Not all of the “gold mines” in California were actual gold mines! For more than 100 years, there was plenty of money to be made retrieving and refining the quicksilver necessary to processing gold, and in this episode of California’s Gold Huell learns something about the lives of the people who helped produce mercury in this once-thriving community. It’s great […]
If you follow this blog at all, you will know that I share a lot of old family photos, from those dating back to the early 1950s when my Dad was stationed in Japan to ones I shot myself in the 1980s and 1990s. So when I stumbled across this one-hour episode of California’s Gold, I knew I had to […]
A few days ago I happened to see an episode of the Science Channel show Mysteries of the Abandoned, and they had a segment about the Salton Sea and the ghost town of Bombay Beach. The story seemed vaguely familiar — and then I remembered that Huell had featured the area in a couple of different episodes. I’m pretty sure […]
One of the great things about watching Huell Howser was that he always loved listening to the stories of “old-timers” — people whose memories can still bring history alive and remind us that those old forgotten pieces of the past, like an empty field or some sun-bleached wooden boards, once formed an important part of everyday life. This episode of […]
I had never seen this 2006 episode of California’s Gold before, but once I realized there was a train trip involved I had to check it out! Huell actually travels over the border to the Mexican city of Tecate. But don’t worry if you’re not interested in sampling beer; besides touring the Tecate factory there’s a chance to explore the […]
If you’ve ever traveled through a desert, especially in the summertime, you know what a relief it can be to find a nice cool spot to get out of the car and stretch your legs, to get something cold to drink, or even just to cast your eyes on something besides a wide, flat expanse! In this 2008 episode of […]
After hiking (almost) to the top of Mt. Konocti in Lake County last March, I know from personal experience that climbing a mountain is never easy. In this episode of Huell’s show Visiting, he takes a much easier path to the mountaintop. You may recall I previously shared a 1997 segment of California’s Gold (back in January 2019) where Huell […]
Columbia State Historic Park has been on my must-see list for awhile now. In this 2005 episode of California’s Golden Parks, Huell gets the full Living History experience at the annual Columbia Diggins event. Once the second largest city in California, Columbia is a wonderfully preserved gold rush-era town, and it’s where Huell attends the annual Columbia Diggins celebration. (Click […]
It turns out there are quite a number of places in the Western United States (and even more worldwide) with names that designate them as “the Devil’s (fill in the blank).” Have you ever heard of Devil’s Slide in San Mateo County? Or Devil’s Canyon and Devil’s Punchbowl, both in the Angeles National Forest? How about Devil’s Playground in Arizona? […]