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Lemuel brought home news of a tract of government land known as Soapweed Plains, on the north rim of the Mohave Desert, with enticing reports of rich mineral belts in the adjacent mountain ranges. It looked like the opportunity for which they had waited. They would homestead, and in a few years Huntington would be a name indelibly branded on the cattle industry of the State. And there was the further golden prospect of rich mines! Packing their few belongings, husband and wife bought tickets to the dismal wind-whipped station of Mirage, on the Mohave & Southwestern Railroad, and spent two everlasting days shooing a trinity of stubborn burros over a hell waste, into the new land of promise. But again the captivating beckoner had tricked them. Soapweed Plains was a sweltering realm of sagebrush, sand and sidewinders, twenty-five miles wide, divided off from the rest of the desert universe by a horseshoe barricade of saw-edge peaks and table mountains that abutted a sky-line mesa to the south—and by serenading coyotes by night.
Located along the El Camino Real at the crossroads of the Pacheco and Hecker Pass highways, Gilroy is surrounded by the rich farmland of southern Santa Clara County. The region boasts a mineral hot springs, prime grazing land in the eastern foothills, and redwood forests to the west. In addition to successful lumbering enterprises, vast cattle ranches, and thriving resorts, Gilroy claims to be "The Garlic Capital of the World." From the early settlements of the Ohlone, through the vibrant Rancho era and post "gold-fever" boom, to the present-day world-famous Garlic Festival, this book illustrates the unique history of this town at the southern end of Silicon Valley. Drawn from the archives of the Gilroy Museum and the albums of pioneer families are more than 200 vintage images of the businesses, dwellings, pastimes, hopes, and high-jinks of the individuals who made Gilroy what it is today.
Our 69th issue is being put together in the chaos of the holiday season. It’s hard, but the team always manages to pull things together at the last minute! So I’ll just say best wishes from everyone at Wildside and Black Cat Weekly…Michael Bracken, Barb Goffman, Sam Hogan, Darrell Schweitzer, Cynthia Ward, Karl Wurf, and me. And I will note that we have two original stories this issue, by Phyllis Ann Karr and James A. Hearn, along with our usual mix of classics and modern tales. And some manage to fit neatly into both mystery and the fantastic categories (see the contents list below.) Here’s this issue’s lineup: Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure: “The Third Wish,” by James A. He...
For more than two centuries the peaceful grasslands east of the Gabilans in San Benito and south Santa Clara counties have captivated Californians. East of the Gabilans is a unique history of this special land.Here is the record of the Spanish and Mexican land grants, the ranchos of pre-American California, the lives of the Spanish and Mexicans, and the advent of the Americans in the 1840s and 1850s -- the Castros, the Breens, the towns of San Juan Bautista, Hollister, Gilroy, and Tres Pinos, and Henry Miller, the Cattle King,
There is no county in California so rich in material, romantic, progressive and adventurous, as the County of Santa Clara. It absorbs about the whole of the Santa Clara Valley, rightly proclaimed the richest valley in the state, and in respect of size, the richest in the world. It is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay and the county, itself, embraces 1304 square miles. This book tells the story of this exceedingly beautiful piece of earth from the first settlements to the early 20th century.