Download or read book Fascinating True Tales from Old California written by Colleen Adair Fliedner and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2023-04-01 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For over four centuries, California has been an ever-changing landscape of innovation and revolution, triumph and tragedy. In Fascinating True Tales from Old California, author Colleen Adair Fliedner mines the history of theGolden State to collect more than fifty tales of famous Californians and their escapades from 1542 through 1940. For many, like James Lick, Leland Stanford, and John Downey, California was a place to strike it rich. Others sought freedom and a new beginning, including Chinese immigrants and African Americans, like philanthropist and freed slave, Biddy Mason. And still some characters just wanted to live their lives outside of society’s rules, like swindler James Reavis or the cross-dressing stagecoach driver, Charley Parkhurst. Readers will be entertained and enlightened as they take a trip through California’s colorful past.
Download or read book Desert Oracle written by Ken Layne and published by MCD. This book was released on 2020-12-08 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The cult-y pocket-size field guide to the strange and intriguing secrets of the Mojave—its myths and legends, outcasts and oddballs, flora, fauna, and UFOs—becomes the definitive, oracular book of the desert For the past five years, Desert Oracle has existed as a quasi-mythical, quarterly periodical available to the very determined only by subscription or at the odd desert-town gas station or the occasional hipster boutique, its canary-yellow-covered, forty-four-page issues handed from one curious desert zealot to the next, word spreading faster than the printers could keep up with. It became a radio show, a podcast, a live performance. Now, for the first time—and including both classic and new, never-before-seen revelations—Desert Oracle has been bound between two hard covers and is available to you. Straight out of Joshua Tree, California, Desert Oracle is “The Voice of the Desert”: a field guide to the strange tales, singing sand dunes, sagebrush trails, artists and aliens, authors and oddballs, ghost towns and modern legends, musicians and mystics, scorpions and saguaros, out there in the sand. Desert Oracle is your companion at a roadside diner, around a campfire, in your tent or cabin (or high-rise apartment or suburban living room) as the wind and the coyotes howl outside at night. From journal entries of long-deceased adventurers to stray railroad ad copy, and musings on everything from desert flora, rumored cryptid sightings, and other paranormal phenomena, Ken Layne's Desert Oracle collects the weird and the wonderful of the American Southwest into a single, essential volume.
Download or read book Hellacious California written by Gary Noy and published by Heyday Books. This book was released on 2020 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1855 an ex-miner lamented that nineteenth-century California "can and does furnish the best bad things," including "purer liquors...finer tobacco, truer guns and pistols, larger dirks and bowie knives, and prettier courtezans [sic]" than anywhere else in America. Lured by boons of gold and other exploitable resources, California's settler population mushroomed under Mexican and early American control, and this period of rapid transformation gave rise to a freewheeling culture best epitomized by its entertainments. Hellacious California tours the rambunctious and occasionally appalling amusements of the Golden State: gambling, gun duels, knife fights, gracious dining and gluttony, prostitution, fandangos, cigars, con artistry, and the demon drink. Historian Gary Noy unearths myriad primary sources, many of which have never before been published, to spin his true tall tales that are by turns humorous and horrifying. Whether detailing the exploits of an inebriated stallion, gambling parlors as a reinforcement and subversion of racial norms, armed skirmishes over eggs, or the ins and outs of the "Spirit Lover" scam, Noy expertly situates these stories in the context of a live-for-the-moment society characterized by audacity, bigotry, and risk. Published in collaboration with Sierra College Press.
Download or read book True Tales from Another Mexico written by Sam Quinones and published by UNM Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Merges keen observation with astute interviews and storytelling in the search for an authentic modern Mexico, finding it in part with emigrants.
Download or read book You ll Do written by Marcia A. Zug and published by Steerforth. This book was released on 2024-01-09 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An illuminating and thought-provoking examination of the uniquely American institution of marriage, from the Colonial era through the #MeToo age Perfect for fans of Rebecca Solnit and Rebecca Traister Americans hold marriage in such high esteem that we push people toward it, reward them for taking part in it, and fetishize its benefits to the point that we routinely ignore or excuse bad behavior and societal ills in the name of protecting and promoting it. In eras of slavery and segregation, Blacks sometimes gained white legal status through marriage. Laws have been designed to encourage people to marry so that certain societal benefits could be achieved: the population would increase, women would have financial security, children would be cared for, and immigrants would have familial connections. As late as the Great Depression, poor young women were encouraged to marry aged Civil War veterans for lifetime pensions. The widely overlooked problem with this tradition is that individuals and society have relied on marriage to address or dismiss a range of injustices and inequities, from gender- and race-based discrimination, sexual violence, and predation to unequal financial treatment. One of the most persuasive arguments against women's right to vote was that marrying and influencing their husband's choices was just as meaningful, if not better. Through revealing storytelling, Zug builds a compelling case that when marriage is touted as “the solution” to such problems, it absolves the government, and society, of the responsibility for directly addressing them.
Download or read book Bodie s Gold written by Marguerite Sprague and published by University of Nevada Press. This book was released on 2005-08-03 with total page 374 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bodie Mining District was established in 1860 after the discovery of gold deposits in the area. Bodie’s largest boom ended ust over twenty years later, but the town survived into the twentieth century supported by a few small but steady mines. Mining ended with World War II. What remained of the town became a state park in 1964. In Bodie’s Gold, author Marguerite Sprague uncovers the original sources of information whenever possible, from the first mining claims to interviews with former Bodieites. Enhanced with numerous historic photographs and extracts from newspapers of that period, as well as by the reminiscences of former residents, the book offers a fascinating account of life in a Gold Rush boomtown.
Download or read book California Fruits Flakes and Nuts written by David Kulczyk and published by Linden Publishing. This book was released on 2013-11-01 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A freewheeling catalog of misfits, eccentrics, creeps, criminals, and failed dreamers, this compendium profiles 45 bizarre personalities who exemplify the Golden State’s well-deserved reputation for nonconformity. In the pages, Gold Rush pioneers are revealed as murderous madmen; Hollywood celebrities are shown to be drug-addled sex maniacs; early hippies are just 1950s weirdos; and even seemingly ordinary Californians have a talent for freakish, crazy, and criminal behavior. From frontier lunatic Grizzly Adams, whose head was one massive wound after multiple bear attacks, to I Love Lucy star William Frawley, a racist, misogynist, foul-mouthed drunk, and legendarily awful film director Ed Wood, California Fruits, Flakes, and Nuts is a side-splitting look at the people who made California the strangest place on earth.
Download or read book Badge and Buckshot written by John Boessenecker and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Badge and Buckshot is a comprehensive book at many of the once-famous peace officers and outlaws of Old California. Told here for the first time are the true stories of Ben Thorn, the iron-willed but scandal-plagued sheriff of Calaveras County; John C. Boggs, the fast-shooting nemesis of the Tom Bell and Rattlesnake Dick gangs; Ben and Dudley Johnson, the notorious “Tulare Twins”; Kid Thompson, whose train-robbing exploits took place just blocks from present-day Los Angeles film and television studios; and Coates-Frost feud, California’s bloodiest vendetta, which endured more than twenty years and left fourteen men dead. Here, too, are the first complete accounts of Captain Ingram’s Rangers, the band of Confederate guerrillas who raided stagecoaches in California during the Civil War; Steve Venard, the soft-spoken lawman who killed three outlaws in a single gunfight; and the legendary Bill Miner, whose career of banditry spanned almost half a century. The product of more than ten years of painstaking research, Badge and Buckshot recounts one of the forgotten sagas of the Old West, an action-packed tale of shoot-outs, stage holdups, manhunts, and lynchings. At the same time, through extensive use of pioneer newspaper files, court records, and previously unpublished illustrations, it shatters old myths and demonstrates the overall effectiveness of the criminal justice system in Old California. For authentic Americana, Badge and Buckshot is not to be missed.
Download or read book Fascinating Short Stories For Curious Adults written by Jason Drew and published by drew dally Publishers. This book was released on 2022-11-28 with total page 79 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Need to think of something fun to gifts your friends for Thanksgiving or stocking stuffers gifts for Christmas? Want to impress your friends at a gathering or sit out? Want to learn some fascinating facts about history, science, and the paranormal? If Yes, then this Fascinating Short Stories For Curious Adults is for you, you’ll have fun reading mind-blowing stories about the coolest things that will help you impress your friends and also improve your knowledge of things. Your friends will Wish they Knew this Stories Too.
Download or read book Weird California written by Greg Bishop and published by Sterling Publishing Company Incorporated. This book was released on 2006-03-01 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE WEIRD SERIES What’s weird around here? That’s a question Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman have enjoyed asking for years—and their offbeat sense of curiosity led them to create the best-selling phenomenon, Weird N.J. But why should they stop at New Jersey when there’s so much that’s peculiar, odd, and utterly nutty across the whole U.S.? So the two Marks—along with several other writers with a taste for the strange—have focused on some key locales, giving each of them the full “New Jersey” treatment. Spanning the breadth of the country, from New York to California, these are travel guides of a sort, but to the kind of places voyagers will never find on their everyday maps. Instead, they’re chock-full of local legends, crazy characters, cursed roads, and bizarre roadside attractions. So come along and join the fun: Some of what’s out there is disturbing, some hilarious, but all of it is unforgettably…weird. Praise for WEIRD N.J.: “They are the chroniclers of the creepy, bards of the bizarre…From abandoned asylums to colorful real-life characters past and present, to folk stories of ghosts, monsters, and aliens, Mr. Sceurman and Mr. Moran have created a journal of New Jersey’s unwritten history.”—The New York Times. “Enough with the head-severing mobsters of Jersey. The state is packed with far more evil than TV could ever invent—from satanic Klan rallies to time-traveling tree farmers. And Weird N.J. has the pictures to prove it.”—Rolling Stone. “Mark Sceurman and Mark Moran see their native state as others do not. For them, it is a demented Disneyland of worldly, and otherworldly, delights.”—The Boston Globe. “If it’s the offbeat, paranormal or downright weird that you crave…there could be no better place”—USA Today. Praise for Weird U.S. “Weird U.S. is delicious armchair reading. Who can resist an ax-wielding man in a bunny suit, a home shaped like a giant shoe, cannibal albino villages, midget colonies, passages to hell or close relations of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster?”—San Francisco Chronicle. “Weird U.S. is a marvelous work of entertainment and the basis for a truly unique vacation.”—Library Journal. “Kudos to Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman…This is the book by which future explorers will chart their road trips in pursuit of the meaning of this nation.”—New York Press.
Download or read book Mojave Mysteries written by M. Behrman and published by . This book was released on 2016-12-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Author M.L. Behrman opens his cabinet of curiosities to bring you a deliciously spooky and bizarre collection of true accounts featuring everything from UFOs, unknown creatures, ghosts, hideous murders, demonic cults and some of the weirdest and most puzzling events ever to come out of the great Mojave Desert. Considered "the Rod Serling of the desert", M.L. Behrman offers an intensely interesting and perplexing assortment of stories from witnesses, both modern and historical, detailing their encounters with things that left them shaken, terrified - or worse! Fans of the supernatural and paranormal will find Mojave Mysteries a thrilling addition to their libraries and collections of strange, bizarre and unknown phenomenon.
Download or read book Notorious San Francisco written by Rj Parker and published by . This book was released on 2019-05-03 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: San Francisco, a city founded in part by criminals, was once one of the most dangerous cities in America. Its Barbary coast was called "a unique criminal district that was the scene of more viciousness and depravity, but it possessed more glamour, than any other area on the American continent." "San Francisco Notorious" brings back the glamorous depravity and noir atmosphere that made it the premier location for murder thrillers like "The Maltese Falcon," "Vertigo," and "Zodiac." This book contains more than 20 compelling tales of serial killers, deadly women, con-men, masters of escape, and unsolved mysteries. San Franciscan criminals were as colorful as the city they inhabited. Take William Thoreson, a murderous millionaire who hid the nation's largest private armory in his Pacific Heights mansion. Then there's Isabella Martin, the murderous "Queen of Grudges" who tried to poison an entire town, or Ethan McNabb and Lloyd Sampsell, the "Yacht Bandits," who used a luxurious sloop as a getaway vehicle for their dozens of bank robberies. Most of these unusual cases are largely unknown and have never appeared in book form. Included are cases that are still mysteries today, including the mysterious tale of the Zodiac Killer, complete with a new analysis and a startling new theory on the murder.
Download or read book Strange But True Tales of Car Collecting written by Keith Martin and published by Quarto Publishing Group USA. This book was released on 2017-10-24 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These bizarre true stories of collectors and their cars is "a whole lot of fun" (The Virginian Pilot). Have you heard of the fellow who squirrelled away dozens of Chevelles, Camaros, and other classic muscle cars in semi-trailers? How about the president of Shakespeare fishing rods, who sold thirty Bugattis for a mere $85,000? What about the English nobleman who cut up and buried his Ferrari hoard in an elaborate insurance scam? Or how about the Duesenberg abandoned in a Manhattan parking garage for decades only to be uncovered by Jay Leno? Most car collectors exhibit a healthy enthusiasm for their hobby by digging into their favorite marques, chasing parts, swapping stories, and generally living the car-guy lifestyle. Some, however, step over that fine line between enthusiasm and obsession—and that's where these legendary car-collector stories come from. In Strange but True Tales of Car Collecting, Keith Martin and the staff of Sports Car Market Magazine recount the wildest, most eccentric, over-the-top stories of collectors and their collections. "This likable book serves as a ‚ÄòRipley's Believe It or Not!' for car obsessives." —The New York Times
Download or read book Tales Along El Camino Sierra written by David Woodruff and published by . This book was released on 2017-01-14 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Little known and interesting true stories from California's favorite Highway-395.
Download or read book The Stories Behind the Stories written by Danielle Blenken and published by BUSHEL PECK. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did you know that J.K. Rowling came up with Harry Potter while waiting for a delayed train? Or that Winnie the Pooh was inspired by a real bear who lived in the London Zoo? Or that Dav Pilkey's teacher once ripped up his drawings as a kid and told him he'd never make a living making silly comics? (Maybe we should introduce her to Captain Underpants.) In The Stories Behind the Stories, you'll hear all these incredible stories about your favorite kid's books and authors and much more! Includes full-color illustrations plus other fascinating facts and tidbits to satisfy even the most curious reader.
Download or read book Murderous Intent written by Claudine Burnett and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2009-04 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Claudine Burnett has now written another book sure to be savored by those interested in Southern California history. Concentrating on a span of years covering the 1880's to 1920, Ms. Burnett has uncovered fascinating true stories of death and murder. Read about: - The bandit Sylvestro Morales who robbed and murdered his way through the Southland in 1889 and his capture at the Rancho Los Alamitos. - Violence and death amoung the Basque and Mexican sheepherders and sugar beet workers of Southern California. - Long Beach City Trustees hung in effigy and how their attempt to get rid of a local saloon in 1896 brought about the death of the city. - How the murder of a Long Beach policeman in 1912 led to additional tragedy and sorrow but also brought about the adoption of modern criminal investigation. - The kidnapping and torture of a Long Beah youth in 1916 by notorious, insane murderer Harry Thaw, whose killing of famed archtiect Stanford White made headlines around the world. Learn the origin of: - The towns of Long Beach and Los Alamitos - The Pacific Electric "Red Car" and jitney transport systems. - The Long Beach Municipal Band and Long Beach Police Department. Meet: - Lew-is the Light who believed he had a special delivery service to God. - "Whistling" Davis who refused to bury his dead daughter. - Cantankerous "Old Man" Ranous, killed and buried in a pile of manure. - W.L. Jennings, killed by a cat. - The spirits of murder victims who refused to rest. - Pete Labourdette, a notorious Los Alamitos saloon keeper, and the murders he worked to cover up. These are but a few examples from a book you won't want to put down until the very end.
Download or read book Mostly True Tales from the Life of Bob written by Robert Minton and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2013-09-30 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This laugh out loud Memoir is a kaleidoscope of tales that take us on a journey through a dysfunctional life. With issues like; your best friend is a superhero and hes stuck in a dumbwaiter. Your leader finds it tough to motivate the troops when hes bouncing off the BX9 bus and into oncoming traffic, NY legalizes topless dancing, a runaway lion, and youve got till noon to leave the state of Illinois. In a one of a kind hot-rod, Bob reminisces about his encounters with a motorcycle gang, two guys that changed the face of the American automobile, vampires, lesbians, and a drunken game show host.
