California history
California’s Bizarre Thanksgiving History
BY DAVID COPPIN LANEGAN David Coppin Lanegan (@willybillybilliam, @wavesons.band) is a writer and musician. Find his SubStack Jawbone here, and his band Wavesons’ music here. Thanksgiving has been an official holiday in the United States since 1863 when, in the midst of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday in
The Nut Tree Just Turned 100 Years Old
Legendary rest stop and gloriously tacky amusement park The Nut Tree is indeed still around in Vacaville, and now celebrating its 100th birthday. Generations of northern Californians have known the Nut Tree as their halfway stop on I-80 between the Bay Area and Sacramento, and we remember its glory days
The November 2024 BAS Voter Guide
A Big Change to This Year’s Voter Guide We’ve been doing voter guides for a really long time. I’m pretty sure we put our first one out in like 2010 or something. And I know that thousands of you rely on our voter guides to help you make decision. But
Did San Francisco’s Oldest Bar, The Saloon, Actually Burn Down in 1906?
The Saloon, in North Beach, is regularly touted as San Francisco’s oldest bar, dating back to 1861. While other bars were started sooner, their original buildings were destroyed during the 1906 earthquake and fire. The Saloon miraculously survived thanks to the firefighters and sailors that stretched a hose from the Bay in order to rescue the prostitutes that lived above the watering hole.