What history of the Old West would be complete without mention of horses? As transport, farm hand or war engine, once humanity realized that this animal was too valuable to eat, the horse has played an integral part in mankind’s survival and the expansion of the civilized world. While their days of hard toil may…
Sporting the dour personage of his day, nonetheless Horace Mann was much respected and revered for his progressive ideas on education in the early days of this country. He probably has his name on more elementary schools than even George Washington. No one did more than he to establish in the minds of…
Gather ’round the fireside, my millennials, and let you hear a tale so strange and distant you will find it hard to believe. It is a Christmas tale even more bizarre than that of a hipster bearded, body challenged, part time, remote office employer and his staff of special needs persons of diminutive stature who…
My husband, Dan, is no stranger to creaky floors and unsettling apparitions that frequent remote areas after dark. Grimm’s Fairytales uses such settings as backdrops and metaphors for stern parental warnings against wandering off the beaten path. Dan’s parents, Shirley and Harvey West, Jr, probably didn’t use the other “G” word when the decision…
The name September literally means the seventh month. Apparently the Romans felt pretty much like the way I do each year when September rolls around…dazed, confused and in much need of a few bottles of wine. Summer, all of it, resides in the lazy, hazy, hot time of year when it’s easy to forget…
Whether your traditional observance of Memorial Day is as tribute to those who who have died during or after military service or as the official opening weekend of summer, there is no reason not to accommodate both. At 3pm local time every Memorial Day a nationally declared “Moment of Remembrance” is observed. Just a quiet…
Hitch up the team and come on up. Yes, those horses are actually wearing snowshoes! Plumas County history is in large part a history of transportation and the amazing feats of derring do that our brilliant and intrepid pioneer ancestors exerted in the winter months to simply get around. One of those methods which I…
As I ponder the scene from My Front Porch I could easily believe that I have somehow time travelled to a day in mid May. I double check my calendar to assure myself that I am indeed still navigating the winter landscape of February, minus the winter coat as temperatures are forecast to…
Even those of us who were born in the ancient times of America’s mid century have only vague recollections of what automobile travel was like before freeways and interstates came into existence. Just to refresh our collective memories, here’s a peek at what setting out for a mountain vacation might have looked like in 1958,…
And Its Name Was Gold The history of Mohawk Valley as it is known today begins with three prospectors by the name of Asa Gould and his two partners, Friend and Jamison whose first names have been forgotten. Upon their arrival, with gold on their minds, the three split up to occupy and begin…
Leah's Front Porch 