been over two weeks since I have posted anything about California history, but I have a good excuse. My three cute granddaughters were visiting for two weeks, and when you have grandchildren around, nothing else gets done. But now … Continue reading →

How did 19th century Chicoans celebrate Independence Day? Here’s an entry from John Bidwell’s diary for 1876 that will give you a glimpse: Tues. July 4 Warm, very – no wind. = Bells rang & cannon & anvils roared all … Continue reading →

The Bayliss Library, in Glenn County, celebrates its centennial this year, and yesterday the community marked one hundred years of library service to this rural area with everything you could want in a community celebration: speeches, music, food, activities for … Continue reading →

This is really neat footage of the eruption of the volcano in our backyard. Lassen Peak erupted on May 22, 1915 and the event was caught on film by Justin J. Hammer of Red Bluff. The film comes from the … Continue reading →

No extant portrait of Talbot H. Green exists. In a day when forty-niners right and left were having their likenesses made, he avoided the camera. He is absent from a group photograph of Thomas O. Larkin and his business associates. … Continue reading →

This being a Sunday morning, I’d like to share one of my favorite paintings with you: Sunday Morning in the Mines, by Charles Christian Nahl. It was painted in 1872, but harks back to the “Days of ’49.” The painting … Continue reading →

No, I haven’t struck gold. But I found something I’ve been looking for — an old episode of Death Valley Days. A year ago or so I found out that John Bidwell featured in the episode The Lady With the … Continue reading →