May 21st, 2007

In the summer of 1849 Dr. Fayette Clappe from New Jersey arrived in San Francisco. With him was his small, blonde, vivacious wife. Louise Ameila Knapp-Smith Clappe was a published writer, but her most famous works were yet to come. For, as “Dame Shirley,” she would write a series of twenty-three letters from the gold mines which would become classics. Her descriptions of the very location where I currently live is riveting. I’m pleased her story will be included in the new book about women miners of the Old West.