Murphys is a bustling little town in the foothills�a town so popular that it won�t be little for long. It�s a favorite for weekend jaunts, and home to an eclectic group of people attracted by the natural surroundings, laid-back lifestyle, and, increasingly, world-class wineries. Originally named for the trading camp of John and Daniel Murphy, the area became a boomtown during the Gold Rush, and later hosted such notables as Mark Twain, Black Bart, Ulysses S. Grant, and Horatio Alger. Nearb...

The Angels Camp and Copperopolis regions offer a fascinating chapter in the history of the Mother Lode. Calaveras County�s southwest corner has many tales to tell, including one of the earliest settlements of the Native American in California; two of the most famous names in Americana, Mark Twain and Black Bart; and two major events in national history, the Gold Rush and the Civil War. An important Gold Rush town, Angels Camp gained even greater fame through Twain�s �The Celebrated Jumping...

Northern Calaveras County stretches eastward from the valley towns of Wallace and Jenny Lind, through the Campo Seco and Mokelumne Hill gold country, to the county seat in San Andreas and finally extends to the upcountry mining camps and logging settlements of West Point and Railroad Flat. Historically water and trails connected these diverse regions. The Mokelumne River and its tributaries�diverted into flumes and ditches�brought water to the river bars, mines, ranches, settlements, and t...

The hamlet of Jamestown dates to the early Gold Rush. Discovered in August 1848, the Woods Creek placers at Jamestown eventually yielded millions of dollars in gold. When the easily mined placer gold gave out, the town remained a trade and supply depot for mining higher in the foothills, with a prime location on the roads from the Central Valley. From the 1890s to 1910s, the hard-rock mining era, known as the second Gold Rush, granted new life to the town, surrounded as it is by the Mother...

Texas Women: Their Histories, Their Lives engages current scholarship on women in Texas, the South, and the United States. It provides insights into Texas’s singular geographic position, bordering on the West and sharing a unique history with Mexico, while analyzing the ways in which Texas stories mirror a larger American narrative. The biographies and essays illustrate an uncommon diversity among Texas women, reflecting experiences ranging from those of dispossessed enslaved wome...