Juana de la Briones: A Self-Invented California Pioneer

Most of the land owned by Juana Briones--more than 4,000 acres--became the town of Los Altos Hills. But the house she built about 1845 ended up in the city limits of Palo Alto. It was finally razed in 2011. Photo courtesy of the Palo Alto Historical Association Archives.

I've recently written a new book called Historic Bay Area Visionaries, which includes the stories of six people from California history I know you will want to meet. They include an Ohlone Indian named Lope Inigo, California pioneer Juana Briones, poet Robert Louis Stevenson, heiress Sarah Winchester, immigrant millionaire Thomas Foon Chew, and silent film star Charlie Chaplin.

Green and Golden California

California poppies around my Northern California neighborhood.

One of the many things I'm finding striking in my research about my home state of California, is how little I was taught about it in school. California history is fascinating. Its flora and fauna among the richest in North America.

The early contact between Europeans and native people, in this land so long isolated by the Pacific and the Sierras, had all the elements of a great drama. It was painful, sometimes humorous, always full of misunderstandings and missed opportunities, and ultimately tragic.