Just Enough – A Regional History Course with Hank Meals ( 5 Class Series)

The Just Enough Regional History Course is a series of audio-visual presentations by Hank Meals. It consists of five sessions designed to provide the fundamentals of historical savvy in the Yuba River region.

When: Tuesdays at 7 pm

Where:
North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center
17894 Tyler-Foote Road on San Juan Ridge

Admission:
$10 at the door.
(No advance tickets available)

Petroglyphs October 8
Enigmatic and fascinating evidence of the first people in our region

Before the Gold Rush October 22
Spanish exploration – Malaria on the Sacramento River – Yokuts & Miwok horse-trading – The furtraders – Mexican land grants – The Americans – etc.

The Gold Rush November 5
Getting here – Manifest Destiny – Technologies & their environmental impacts – Foreign Miner’s Tax –
Trails and roads – Water appropriation & transport – Degradation of water quality – Early hydraulic mining – Diminishing returns – etc.

After the Gold Rush November 19
Investors and stockholders – Cadastral surveys – Transcontinental Railroad – Lumbering –– The Chinese Exclusion Act – Hydraulic mining – The Sawyer Decision – Hard Rock Mining – Grazing – etc.

Legacy in the Local Landscape December 3
The lasting imprint of former land use activities – Reading the landscape.

The Yuba and Bear Rivers have played a major role in California’s history. Former players and incidents in this dramatic story have influenced science, industry and ethics on a world-wide scale with good and bad consequences. With so much heritage surrounding us how can a person begin to appreciate it?

Local history buff, archaeologist and author, Hank Meals will offer a series of five audio-visual presentations on regional history at the North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center on San Juan Ridge in October, November and December of 2019.

It won’t be the dense and dull history that you endured in High School, but “just enough”, Meals says, “to make you somewhat legacy literate.”

“So much of the tourist-oriented history we’re exposed to consists of jumbled clichés, inaccuracies and cuteness – It’s simply not satisfying enough when the full stories are so engaging and illuminating. I’ve found that knowing what happened in your neighborhood makes you see a place differently, gives it extra texture and creates a sense of regional pride and ownership.”

Each 90-minute presentation in this series is rich with unique historical and contemporary photos, maps and diagrams. Meals will answer questions, provide references and provide enthusiasm for the topics addressed.

The North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Center gives the rural San Juan Ridge community a local place to meet, to share its creativity, and to participate in a wide variety of enriching activities. Located 20 miles north of Nevada City, the Schoolhouse was built by the mining community in 1875, and has a long tradition of serving the community as a school and public meeting hall.

Learn more about the Schoolhouse:
(530) 265-2628
https://www.northcolumbiaschoolhouse.org/