In the middle of June 1975, Laurelei Mullens, Modesto Bee features editor, sent me to south Modesto to photograph Jess Tharp, an 80-year-old cowboy saddle maker. Mullens was doing an advance story for the big Modesto Independence Day Parade. She wanted to do the story about Tharp because he would be the oldest rider in […]
Category Archives: Gold Rush
Coyote Howl, Coulterville, California
Living in Greeley Hill, we have to travel six miles downhill to an 1850s gold rush town, Coulterville, California for our Post Office. Twenty-six years ago town folks were looking for an excuse to have a community party. They created the Coyote Howl. The story of the birth of the Howl is a little murky. […]