California History
Coming soon!
1898: Charles F. Lummis Building
El Alisal Before the Turn of the Century
Click here to read about this book that is now a collector's item, but soon to come out in a new edition.
Mysteries of the Murders at
Mission San Miguel
It was one of the worst crimes in California history, unsurpassed until the 1960s. More striking is the fact that it took place in a fabled, romantic, pastoral setting of peace and respite. The California missions in the 1840s became derelict remnants of the vanished pride of Spanish colonization and missionary zeal. The missions were abandoned, turned into barns or saloons. Some were left to deteriorate and their adobe melt back into the soil. Mission San Miguel was closed, but later purchased by William Reed, who made the mission buildings and property into a ranch for his family. Hearing of high prices paid for livestock in the gold camps, he drove a herd north to sell. He returned with more gold, he said, than his young “son could lift.” At the same time, a gang of desperadoes began a crime spree in Monterey and headed south. Traveling along the missionaries’ trail, El Camino Real, they had to pass by Mission San Miguel. There in the old mission buildings, a horrifying crime took place....
Click here to read more about this book
Click here to buy
Mysteries of the Murders at Mission San Miguel
Mission San Miguel
It was one of the worst crimes in California history, unsurpassed until the 1960s. More striking is the fact that it took place in a fabled, romantic, pastoral setting of peace and respite. The California missions in the 1840s became derelict remnants of the vanished pride of Spanish colonization and missionary zeal. The missions were abandoned, turned into barns or saloons. Some were left to deteriorate and their adobe melt back into the soil. Mission San Miguel was closed, but later purchased by William Reed, who made the mission buildings and property into a ranch for his family. Hearing of high prices paid for livestock in the gold camps, he drove a herd north to sell. He returned with more gold, he said, than his young “son could lift.” At the same time, a gang of desperadoes began a crime spree in Monterey and headed south. Traveling along the missionaries’ trail, El Camino Real, they had to pass by Mission San Miguel. There in the old mission buildings, a horrifying crime took place....
Click here to read more about this book
Click here to buy
Mysteries of the Murders at Mission San Miguel
The Pacific Coast Railway
Comes to Arroyo Grande &
The Pacific Coast Railway
Southbound to Los Alamos
This book tells the story of the pioneering narrow-gauge railroad on California's Central Coast. Growing from a two-thousand foot freight line running from the nearest wagon road to the Port San Luis pier in the early 1970s, eventually the Pacific Coast Railway extended northwards to the city of San Luis Obispo and southwards through Low Alamos to Los Olivos, in the Santa Yanez Valley, by the mid-1880s. This book tells its story through the unique newspaper and photo records of the BENNETT-LOOMIS ARCHIVES in Arroyo Grande, CA. Originally published as two books--one for the centennial of the arrival of the Pacific Coast Railway into Arroyo Grande in 1881 and one for the centennial of its arrival in Los Alamos in 1882--this publication combines both into a single volume. In addition to the narrative of the construction and operation of the railway line, the text also includes anecdotes about "P.C. Railway Humor" and "Wrecks and Mishaps."
Click here to buy The Pacific Coast Railway books.
Comes to Arroyo Grande &
The Pacific Coast Railway
Southbound to Los Alamos
This book tells the story of the pioneering narrow-gauge railroad on California's Central Coast. Growing from a two-thousand foot freight line running from the nearest wagon road to the Port San Luis pier in the early 1970s, eventually the Pacific Coast Railway extended northwards to the city of San Luis Obispo and southwards through Low Alamos to Los Olivos, in the Santa Yanez Valley, by the mid-1880s. This book tells its story through the unique newspaper and photo records of the BENNETT-LOOMIS ARCHIVES in Arroyo Grande, CA. Originally published as two books--one for the centennial of the arrival of the Pacific Coast Railway into Arroyo Grande in 1881 and one for the centennial of its arrival in Los Alamos in 1882--this publication combines both into a single volume. In addition to the narrative of the construction and operation of the railway line, the text also includes anecdotes about "P.C. Railway Humor" and "Wrecks and Mishaps."
Click here to buy The Pacific Coast Railway books.
Books by.... Charlie H. Johnson, Jr.
