Our last five blogs have been related to community volunteerism. We will continue this theme with a focus on one of our River Town's favorite events - the annual Butter & Egg Days parade. It couldn't happen without volunteers. A recent Argus-Courier article (3-21-13) - "Petalumans of Yesteryear named Grand [...]
Many readers know that from time to time, in order to remind Petalumans of our town's unique history, one of my personas is "William Howard Pepper." After I arrived in Petaluma (historically speaking) in 1858, I developed a very successful nursery on what is now known as Pepper Road. Later, [...]
Now that the various 2012 celebrations connected to our nation's July 4th anniversary have subsided in the Petaluma of today, some citizens might wonder what was going on locally in 1776 while the colonists were ringing bells in Philadelphia?" (In order to preserve the accuracy of the information posted in [...]
To date, this blog site has posted 22 historic reviews of various accomplishments of pioneer airplane pilot Fred J. Wiseman and the significance of his historic first airmail flight from Petaluma to Santa Rosa 17-18, 1911. Readers may review these posts by clicking on the Fred Wiseman "category" heading in [...]
Although Fred J. Wiseman died on October 14, 1961, fifty-years after his historic delivery of a letter by a man-made aircraft that flew from Petaluma to Santa Rosa on February 17-18, 1911, there is yet another important date that needs to be remembered and celebrated because it played a significant [...]
Once, again, quotes "straight from the horse's mouth" (no, not Kenilworth the horse)), but reporters who were responsible for the following excerpts taken from articles in the 1844-1955 Centennial Celebration edition of the Argus-Courier (8-18-1955), and the Press Democrat's Centennial edition, "Building he Empire," October 1956, confirms our identification of the [...]
OK - in Part I of this extended blog, we concluded that the grass vegetation and trees in the background of a picture showing the Wiseman-Cooke plane taking off at a race track matched those in another photograph identified as Kenilworth Park, Petaluma, California. But, look - there is also [...]
Even though the Fred Wiseman souvenir postcard was designed with one of the four photos showing his plane taking off on an exhibition flight in Petaluma, sometime in 1910; it was not sent to the printers with 100% confidence. This blog will attempt to reveal the "hysterical" journey behind the [...]
Two days is a long time for a letter to travel from Petaluma to Santa Rosa. One hundred years is a much longer time; but that how long it took for a stamp to be produced in honor of your historic first airmail flight in 1911. Just as you were [...]
The "Trio" blog team for Petaluma360 woke up this morning wondering if the reenactment airmail flight of Fred J. Wiseman announced for "take off" around noon on February 19 would be able take place due to the recent rain and wet weather? Collectively, "Me, Myself, & I" wonder if history [...]