California Cornerstone

“California Cornerstone” began as a semi-weekly column in The Daily Democrat in Woodland, California, where Bill Shepard worked as a reporter in the 1960’s. In these vignettes, Bill wrote about the early California settlers in the 1800’s, before and after the Gold Rush. Here are the stories of the miners and the Native Americans, the saloon gals and prostitutes, the financiers and the laborers; the bandits and claim jumpers, the pioneers and the proprietors, the con artists and entrepreneurs. They came on horseback, by ship, overland in wagons. They came to stake their claim in paradise. For California is rich in tales, each small town a nugget of history--each ghost town a sad reminder of sudden success and faded glory. These are the cornerstones of California history.