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• THE FRESNO FAIR: AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF CLAUDE C. LAVAL

  $19.95 $11.97 0 review(s)

  
  

  The first Fresno Fair opened in 1883 with five days of horse racing, a live stock exhibit, and a few small produce stalls. Modest as it was, it was a huge success; only five years later, a grandstand was added to the fairgrounds. Agriculture, industrial, and commerce exhibit halls followed in the early 1900s. A wooden race track was built in 1920. Claude C. "Pop" Laval's camera lens missed little of the excitement of the early fairs. Many of his magnificent photographs are available in print for the first time in this book. Each is literally a snapshot in time, revealing the historical richness of our Valley's great community event. Proceeds from the sale of each book benefit the restoration project of the Claude C. "Pop" Laval Photographic Collection. Your purchase of a piece of "Pop's" treasure will help ensure that future generations can enjoy seeing the Valley as "Pop" saw it, through the "Windows on the Past."

• CALIFORNIA DISASTERS [LSI]

  $18.95 $11.37 0 review(s)

  
  

  It was another time. Deadly earthquakes, steamboat explosions, floods, train wrecks, and other tragedies were a part of everyday life in nineteenth-century California. Yet, the men and women of the day licked their wounds, mourned their dead, picked up the pieces, and plunged ahead to build a great prosperous new state that took its place in the forefront of our great Union. This is their stories, in their own words. First-person accounts of the major 19th century California catastrophes. Includes scores of contemporary period photographs and other illustrations.

• Choose Your Weapon

  $16.95 $10.17 0 review(s)

  
  

  Choose Your Weapon: The Duel in California, 1847–1861 describes in graphic detail the major figures, causes, and means by which the Golden State’s 75 “affairs of honor” of that timeframe were fought. The number of shootouts between these “gentleman” was greater than that of any other state during those years. Because so many duels were fought over politics, the book reveals much about the major politicians and newspaper editors of that era. In addition, there is a great deal of irony. For example, in 1850 Assemblyman George Penn Johnston crafted a bill that provided severe penalties for anyone convicted of dueling. Still, it remained impossible to empanel a jury that would convict a duelist. Eight years later this same legislator sent a challenge to a member of the State Senate, and, in the shootout that followed, killed him. Though found not guilty, he was the first duelist to be tried under the very statute he had written. New evidence also reveals there was far more paradox than previously imagined regarding the infamous duel between U.S. Senator David C. Broderick and State Supreme Court Justice David Terry. One of the most grueling duels ever to take place on the frontier was the 1853 faceoff between U.S. SenatorWilliam Gwin and Congressman Joseph W. McCorckle. Fought in the hills above bucolic San Mateo with 54 caliber Mississippi Yagers at forty paces, by dint of several miracles neither was killed. In summary, Choose Your Weapon provides readers with an invaluable historical primer on California’s Golden Era, as well as the tumultuous temperament of its pioneer politicians and newspaper editors. Audience: California history readers. About the Author: Christopher Burchfield has been researching and writing about the Gold Rush Era of California for more than thirty years. Over this period he and his wife, Genendal, have traveled up and down the state, scouring its libraries and history centers, from Barstow to Yreka, often camping out under some very inclement weather conditions. He has had over 100 articles published in various magazines. $16.95 ($21.95 Canada) • Trade Paperback • 6" x 9" • 260 pages ISBN 978-1-61035-277-2

• Stories of Service: Volume 2

  $24.95 $14.97 0 review(s)

  
  

  Subtitle: Valley Veterans Remember World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War. The San Joaquin Valley?s rich history of courage, military service, duty and honor is preserved for future generations in Janice Stevens? new book Stories of Service, Volume II: Valley Veterans Remember World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Cold War (Craven Street Books, November 2011). In this fascinating sequel to Stevens? original Stories of Service, ordinary soldiers, sailors, airmen and civilians from the Valley tell in their own words their experiences during a half century of armed conflict. The one hundred personal memoirs in Stories of Service, Volume II record Valley veterans? trials, tragedies and triumphs from Pearl Harbor to the Mekong Delta. These are stories of harrowing combat, separation from loved ones, survival in POW camps, boredom, fear, bravery, victory and returning home ? plus all the bizarre, incongruous and humorous events of wartime and military service.

• PERILOUS TRAILS, DANGEROUS MEN

  $15.95 $9.57 0 review(s)

  
  

  Punctuated by gunshots and posse hoofbeats, these true tales, many told for the first time, illustrate, in both words and rare photographs, perilous trails and dangerous men from a time gone forever.

• CALIFORNIA DESPERADOS

  $15.95 $9.57 0 review(s)

  
  

  "I shot him in the left temple; the gun dropped from his hands; he quivered one instant, and Andy McGinnis climbed the Golden Stairs...." This was Chris Evans speaking. Evans, the killer, train robber and fugitive, was describing the famous shootout at Young's cabin when he and his partner John Sontag ambushed and killed two members of a posse that was pursuing them. In California Desperadoes, Evans and seven other early outlaws tell their own raw stories-tales of holdups, shootouts and desperate flights from the law. Witness the cruel confessions of the ruthless gang of California bandits who murdered a whole family-men, women, and children-in the opening days of the Gold Rush. Stand on the gallows with the notorious Jim Stuart as he is hanged by San Francisco vigilantes determined to retake their city from hordes of Australian convicts, robbers and killers. The ill-starred adventures of Tom Bell, Tiburcio Vasquez and Charles Dorsey will hold you spellbound as the outlaws themselves take you along the dangerous trails they rode. And stage robbers Jim Smith and Dick Fellows will shock you with their own tales of the harrowing and sometimes hilarious antics of the California highwaymen of another day. These are true stories told by true desperadoes and illustrated with many rare photographs. Here are first-person accounts you will not soon forget!