I have to admit that until this morning I had no idea there was more than one type of mammoth. When I heard the word ‘mammoth’ I’ve always thought of the wooly mammoth — like the 30,000-year-old specimen discovered this past summer frozen in the Yukon’s permafrost. However, watching this episode of California’s Gold, originally aired in November 2004, I […]
I nearly missed the Historic Life-Saving Station Cemetery even though I was on the alert as I drove along Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in Point Reyes National Seashore. I had seen a signpost on my way south, but traveling northbound the turn was unmarked. When I finally spotted it, the narrow lane took me over a cattle guard and up […]
This week’s collection of images consists solely of postcards, mostly showing the towns of Punta Arenas and Puerto Montt. Punta Arenas, founded in 1848 as a penal colony, happens to be the one of the most southerly ports in the world and a jumping-off point for the Antarctic. Yerba maté, or simply maté, is the national drink of Argentina, Uruguay, […]
I honestly didn’t expect an episode entitled ‘Cotton’ could be all that interesting, but as usual Huell takes what might be a dull subject and makes it informative yet fun. California grows its share of the nation’s cotton, both Upland/Acala and Pima types, and cotton is the main industry of the town of Buttonwillow, which was founded back in 1895. […]
Back in October 2018, I featured an episode of California’s Gold titled San Francisco Cemeteries. In that episode, Huell Howser visited the city’s three remaining cemeteries and told the story of how most of the remains were relocated south to the town of Colma starting in the early 1900s — but there was a big part of the story that […]
Back in August 2018 I was pretty thrilled to see the small group of buffalo in the Bison Paddock at Golden Gate Park; there have been American bison living in the park ever since the 1890s, and their existence even helped to bring the species back from the brink of extinction. In this Classic episode of California’s Gold from 1991, […]
Franklin Simmons (1839-1913), Penelope, 1896, Marble Gift of the Daughters of Penelope, an International Hellenic Women’s Organization, to the Fine Arts Museums of San Fransisco on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Daughters’ founding by Alexandra Apostolides in San Francisco on November 16, 1929. The donation in honor of Hellenism was made possible by the vision of Mrs. […]
During my recent visit to San Francisco I was surprised to learn about the remnants of an historic cemetery sitting in the midst of the Lincoln Park Golf Course, less than half a mile from the Legion of Honor art museum. The story behind this memorial site is fascinating and still ongoing, and I’ll be writing more about it before […]
I spotted this seriously faded sign in August 2022 on the site of the Key Klub, first opened in the late 1940s or early 1950s, Lower Nob Hill. The name has recently been brought back to life in the guise of a new restaurant space — temporarily at least, as the building is due to be razed for redevelopment. This […]