The final installment of my mineral posts has taken awhile to get here, and it took me a fair bit of digging (no pun intended!) to find more information about the featured rocks. Whatever I did find initially seemed to come from either Wikipedia — quoting scientific sources that I struggled to understand — or alternative health websites focused on […]
You may remember a couple of weeks ago I published a post about the California State Mining Museum in Mariposa and mentioned that I wished I could find a mineral museum nearer to where I live. Well, it just so happens that I did find a very nice if small collection of minerals from various places around the world on […]
Today, I wanted to find a way to observe the newest US federal holiday — but somehow shouting “Happy Juneteenth!” just doesn’t feel appropriate. Instead, I took the long overdue action of educating myself about the history of this historic day. I have to admit I was a little confused about its origin and meaning. I assumed it commemorated the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation — but a bit of research online showed me how wrong I was! Certainly part of the blame for this gap in my knowledge lies with my high school history curriculum, which completely passed over this “minor” detail in covering the American Civil War and Reconstruction. But of course, I’ve been out of high school a very long time. So, for anyone else who hasn’t been paying attention until this year, here’s what I now understand: The Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves held in the confederate states, took effect on January 1, 1863. But it wasn’t until Congress passed the 13th Amendment in April 1864 that emancipation was made national policy. This amendment was signed by Lincoln in February 1865 and ratified in December of that same year. Not surprisingly, even after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect it wasn’t immediately implemented throughout the American South. Union soldiers spread the news of the new law as they moved deeper into Confederate territory. It wasn’t until two years after it took effect, in mid June 1865, […]
On Wednesday I featured the final episode of Huell Howser’s California Mission series; early in the show he visits a fourth-grade classroom to meet the kids and have a look at their mission models and artwork. Back in 1980, my mom was working with a fourth-grade Montessori class when they did their California Mission unit, and she was able to […]
I don’t know about you, but where I am both the news and the weather this week have been gloomy and chilly, and I’ve spent a lot of time indoors wondering what happened to the spring-like weather (with temperatures in the high 70s) we had just a few days ago. That is why, to lift our spirits just a bit […]
I was truly amazed when I came across this episode of California’s Golden Parks because I’ve seen the Peace Statue many times from afar and had no idea of its significance. I had always imagined it was merely part of the nearby Timber Cove Lodge. It turns out I wasn’t completely wrong, but there’s so much more to the story […]
I had a completely different episode in mind to share this week, but the story of Cuyamaca Rancho State Park caught my eye — especially since I just spent a couple of days walking through burned oak woodland on Sacramento Bar (as discussed here). On October 28, 2003, the Cedar Fire roared through more than 90 percent of this state […]
Uprooted! Japanese Americans During WWII is the name of a Signature Exhibit currently on display at the California Museum in downtown Sacramento.