This is 54 minute film about hard work, teamwork, love, compassion, and strong relationships.
In 2025, seven Nevada County (California) Chinese families shared stories about what it was like to grow up in Grass Valley’s Chinatown, be part of a big family, work in a family-owned business, their first jobs, and exploring the Empire Mine grounds between the time the mine closed and when California State Parks acquired it.
The Families: Fore, Chan, Yun, Tinloy, Heung, Oyung, and Wood
Gary Noy, Sierra College history teacher, explains the impacts of over 100 years of effects from the Chinese Exclusion Act.
What could be better than going for a walk on a beautiful day? Doing it with a furry or two-footed friend, perhaps. How about taking an expert along to describe the surroundings?
Recently, the Izi.Travel app – for both Apple and Android smartphones – has made made it possible to combine deep historical research with storytelling and geofencing. Geofencing uses phone location, satellites, and Google Maps to begin automatically playing stories when you’re close a “geographic target” set by the tour builder.
Rose Murphy and I first teamed up to produce a Nevada County Historical Society (NCHS) Bulletin article. That project blossomed and expanded into stories about volunteerism in Nevada County and a spotlight on the buildings of the Grass Valley Museum in dire need of attention. Co-producing Izi.Travel walking tours came next. Part of our process includes interviewing guests.
Three of our tours follow a widely used walking path (see links below). Each one offers something different from old newspaper articles focused on a specific area to community experts covering mining, beneficial fire, and botany.
“Uncovering the stories of the past has completely transformed how I see our town. It’s like viewing a familiar place through a brand new lens. These tours blend the joy of walking with the excitement of historical discovery,” says Rose Murphy.
Comments from Izi tour reviewers:
“Thank you for your efforts and skills, and important contribution to public history. People who live here especially, and visitors, too, will feel a greater sense of belonging because of the creative work you are doing.” – Gage McKinney, author of When Miners Sang: The Grass Valley Carol Choir
Verra Cleveland, whose ancestors are highlighted in the Historic Rough and Ready Cemetery tour says, “I learned more about (the truth) of my family than I knew for all the seventy-odd years of my life.”
“It [the tour] is SO awesome and amazing. Long time coming. Beyond exciting.” – Jeffrey Boylan, Director of North Star Powerhouse Mining Museum
Tour research and story arc plotting are similar to writing a book, but the production timeline is much shorter! When I was reviewing phone app platforms, I noticed many tours are created with artificial voices. Ours are 100% human. This adds charm and soothing qualities to the audio experience. Working with NCHS and producing tours for the community is a lot of fun. Best of all is watching expressions cross the faces of walking tourists as they’re listening and learning.
Since beginning to build tours, Rose and I have produced seven. Four of which are on and around the Wolf Creek Trail. After a summer break, we plan to resume production in the fall.
View Nevada County Historical Society, Rose Murphy, and Lisa Redfern produced walking tours at the links below.
Books are one thing I don’t feel too guilty about buying. After all, each one is like a Vulcan Mind Meld.
After my last post about book discovery on Sheperd.com, I decided to keep track of the other sources I use to find them.
Since my year usually begins with the Sierra Writers Conference, it’s a good bet that multiple reads will come from that source. Other recent ones include Bluesky (social), YouTube book reviews, and ‘like’ research on Amazon.
When you see and hear authors talking about their work, their enthusiasm rubs off. These first two books are by authors I watched in Zoom presentations during the 2024 Sierra Writers Conference.
Climate Change | Sea Level Rise | California Homeowners
In California Against the Sea, Rosanna’s coverage of climate change, sea level rise, and resilience/adaptation in the cities along the California coast is carefully considered and compassionate. Her writing is clear and the material is not too emotionally overwhelming. As I was reading, I wished this book was also NOVA series.
Rosanna begins her California story at the Mexican border and works her way North. Having visited and vacationed in many, it’s easy to envision each place. The fresh perspective I gained is what it’s like to be a permanent resident with the ocean constantly eroding your roads and property lines. What happens if your city condemns your home, or your insurance company stops coverage?
[Watch “Pacifica fly over video” in resources below.]
Living in California’s forests, we have different issues – wildfire and smoke – but the questions are the same. As a society, we can’t keep turning away from change brought on extreme weather.
In city, county, state, and national governance, we must match desired behaviors (moving or not allowing new building in frought places) with incentives to act.
Animals | Night | Photography
Nocturnalia– When Charles Hood described wrap-around model lighting used to highlight animals active at night, I was already ordering his book! (Hood is a wildlife photographer). I was also intrigued when he said that California has over a hundred bat species…something I’ve not had much luck researching.
Book quote: “Bats! Are! Great!” The first photograph for this chapter is a stunning image of a bat in flight taking a sip from a pond with sharp splash droplets and a mirror image of the animal reflected in the water.
The humor and enthusiasm Hood uses to tell his stories are easily detectable in his writing. His book will make you smile.
The images and descriptions are big book, hard bound, coffee table quality but are packaged in a soft-cover compact package at a reasonable price. For animal lovers, explorers, photographers, and naturalists, it’s a book they’ll appreciate.
The next two titles were Blue Sky recommendations. Bluesky is a Twitter spin-off from when it was fun. The new platform has a nice vibe (so far). Connecting with academics, naturalists, and photographers, especially folks who enjoy posting pictures of #moss is great.
The Modern Bestiary by Joanna Bagniewska. This book is entertaining and has cool graphics. It has quirky information about weird animals and is written in short segments.
The first animal I read about was the Atlantic horseshoe crab. The bleeding industry, which Bagniewska mentions, first came to my attention in a news article with a graphic photo showing how this is done. In a media environment saturated with war and human despair, the picture of the crabs strapped in with tubes sucking out their blue blood took my breath away and had me reaching for a tissue. I still don’t fully understand my strong visceral reaction, but an affection for ‘ugly’ animals is here to stay.
If you have an animal or trivia lover, or a zoology student in your life, The Modern Bestiary would make a lovely gift. (If I were the gift giver, I’d pair Nocturnalia and The Modern Bestiary together.)
Hard Science Fiction | More Animals |Apocalypse
Children of Timeby Adrian Tchaikovsky was a recommended read by Jay, CEO of Blue Sky. Her comment about characters based on octopi sold me. It’s a long book, the first of three. Normally, I steer clear of science fiction because it’s difficult to imagine off-world settings.
When my husband, who has an extensive science fiction library, saw me reading it, he stopped in his tracks saying, “We already have that e-book series, and why are you reading it?”
My reply, “I don’t care about the human characters, but I’m loving the (jumping) spider civilization.”
Tchaikovsky’s description of what drove humanity into space is bleak, but also fitting for today, even though he wrote and published it before 2015.
Romance | Entertainment | Light Reading | Historical Fiction
I discovered The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston from YouTube book reviewer, gabbyreads. Since I also enjoyed We Spread by Ian Reid, I took Gabby’s recommendation for The Dead Romantics.
Dead Romantics is something light and easy to counterbalance some of the heavier topics I choose. Anything with ghosts and romance, published by an imprint of Penguin Random House is bound to be a winner.
Finally, Amazon. Sigh. It’s a market dominator for a reason…
A perk of being a supporting member of Shepherd.com, is a book launch program. A participation requirement is to submit ten author names with books ‘like’ yours. While doing this research, I discovered two more titles that I’ll keep in my library (a pile next to my bed) ready to read when the next ‘hole’ appears.
My historical fiction novel,Crossing: A Chinese Family Railroad Novel is quietly rolling out. Once it appears in the Amazon system, I will send it to the launch program.
A Girl Called Samson by Amy Harmon – an indentured servant in Massachusetts disguises herself as a man and joins the Continental Army.
The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi – Set in the 1950s in India, a young woman escapes an abusive marriage and begins working as a henna artist for the upper class. Keeping secrets is a must.
Seven new books before February ends is satisfying!
UPDATE: April 28, 2026 – Shepherd has been rebranded as BookDNA.com
Last year, I got a detailed e-mail that I thought was probably spam. Since I wasn’t completely sure, I asked my husband – a seasoned Silicon Valley veteran – to have a look.
He said, “It’s not spam. They’re building something.”
Once Ben Fox, the architect of Shepherd (a non-faith-based book-finding website) got my attention, I started reading his updates about the newest progress with site construction.
It’s been a blast watching (and taking part in!) the site’s growth.
Shepherd keeps getting better and more FUN.
Because I know the books I’ve recommended are the best-of-the-best, I’ve read many titles on their reading lists, and I’ve also bought and read books that Fox and other Shepherd authors have recommended, I can say, with certainty, this website is a good source of quality books.
One of my recent, soothing activities has been creating this collection of animated backgrounds to play on my living room screen.
The Shepherd website reminds me of this. It is a cozy virtual space that feels like a bookshop filled with friends who are sophisticated readers.
UPDATE: April 28, 2026 – Shepherd has been rebranded as BookDNA.com
My most satisfying reads come as recommendations from friends and their book clubs.
As a supplement to the book pointers from friends, this website is one I’ve been checking out when there’s an open space in my reading queue. A recent feature is a massive book list, the result of asking 9,000+ authors to recommend their favorite reads of the year.
Reviewing the entire list, I can vouch for its quality. On it, are many titles and authors I’ve read and enjoy.
Ben Fox is the builder behind Shepherd (a non-religious book-finding website).
When describing books, Fox quotes Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, “What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.”
“When I look for a new book online, it feels soulless,” Fox says. “Online bookstores sell books like toothpaste or powdered gravy mix. Something about that is profoundly wrong.”
About his website, Fox says, “We give readers fun and unique ways to follow their curiosity down rabbit holes. Try our bookshelf on science fiction or life satisfaction. At every step, you can meet the person who recommended that book, the book list it came from, and what they are passionate about.”
As we head into gifting season, the Shepherd website is worth a visit if book lovers are on your list.
ANNOTATED NEVADA COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY INTERVIEW
Gerald Angove, Sierra College President 1975 – 1993
0:04:20 – 1940s Hughes Road. 0:04:45 – Golf course caddy & fish bait 0:10:27 – Hills Flat community, gas plant, and Nevada County Narrow-Gauge Railroad 0:42:02 – Pollution and Lake Olympia 0:48:00 – 1975 President of Sierra College 0:49:00 – Twelve-year legislative process to build Nevada County Campus 0:49:40 – Nevada County Campus 0:50:16 – First phase of NCC Construction
David Rumsey Map Collection, David Rumsey Map Center, Stanford Libraries
I repurposed it from a baseball diamond in a cornfield to maps and roads; footpaths, wagon roads, sail and overland maps, railways, highways, and high-speed jets.
The Chinese railroad story called to me because the marginalized people who accomplished this herculean task deserve to be known and recognized for their contributions.
The image above shows nineteenth-century political cartoonists poking at the railroad monopoly. It’s no joke that it, and many other of our systems, have become monstrous.
The bigger issue I grapple with now is the systems we’ve established and how to backtrack from there.
Those of us living in developed countries exist at an apex of technology and structures designed for easy living (and buying). But we are also at a point where most of us understand this way of living is not sustainable.
Just this last year, we saw Congress avert economic devastation when the national railroad workers threatened to strike. Stronger-than-ever storms are shredding housing and infrastructure and in California, Earth-scorching firestorms and drought are constant worries.
Established infastructure is fragile and revealing weak spots.
A Barbara Kingsolver book I read recently provided an idea I’ve latched onto for backtracking some of my own contributions to Western culture’s ever-expanding quest for growth.
In the book, a middle-aged woman, Willa, grapples with dissatisfaction after a lifetime spent following the rules and doing what’s expected. Along with supporting adult children, a grandchild, and an aging parent, her historic home is falling to pieces around her.
Willa’s epiphany comes when she releases ‘American Dream’ ideas about family constructs, retirement security, and wealth. Once she does, the solution to her house problem becomes obvious. Not to reveal spoilers, but with Gen. Z guidance, part of her land is repurposed to serve community needs.
In her book, Kingsolver demonstrates ways to reformulate ingrained expectations. She gives examples of how to reduce one’s lifetime footprint, leaving the world different and, hopefully, better.
“If you build it, they will come,” happened with the railroad and other developed living, transportation, energy, judicial, and healthcare systems. Now we must work to change collective expectations and redesign the way we live on planet Earth.
Select your preferred audio or visual media and travel back in time with a Randolph Flat family where you’ll learn about living with a handicap, problems with open mine shafts, women’s voting, love, and loss.
While visiting the cemetery, please demonstrate abundant respect for the Stagecoach Way neighbors, for those at eternal rest,and for their stone markers.
“It was a perfect day to be out in person and in reverence for those hard working ancestors that came before us. The creative historical podcast was so interesting I had to watch the u-tube video.”
The self-guided tour media was produced by a genealogy volunteer for educational purposes only. All of the support documentation is available on Ancestry in a public tree named, “Filling in the Plot – RR Cemetery.”
While researching and pulling together public domain elements for this presentation, you were always in our thoughts.
There are so many relatable and engaging aspects of this story, it is sure to spark conversations and make Nevada County history even more memorable for its residents and visitors.
