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
This New Literary Magazine is a Gift to the People of San Francisco
I’ve got some awesome news! We received a grant from the Civic Joy Fund to put out a literary magazine celebrating SF and acting to counter the stupid “Doom Loop” narrative. It’s a gift to the people of San Francisco. And after months of working on this project it’s now available
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.