Little Known Tales In California History

This book has 41 different chapters on California's gold rush and development history. Read about The Lost Spanish Galleon, Pegleg Smith's Lost Gold Mine, Joaquin Murrieta, and railroad titans.

Travel the Old Plank Road, or take a trip on the old Ridge Route over the Grapevine Grade. They were once treacherous but have been replaced by modern highways, Or, you might want to look through the eyes of two visionaries who knew what California needed and went to work to do it.The second worst disaster in California was the breaking of the St. Francis Dam, killing 450 people. And, readers will learn why the California poppie was selected as the official state flower.

Women discovered gold in California a full year before James Marshall announced his discovery. There have been repeated attempts to split California into two or more states. Wheelbarrow Johnny was one of the gold seekers who came west searching for gold. Instead, he built wheelbarrows and then went on to become one of the nation's great automobile magnates.

John Sutter, who left Switzerland to escape debtor's prison, came to California and built a giant land monopoly. Again, he became heavily in debt and died destitute. The entire Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys were inundated for 300 miles long and 20 miles wide by the flood of 1862. The cholera epidemic killed more than 1,000 citizens, including doctors and others who were caring for the patients. The Old City Cemetery is an exciting place. As docents are quick to remind, "People are dying to get in here." The docents know their job. It's almost as though they are trying to bring the city's cemeteries back to life. We love the epitaph on one headstone that simply reads: "See ya later."

The reader should not be conned into thinking Nevada is only desert and casinos. Nevada gained its statehood because of its incredible wealth in gold and silver mines. Many mining towns in Nevada are now ghost towns but interesting pieces of Nevada's history and well worth a visit. The state's geology dates back to the Stone Age and its tales of train robberies, lynchings and Indian battles are all explored here in this book.

San Francisco grew from a tiny burg of 1,000 persons in 1848 to its present-day population of 825,863. The city was founded in 1776 when Spain built a fort at the site of Golden Gate Park. After World War II, San Francisco became a magnet for America's counter-culture. Hippies flocked to Haight-Ashbury in 1960 and peaked out with the Summer of Love in 1967. San Francisco's China Town is the oldest and largest in North America. The city's famous cable cars carry riders up and down the steep inclines and to Fisherman's Wharf below. People watch as the fishermen bring in their daily catches each day at the piers of Fisherman's Wharf.. There's little that can't be found in San Francisco. The city's ethnic makeup is diverse. It's made up of whites, Asians, Afro-Americans, Pacific Islanders, and Hispanics. San Francisco has developed an international character that began with its founding and continues today.

The word cowboy conjures up vivid images of rugged men on saddled horses—men lassoing cattle, riding bulls, or brandishing guns in a shoot-out. White men, as Hollywood remembers them. What is woefully missing from these scenes is their counterparts: the black cowboys who made up one-fourth of the wranglers and rodeo riders. This book tells their story. When the Civil War ended, black men left the Old South in large numbers to seek a living in the Old West—industrious men resolved to carve out a life for themselves on the wild, roaming plains. Some had experience working cattle from their time as slaves; others simply sought a freedom they had never known before. The lucky travelled on horseback; the rest, by foot. Over dirt roads they went from Alabama and South Carolina to present-day Texas and California up north through Kansas to Montana. The Old West was a land of opportunity for these adventurous wranglers and future rodeo champions. A long overdue testament to the courage and skill of black cowboys, Black Cowboys of the Old West finally gives these courageous men their rightful place in history. Praise for an earlier book by the same author: “Whether you are a history enthusiast or a lover of adventure stories, African American Women of the Old West presents the reader with fascinating accounts of ten extraordinary, generally unrecognized, African Americans. Tricia Martineau Wagner takes these remarkable women from the footnotes of history and brings them to life.” —Ed Diaz, President of the Association for African American Historical Research and Preservation

Massacres, mayhem, and mischief fill the pages of Outlaw Tales of California 2, with compelling legends of the Golden State's most despicable desperadoes. Ride with horse thieves and cattle rustlers, duck the bullets of murderers, plot strategies with con artists, and hiss at lawmen turned outlaws.