Everyone loves a good mystery especially when it is in ones own back yard!

Author Carol Jensen, the Brentwood Press, and the East County Historical Society team up to learn more about the families, successes, and lives of early east Contra Costa County residents. Local citizens are challenged to identify people and locations throughout the community as captured in postcard images from the early 20th century. The response is insightful, often witty, and illustrates the interesting lives of emigrants settling the beautiful California Delta.

Presented in Challenge (Mystery) and Solution...

The "meanest man in California" as described by John Bidwell receives his chance at redemption thanks to this reprint of John Marsh, Pioneer by George Lyman as originally published in 1930. Here we discover an 18th Century Massachusetts native, born of English immigrants moving west with the nation. Marsh is a colorful man influencing people and events throughout his life and location. The first overland emigrants from the United States, the Bartleson-Bidwell Party, came to California specifically with Marsh's adobe home destination in mind. "The meanest man in California" stuck to Marsh's...