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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 BADMEN: MEAN MEN WITH GUNS

  $15.95 $9.57 0 review(s)

  
  

  California Badmen is a exploration of little-known Western frontier gunfighters. Billy Mulligan, Sam Temple, Peter Olsen, Joe Dye, Bob McFarlane and those responsible for the Rancheria killings are brought back through the pages and taking their stand in Californian history. The riotous lives of these unique collection of mean men with guns spill over the California frontier and rival the likes of “Wild Bill” Hickok, Billy the Kid, and the Earp Family.

• THE VALLEYS LEGENDS & LEGACIES, VOL V

  $18.95 $11.37 0 review(s)

  
  

  In this, the fifth volume of her award-winning collection of vignettes, we are treated to cultural evenings at the Barton Opera House, damp Kings River revival meetings, exhilarating afternoons at the races, and family trips to the coast. Within these pages, you will meet bankers and bandits, physicians and postmasters, editors and evangelists...even a paperhanger who dazzles his audience at the elegant Pleasanton Hotel with his mind-reading shenanigans. It’s all part and parcel of our fruitful Valley’s legends and legacies.

• THE SAN JOAQUIN: A RIVER BETRAYED

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  The story of the San Joaquin California's heartland river its people, its places, its past. In the maiden embrace of Thousand Island Lake, Garnet Lake and Shadow Lake sparkling gems of the John Muir Trail country the collected droplets of what will become the San Joaquin River gather. At these first resting spots, the waters stand clear and cold, but this pristine distinction is not to last. Wending its way down towering mountains, through deep canyons and between undulating foothills, the river passes some of the most beautiful country in America, yet by the time it reaches the San Joaquin Delta, nearly 400 miles and 10,000 vertical feet later, it has become little more than a public sewer, a fouled, controlled drain for agricultural and municipal wastewater. While nearly all of America's major rivers have been compromised, few have been so misused as the San Joaquin. In its comparatively brief history it has been dammed, diverted and depleted beyond comprehension. Some see the San Joaquin as a river betrayed. This book is not an academic history; rather, it is the story of a real river its people, its places and its past based on the lives and letters of those who have known it firsthand. More than anything, this book seeks to identify the forces and figures who have shaped, altered and corrupted the course of a once mighty river. So come, step back in time and travel along; there's one of the old river steamers now. Hop onboard and journey up the river. You can reflect on the river's rich and colorful past and visit its backwaters and byways. You'll also have a chance to stop and examine those places where the water barons and power brokers left their mark, as well as the spots where government intervention went awry. And perhaps during the journey you'll gain a bit of insight about the hard choices to be faced if the wise use of this essential resource is to prevail.

• THE SANDS OF TAMANRASSET [LSI]

  $17.95 $10.77 0 review(s)

  
  

  The biography of Charles de Foucauld, a French nobleman who put off the trappings of nobility and a career in the military to take on the ascetic life of a desert priest. An amazing story of self discipline, courage and self sacrifice. Foucauld transformed himself from a high living nobleman to a desert priest who found his life work in the deep Sahara.

• THE CALIFORNIA SNATCH RACKET

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  Subtitle: "Kidnappings During the Prohibition and Depression Eras." In California in the 1920s and 1930s, kidnapping—nicknamed the “snatch racket” by a cynical newspaperman—was the most booming criminal enterprise around. Driven by greed, desperation and sometimes plain stupidity, ransom artists preyed indiscriminately on Hollywood socialites, wealthy heiresses and even poor people who couldn’t pay a dime. Every new disappearance sold more newspapers, but for both the kidnappers and their unfortunate victims, even the simplest caper often went tragically wrong. “California Snatch Racket” brings this dark and forgotten era into shockingly vivid life. Richly illustrated, “California Snatch Racket” reflects newspaper, police, court and prison accounts of the times written in a style that places the reader on the scene. Avoiding supposition and sensationalism, the book offers true accounts of the crimes and the people. These 15 bizarre, often ironic tales illustrate the complex cruelties that flourished in the Golden Era of the Golden State. A modern city rises and lynches a pair of kidnappers. A victim begs leniency for his kidnapper in a case where a technicality demands the death penalty. A couple of college kids imitate the Leopold and Loeb kidnapping to prove their intellectual prowess and famed evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson fakes her own kidnapping to cover up an affair. “California Snatch Racket” recounts its stories in the manner of the times, while leaving judgment to the courts and the readers.