Tag Archives: Andre Stojka

Three men of the John Wesley Powell Colorado River Exploration party had enough! They would go no further! It was August 28, 1869 and behind them was nearly 3 months of hardship, struggle, poor food and near death. Now, they were faced with what they considered certain death, as described by John Wesley Powell in  Continue Reading »

  At 7:30 on a cold and rainy morning, April 15, 1865, Dr. Charles Augustus Leale sadly pronounced dead Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. Then, Leale walked across 10th Street in Washington, D.C. from the Peterson Boarding House, where Lincoln’s lifeless body lay, back to Ford’s Theatre, where the assassination had taken place  Continue Reading »

  The first Presidential Election in California was in 1852, pitting Democrat Franklin Pierce against the Whig Candidate, General Winfield Scott. California’s 4 electoral votes went to Pierce. According to Horace Bell in his book “Reminiscences of a Ranger,” political campaigns and elections in early Los Angeles, California were often wonders to behold. Los Angeles  Continue Reading »

There is something about a dog that affects me emotionally. Like most people, I anthropomorphize the actions of my dog as if he were  literate, intuitive and highly philosophical. That’s why I love John Muir’s wonderful story about a stray dog who changed his life.         John Muir was an early explorer  Continue Reading »

    Now is not the time to explore Death Valley landscape. On Sunday August 16, 2020 Death Valley registered a temperature of 130 degrees, Fahrenheit making it the hottest place on earth. But it’s been hotter. In 1913 Death Valley registered a temperature of 134 degrees. William Lewis Manly At times like these, I  Continue Reading »

The second most famous whale in the world had no name. We don’t know when it was born or when it died. We just know what it did. On the morning of November 20, 1820, in the Pacific Ocean 2000 miles west of South America, this sperm whale bull, around 85 feet long, attacked a  Continue Reading »

Should the United State of America attempt to purchase Cuba from Spain and make Cuba another southern Slave State? The year was 1834 and this shocking question was the subject of a secret meeting in an obscure Belgian town. The American Southern States were the northern tip of the wide practice of slavery, which stretched  Continue Reading »

Before the invention of the Internet, “Yahoo” was the word used to describe a not very bright, brutish male totally without class. Imagine a group of these “yahoos” on horseback, stumbling into the unexplored wilderness, camping at night, anxious to kill buffalo, hoping to marry an Indian Princess, and you will understand the undisciplined group  Continue Reading »