LAST TRAIN FROM LUFFENHOLTZ . . . Their town burned by a forest fire, and sixty desperate people waited for the last train that would carry them to safety or to certain death. [Eureka, Trinidad]
FATHER FLORIAN'S SECRET . . . Sawyer's Bar was a rough and tumble mining camp in the 1850s until the little padre of Paradise Flat came with his secret bundle. [Sawyers Bar, Weaverville, Marysville, Trinidad, Cecilville, Scott Valley, Paradise Flat, Coffee Creek, Somes Bar, Happy Camp]
THE RUSSIAN AND THE LADY . . . In early San Francisco this star-crossed romance was to become California's first tragic love story. [San Francisco, Benicia, Fort Ross, Santa Clara]
HATFIELD THE RAINMAKER . . . The people of San Diego can laugh at it now, but they are careful how they pray for rain. [San Diego, Santa Rosa, Yuba City, Guerneville, Los Angeles]
DIAMONDS IN THE BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAINS . . . California's most brilliant hoax was pulled on the West's most clever financiers by two simple old prospectors. [San Francisco, Butte County]
BLACK BART, SHOTGUN POET . . . There is a legend about this California bandit who never hurt anybody and didn't make much money at his trade. [Columbia, Copperopolis, Covelo, Fort Ross, Guerneville, Oroville, San Francisco, Sonora, Stockton, Ukiah, Willits, Duncan's Mills]
ONCE UPON A WINTER NIGHT . . . It was Christmas Eve and something wonderful was about to happen; some people might call it a miracle. [Goose Lake, Mendocino Coast, Fort Crook]
THE DREAM AND THE CURSE OF SAM BRANNAN . . . The Prince of Calistoga was hounded by a Mormon curse, and California's first millionaire died in poverty, misery, and solitude in Escondido. [Calistoga, Sacramento, San Francisco, Yuba City, Escondido, Napa Valley]
THE SPIRIT OF JOAQUIN . . . The folk still talk about Joaquin Murieta, California's dashing Robin Hood, who was mostly fiction spiced with imagination. [Carmel, Cecilville, Marysville, Mt. Shasta, San Jose, Stockton, Sierra Nevada]
THE SIEGE OF SEBASTOPOL . . . The Russians and the British fought a war, two crusty Californians fought a duel, and a town got a new name. [Sebastopol, Fort Ross, Bodega, Russian River, Pine Grove]
LOLA MONTEZ AND LOTTA CRABTREE . . . These two fabulous women were once well known in California; when their paths crossed, one was going up and the other was coming down. [Grass Valley, Weaverville, Sonoma, San Francisco, Oroville, Quincy, Rough & Ready, Eureka]
A MOUNTAIN THAT WAS NAMED BY FATE . . . This magnificent mountain in Northern California was named by three different people at three different times; they spoke three different languages, yet each gave it the same name. [St. Helena, Calistoga, Clear Lake, Fort Ross, San Rafael, Sonoma, Bodega, Russian River, Altimira]
FIFTEEN SECONDS TO KILL . . . The historic fight at the O-K Corral was just a Sunday School picnic compared to this fast and bloody gun battle in Willits. [Willits, Mendocino County]
WILLIAM B. IDE, THE HERO OF SONOMA . . . He was president of the Bear Flag Republic, the Commander-in-Chief of its little army, and the most versatile official of old Colusa County; yet he died in poverty, mysteriously and in secret. [Sacramento, Sonoma, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Martinez, Red Bluff, Monroeville, Sierra Nevada]
WHEN MALAY PETE WENT UP . . . A heroic little man with grand ideas became what might have been California's first balloon casualty. [Oroville, Santa Rosa, Ukiah, Sierra Nevada]
SONTAG AND EVANS . . . A fight with the railroad forced two ordinary San Joaquin Valley men to become very extraordinary outlaws. [Chico, Fresno, Oroville, Porterville, Visalia, Collis]
YOU CAN'T WIN 'EM ALL . . . A good angel and a bad angel gambled, and the stakes were Dr. John Marsh, the squire from east of Mount Diablo. [San Jose, McKinleyville, Napa Valley, San Gabriel, Los Angeles, San Quentin, Mt. Diablo, Sonoma]
LYNCHING AT LOOKOUT BRIDGE . . . Folk retribution, justice, and an unexpected touch of irony make the difference in this true story of violence in the Old West. [Alturas, Adin, Bieber, Lookout, Fort Crook]
HIGH SPIRITS . . . The old man thought he could hide the keg of liquor, but the old lady always got to it one way or another. [Healdsburg]
ISHI -- THE MAN . . . An incredible story of survival, the story of an Indian who was the last of his people. [Redding, Oroville, San Francisco, Butte County]
