Living Legends

Santa Fe Crafts Fundraiser 2016

70th Anniversary

To view the video in a larger size, click here.  Special thanks to Paul Rippens for providing this slideshow.

Roundup: December 14, 2016

Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA.
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM

Our Speakers: Alan and Claudia Heller
Their Subject: Curiosities of the California Desert: Historic, Offbeat, and Forgotten Attractions

This month’s presentation takes us to the California desert, one of the most misunderstood areas of the Golden State.  To many city-dwellers, the desert is merely a vast, sandy, wasteland punctuated only by rattlesnakes. But all experienced desert rats know otherwise, and the Heller’s talk will be a revelation to those less-traveled. Salvation Mountain, Cerro Gordo, the Integratron and Giant Rock, Willie Boy’s Grave and Devils Hole (with its playful pupfish) are just a few of the unique locations in the California desert the Hellers will guide us to during their program.  For more than 50 years, our speakers have explored and photographed these and hundreds of other localities throughout the length and breadth of California’s spectacular deserts.

Alan and Claudia Heller are Southern California natives, and members of the Los Angeles Corral. Alan was educated at CSULA, Claudia at LACC. They can boast more than a century of joint travel and exploration throughout our state’s deserts. Alan is past president of Duarte’s Public Access Channel, a former commissioner of Duarte Parks and Recreation, Duarte Planning, and Duarte Community Service. His photographs have appeared in Westways, Skin Diver Magazine, Route 66 Magazine and many other publications and newspapers. Claudia has been the president of the Duarte Historical Society and Museum for the past twenty years. She writes articles for Route 66 Magazine, a column for the Pasadena Star News, and is a regular contributor to The View, for the Duarte Chamber of Commerce. Singly or together the Hellers have authored Life on Route 66: Personal Accounts Along the Mother Road to California; Duarte Chronicles;  and Curiosities of the California Desert. 

Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D.
Deputy Sheriff

Roundup: November 9, 2016

Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA.
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM

Our Speaker: Dr. Matthew A. Boxt
His Subject: The U.S. Naval Presence in Baja California, 1846-1909

This month’s presentation reviews the poorly remembered U.S. Navy’s presence in “the other” California during two historic episodes.  The Pacific Coast Campaign of the Mexican War (1846-1848) secured the Baja California Peninsula, which was subsequently returned to Mexico. Sixty years later, President Theodore Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet, (1907-1909) put in at Magdalena Bay, Baja California, before moving on to San Francisco, and then across the Pacific.  Research for Dr. Boxt’s lecture incorporates online sources such as manuscripts, photographs, navigation logs, maps, postcards, and newspapers. Some of these materials are available for study at specific web sites, while others can only be accessed through purchase at electronic trading forums. Matthew will venture beyond the chronological and geographical dimensions of his subject in discussing how buying (or not buying) documentary material on the Internet may be changing the way we think about, and do, historical research.   

Matthew A. Boxt received a BA in Anthropology from UC Berkeley (1976) and his MA (1979) and Ph.D. (1993) from the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles.  Boxt is a Fulbright Fellow (1986) and has conducted extensive archaeological fieldwork in Belize, Guatemala, Mexico, and California over the past forty years. Dr. Boxt has published numerous articles, monographs, and books on California and Mesoamerican archaeology.  In recent years he has served as a Guest Editor for the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly, contributing original research articles about Alta and Baja California.  

Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D.
Deputy Sheriff

70th Anniversary Store

To pay & complete your purchase:

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4. Any questions on how to use PayPal? Help is available. Call 626-372-5126 to speak with Los Angeles Corral Website Wrangler Joe Cavallo.

70th Anniversary Celebration: October 22, 2016

University Club of Pasadena
175 North Oakland Avenue, Pasadena,  CA

Social Hour: 11:00 AM
Music Entertainment and Luncheon Follows
Festivities Conclude: 2:00 PM

Our Speaker: Elizabeth Pomeroy
Her Subject: The Illustrious Glen Dawson, His Bookstore and Press

Glen Dawson: was a Founding Member of the Los Angeles Corral of Westerners seventy years ago in 1946 and served as our Sheriff in 1959. Dawson was a mountaineer, soldier, scholar, bookman, and publisher.  He was a family man, a church archivist and a loyal comrade to book-lovers not just amongst Westerners International, but a legendary and revered figure to all California historians.  A recent tribute declared “What a legacy!  To accomplish half as much would fill a life for most people.” Elizabeth Pomeroy’s presentation on this outstanding Los Angeles corral paragon is a fond retrospective of his life and accomplishments.  Highlights of Glen’s many activities and quotes from his own speaking and writing will shed light on his wonderfully productive, diverse, and very long life of 103 years.  As our Corral celebrates its 70th Anniversary, it is entirely appropriate that we honor the memory of one of our most illustrious founding fathers.

Elizabeth Pomeroy: is a California native, with a remarkable array of advanced degrees from the finest universities of our land.  Her Ph.D., in English, is from UCLA, her M.A. in English is from U.C. Berkeley, her M.A.T. (in the Teaching of English) is from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and her B.A., also in English, is from Stanford University.  Dr. Pomeroy taught English in high schools and at Pasadena City College. She served on the Huntington Library staff for ten years, and is currently a School Board member of the Pasadena Unified School District.  Her publications include literary studies and books on Southern California history and natural history.  Among them are Lost and Found, Lost and Found II, John Muir: A Naturalist in Southern California, and Pasadena: A Natural History.  Her most recent book is San Marino: A Centennial History, which received regional, state, and national awards for local history writing. In the year 2000 Elizabeth established Many Moons Press, which publishes works on California history and nature, including new editions of classics long out-of-print. She is a frequent speaker on becoming a grassroots historian.  Her present writing project is a biography of Glen Dawson.

Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D.
Deputy Sheriff

Roundup: September 14, 2016

Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA.
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM

Our Speaker: Phil Brigandi
His Subject: A Five-Foot Shelf of Westerners: Prominent Historians of the Los Angeles Corral

Prominent Historians of the Los Angeles Corral: Since its founding in 1946, the Los Angeles Corral of Westerners International has counted many of Southern California’s most prominent historians amongst its members. From Robert Glass Cleland and W.W. Robinson to Doyce Nunis and Francis Weber, scores of well-known authors, archaeologists, archivists, and academics have all been a part of our corral. For our September meeting, Phil Brigandi will discuss some of the men and women who are part of the rich history of our corral, their work, and their writings. “You probably already have some of their books on your shelf,” he says, “but if not, you had better get busy!”  The title of his talk refers to how wide just a small sampling of books from our illustrious roster of authors might be in a room-width bookcase.  And some of the titles incorporated by such a “five-foot shelf” would be works by prominent present members of our corral, Phil himself included.

Phil Brigandi has been researching and writing local history for more than 40 years, specializing in the history of Orange, Riverside, and San Diego counties. He is the author of more than two dozen books and hundreds of articles, including histories of Orange, Temecula, and Borrego Springs. He is the former historian for the Ramona Pageant and former archivist for the County of Orange. He has been a member of The Westerners since 2001, and served as our Branding Iron editor from 2008 to 2010.  His most recent publications include scholarly works on Helen Hunt Jackson.  Phil is presently co-writing a history of Indian Agents in Southern California with Valerie Sherer Mathes.

Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D.
Deputy Sheriff

Roundup: August 10, 2016

Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA.
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM

Our Speaker: Dr. Robert Chandler
His Subject: Grafton Tyler Brown: Racial Identity on the California Frontier

Grafton Tyler Brown (1841-1918) lived for art.  Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he traveled west, and reinvented himself in California.  Brown was considered Black in Sacramento in 1860, but managed to pass for White in San Francisco in 1861. Self-confident, talented, and aggressive, Brown seized all opportunities to advance his career as a commercial artist. So proficient that he outshone all of his California competitors, G.T. Brown & Co., Lithographers, produced an incredible amount of top-notch work: city views, maps, sheet music, advertising posters, mining stock certificates, and billheads (invoices) of great variety and consistent artistic excellence.  Over a twenty-year period, this uniquely talented artist, who began as a Black man back East while slavery was still the law of the land, became accepted as White out West. Dr. Chandler will introduce us to Brown the man, to his work in many mediums, and will compare it with that of his rivals.

Dr. Robert Chandler is one of the most gifted and productive of all California historians. His 1978 UC Riverside dissertation on “The Press and Civil Liberties in California During the Civil War” was followed by 32 years as Senior Research Historian for Wells Fargo Bank. Bob has published more than 60 articles on California during the Gold Rush and the Civil War, on civil rights, commerce, finance, gold, journalism, politics, the military, numismatics, philately, printing, stage-coaching, steamships, and Wells Fargo Bank. His books include an Illustrated History of California (2004) and Wells Fargo (2006). Dr. Chandler is a member of the Council of the Friends of the Bancroft Library; a Director of the San Ramon Valley Museum; and is a past and the present Sheriff of the San Francisco Corral of Westerners.  He is a member of the Honorary Order of Kentucky Colonels and a very active Clamper, being an X-Noble Grand Humbug of Yerba Buena #1, the Mother Lodge, E Clampus Vitus.  Bob’s lifelong fascination with G.T. Brown recently culminated in San Francisco Lithographer: African American Artist Grafton Tyler Brown (University of Oklahoma Press, 2014), the outstanding book his August, 2016, presentation will be based upon.

Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D.

Deputy Sheriff

Roundup: July 13, 2016

Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA.
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM

Our Speakers: Mark & Linda Nelson
Their Subject: “The Wire That Won the West”

Barbed Wire was a uniquely American invention that changed the face of the Old West.  More than 400 different designs were patented in the United States.  Historians and historical archaeologists can use different kinds of barbed wire to date historic sites and sometimes even to determine their specific function and the points of origin of the people who strung them.  Beginning in the 1880’s, Teddy Roosevelt began writing about “How the West Was Won.” A half-century later, this theme had become staple Hollywood fare, with dozens of “Horse Operas” – wild and wooly Westerns – cranked out year after year. But the Nelsons maintain that the most iconic image of Old West, that of the lawman with blazing sixgun, should be replaced by that of the ranch hand stringing barbed wire.  Come to our July 2016, Roundup and hear how barbed wire became the key component in settling the American West.  On display will be many samples of historic barbed wire, each with a different kind of functional and stylistic beauty. You’ll never think of “fences” the same way again after the Nelsons’ presentation.

Mark and Linda Nelson are amongst the world’s foremost experts on American barbed wire.  The newest members of the Los Angeles Corral of Westerners, Mark and Linda (aka “Bob” and “Barb” Wire), come to us from the San Dimas Corral.  Mark Nelson is the President of the California Barbed Wire Collectors Association (CBWCA) and Linda is that association’s Secretary and Treasurer.   Linda is also the Librarian and Treasurer for the Antique Barbed Wire Society, the American national association of barbed wire collectors, headquartered in LaCrosse, Kansas. 

Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D.
Deputy Sheriff

May 2016 Roundup Photos

March 2016 Roundup Photos

January 2016 Roundup Photos

February 2016 Roundup Photos

April 2016 Roundup Photos

Fandango 2016

AUCTION ALERT! 

We hope many members and guests will attend this years Fandango at The Grass Shack of Turner on June 4th.  This year we will be having our fund raising auction at the Fandango instead of the usual one at our Fall Rendezvous.  So…….bring your checkbook or lots of cash.  We will have many items you will want.  All this good stuff is going to be sold by silent auction or fixed price.

 Among the unique special items will be:

1.  A fine set of Long Horns appropriately mounted with hand tooled leather.  They measure 6 feet from tip to tip.  Opening bid:  $ 75.00

2.  A genuine wooden Cigar Store Indian.  He stands about 5 ½ feet tall and is about the most handsome figure you have ever seen.  Opening bid:  $150.00

3.  A beautiful golden Los Angeles Corral Belt Buckle.  This is just like our fine bronze buckles – only GOLD!  Opening bid:  $50.00

4.  A fine, hand-made set of saddlebags.  Beautiful Western decor!  You can buy the saddlebags from us, but you will have to furnish your own horse.  Opening bid:  $50.00

Rest assured there will be a number of other wonderful items including a number of books which you will want to take home.  Remember that all funds raised go to your Los Angeles Corral.

Remember, these items are one-of-a-kind.  You will have ONLY one chance to buy!

See you at the Luau!  You can register using PayPal by visiting the Members Only page.

Roundup: May 11, 2016

Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM

Our Speaker: Msgr. Francis J. Weber
His Subject: “Junipero Serra Appears on a U.S. Postage Stamp: How it Happened”

Junipero Serra (1713-1784) was among the most prominent of the Friars who established the California Missions.  Equally famous as a “founding father” of Spanish California, his name is synonymous with dedication and self-sacrifice.  The movement to make him a Saint began more than hundred years ago. Foremost amongst supporters for Father Serra’s canonization has been Monsignor Francis J. Weber.  Many times it seemed that Serra would never receive this honor, nor be nationally recognized for his contributions to California.  Yet Fray Junipero Serra was made a Saint in 2015 by Pope Francis, in Washington, D.C.  Absolutely unique, Serra is the first to be canonized in the New World itself.  Father Serra also stands in the Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol, representing the State of California along with Ronald Reagan.  Our newest Saint is in good company, alongside Fray Eusebio Kino (for Arizona), Father Marquette (for Wisconsin) and Father Damien (for Hawaii).  And, after earlier appearances on Spanish and Mexican stamps, Serra’s face now graces a United States postage stamp.  At our May, 2016, Los Angeles Corral Roundup, Monsignor Francis J. Weber will tell us how this remarkable event came to be.

Monsignor Francis J. Weber, known to his many friends and admirers as “the Old Country Priest” is Archivist Emeritus of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Ordained in 1959, since then he has celebrated mass at a great many California locations, including Santa Cruz Island, and been a tireless and effective spiritual and intellectual leader at San Fernando Mission.  Here, in 1980, his dream of building an archival center came true.  Msgr. Weber, in addition to his many local duties, serves as an Honorary Chaplain to His Holiness Pope Francis.  One of the most active of all members of the Los Angeles Corral of Westerners, Weber served as Sheriff in 1995.  A frequent contributor to our corral publications, he has also published on Spanish Colonial history, ecclesiastical history, and the history of California and the West, including: The California Missions as Others Saw Them, 1786-1842 (1972), A Select Bibliography of California Catholic Literature, 1856-1974 (1974), The Life and Times of Fray Junipero Serra (1987), The Mission in the Valley: A Documentary History of San Fernando, Rey de Espana (1987), Century of Fulfillment: The Roman Catholic Church in Southern California 1840-1947 (1990), Prominent Visitors to the California Missions, 1746-1842 (1991), Memories of an Old Mission:  San Fernando, Rey de Espana (1997), The Literary High Spots of Mission Hills, California (1998), Encyclopedia of California’s Catholic Heritage, 1769-1999 (2000), Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels (2004), The California Missions (2005), Catholic Heroes of Southern California (2007), Blessed Fray Junipero Serra:  An Outstanding California Hero (2008) and More Memories of an Old Country Priest (2011), to name just a few.

Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D.
Deputy Sheriff

2015 – Fandango and Monthly Meetings

2015 – Rendezvous at the Rubel Castle and Monthly Meetings

Roundup: April 13, 2016

Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM

Our Speaker: Dr. Michael J. Moratto
His Subject: “Discovering the Americas: 250 Centuries Before Columbus”

Not long ago, scholars were convinced that America was populated by bands of Mongoloid Siberians who trekked across the Bering Land Bridge and advanced overland, through an “ice-free corridor” in western Canada, onto the Great Plains.  From there, beginning some 11,000 years ago, they fanned out rapidly to occupy the New World and kill off its megafauna, leaving in their wake fluted spear points and other markers of the Clovis “big game hunting” culture.  The only problem with this model is that almost none of it has turned out to be true.  During recent years, scientific research in many fields has dramatically revised our understanding of when, how, and by whom the Americas were first settled as well as our knowledge of Clovis, contemporary cultures, and their antecedents.  Dr. Moratto’s presentation will elucidate some of the exciting new discoveries and thinking related to the peopling of the Western Hemisphere during the past 25,000+ years.

Michael Moratto was raised as a country boy and spent his youth working on a cattle ranch in Sonoma County.  He has been at the forefront of California archaeology and cultural resource management for nearly 50 years.  Dr. Moratto is a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences, past president of the Society for California Archaeology (SCA) as well as past president of two national archaeological societies, former member of the National Science Foundation’s Advisory Panel on Archaeology, and past member of the State Historical Resources Commission. A retired university professor, he taught (1969-2005) anthropology, geography, and history, including  courses on 18th- and 19th-century California. He was the founder and, for many years, president/CEO of a large environmental consulting firm.  Since 1967, he has directed hundreds of archaeological projects for public- and private-sector clients in seven western states.  His contract archaeology and academic research have resulted in numerous publications, including California Archaeology (1984, 2004) the standard textbook on the subject.  Dr. Moratto continues to study and write about a wide range of anthropological topics. 

Brian Dervin Dillon, Ph.D.
Deputy Sheriff

Roundup: March 9, 2016

Almansor Court – 700 S. Almansor, Alhambra, CA
Social Hour: 5:00 PM
Dinner: 6:00 PM

Our Speaker: Paul F. Clark
His Subject: “The Yale Grove: A Pioneer Citrus Ranch in Southern California”

Southern California left behind cattle ranches to become a citrus empire in the late 19^th Century. The Yale Grove, from its 1875 establishment by Albert B. Clark, epitomized this changeover.  Clark operated his successful orange ranch in the community of Orange and was a pioneer irrigationist and citrus marketer. Albert’s life was cut short in 1883, but his widow, Mary Teegarden Clark, remembered his accomplishments in her writings, which were illustrated by the celebrated California photographer, Carleton Watkins. Paul Clark’s presentation explores unique aspects of the Yale Grove Citrus Ranch, and showcases Watkins outstanding photographs. 

Paul Clark grew up in Orange County, witnessing its conversion from citrus groves to housing tracts. He received his B.A and M.A. degrees in history from California State University, Fullerton, then worked for the Riverside County Planning Department for nearly 30 years, until retiring in 2009.  Much of  Paul’s career was spent in the Coachella Valley, where he still resides in Palm Desert. He is a member (and past president) of the Orange Community Historical Society, a member of the Orange County Historical Society, of the American Institute of Certified Planners, and, of course, the Los Angeles Corral of Westerners. Paul writes for regional historical journals, including the Branding Iron, and was proud to edit (2013) the memoirs of his great-grandmother, Mary Teegarden Clark, Pioneer Ranch Life in Orange: A Victorian Woman in Southern California, the work upon which his March, 2016, presentation is largely based.

Brian Dervin Dillon
Deputy Sheriff

Roundups – 2016

January 2016

February 2016

March 2016

May 2016

June 2016 – Rendezvous 

July 2016

August 2016

September 2016

November 2016

December 2016