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History From Kevin Knauss

Posts related to historical topics such the Gold Rush, early California, Maps, and historical documents.

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Historic Photos of Rocklin, California, 1914

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We do know that Myrtle died on October 24, 1966 and is buried next to her husband Carl Reitenour in the Rocklin cemetery. Of course, none of this answers the question of who took the photos: Myrtle, her father, her brother, or, perhaps, her husband Carl J. Reitenour? But someone close to Myrtle lived very near the spot where the 1914 occurred. Hopefully, these photos will be found by another historian and will help fill in the gaps and perhaps they have additional information regarding the photographer.

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Plumas – Eureka State Park, History and Hiking

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The Eureka Peak loop trail starts at the dam and goes up. There are great views of Eureka Lake at several places along the trail. Once at the peak, 7,447 feet, you can look into the valley below and see clear over to Grass Lake.

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Biography of B. N. Bugbey, Sacramento ’49er Pioneer and Champagne King

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My research took me to the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley where I found some important letters and images of Bugbey’s Natoma Vineyard in El Dorado County. The letters, from a local Folsom resident, describe how the prevailing opinion of the town was that Bugbey himself had set the 1871 fire that burned several buildings including his wine storehouse. The gossip was that he was in financial troubles and needed the insurance money.

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Albert Gallatin Correspondence 1875 – 1894

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1887 Gallatin Steffens: Letter noting the sale from Gallatin to Joseph Steffens, E ½ of Lot 5 between I and J streets and 18 and 19 streets. Gallatin sold his Victorian mansion to Steffens that later became the California Governor’s Mansion.

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A Mobile Phone App For Historical Sites & Museums

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Develop a mobile application that tourists, visitors, and local residents can download onto their mobile device that would show a variety of historical sites, structures, landmarks, and museums within prescribed radius around their current location or region they may be visiting in the future. Some people have compared the historical sites mobile app to the dating apps, where the history lover is searching for an afternoon date at a historic site or museum.

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Tower Records, Railroad, Historians, Preservationists Honored At Sacramento Historical Society Gala

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It started as a small idea to honor regional Sacramento residents for their contributions to preserve our history, historical buildings and infrastructure. It quickly ballooned into a gala event that was very challenging for the small Sacramento Historical Society organization. Fortunately, we all kept the goal of acknowledging the substantial accomplishments of so many deserving people first and foremost as we organized the event.

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1848 Map Of Gold Mines On The South Fork Of the American River

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It has been pointed out that several features or bends of the American River are not illustrated. I don’t believe it was the intent of the map maker to accurately depict river but to note its relative position to the mines. The distances of 25 miles to the lower mines and of 50 miles to the upper mines is pretty accurate. The lower mines were also known as Mormon Island for the first group of miners who did extensive mining after the initial discovery of gold by Marshall. The distance to the upper mines, site of Marshall’s gold discovery is also relatively accurate considering hilly terrain that had to be traversed to get to the location.

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Recordings of Bugbey’s Waltz and Galop Composed in Sacramento, California

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Bugbey commissioned Yanke to compose a galop and a waltz. The galop premiered on July 4, 1870. Bugbey was heavily involved in politics and the Republican Party at the time. So his galop was part patriotic pomp and part marketing for his sparkling wines that he was shipping to the East Coast market and Europe. Similar to the Railroad Kings Galop, Bugbey’s Champagne Galop displayed his image on the cover of the sheet music. His portrait is surrounded by grapevines and bordered on one side by an overflowing champagne flute and an exploding cork and champagne bottle on the other side.

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Clearing The Brush And Trees Before Folsom Lake Filled

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Within the 90 foot elevation change of the lake, it was proposed that all standing and down timber, brush over 6 feet high or with trunks greater than 2 inches in diameter would be cleared out. Trees whose height reached to 360 feet in elevation would be topped to 10 feet below the expected low water elevation.

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1952 U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Map and Inventory Of The North Fork Ditch

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By the time of the Army Corp report conducted its inventory most of the North Fork Ditch had been lined with concrete. Many of the appurtenances were also concrete such as wasteways, intake structures and sluice gates. Of the 37 flumes, 32 were constructed of timber and only 5 were metal. The timber flume construction allowed them to be built with small changes or bends in the direction to navigate around boulders and hillsides. The metal flumes, by contrast, were best adapted to spanning a small ravine in a straight line.

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