Morgan Hill Historical Society

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Black History Month

Feb 13

Black History Month

What Poetry Teaches About History ". . .the hill we climb if only we dare it, because being American is more than a pride we inherit, it’s the past we step into and how we repair it.” From “The Hill We Climb” by Amanda Gorman Spoken word poetry preserves the human experience in a way that textbooks and academic lectures cannot. Poetry makes the exploration of history a more approachable, personal and thoughtful journey. African-American poetry, like music, has been with us si

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Surprising things about California’s Statehood

Sep 12, 2020

Surprising things about California’s Statehood

Thanks to a crazy confluence of events, California leapfrogged “territory” status and achieved statehood in September of 1850. In January of 1848, gold was discovered near Swiss immigrant John Sutter’s sawmill in Coloma. The following month, Mexico and the U.S. signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, ending the Mexican War and yielding 525,000 square miles of western frontier to the U.S., including present-day California. That same year, the Gold Rush brought people from far

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Our Historic Dam Needs a Retrofit Now

Sep 7, 2020

Our Historic Dam Needs a Retrofit Now

Water has been central to the development of our region’s agricultural economy—from orchards, row crops and vineyards to cattle ranches, chicken and egg farms, and nurseries. As with other natural resources, water is precious, finite, and must be conserved. Our water management practices have greatly evolved since the first primitive wells were drilled and “sack dams” were fashioned from burlap and earth. We’ve learned that pumping without recharging groundwater leads to shor

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Celebrate Earth Day - Fifty years of advocating for our planet

Apr 22, 2020

Celebrate Earth Day - Fifty years of advocating for our planet

Planet Earth Photo credit: Live Science Rachel Carson Photo credit: New York Times In 1962, Rachel Carson’s book “Silent Spring” awakened America to the downside of industrial development and the dangers of pesticides. It all began when a friend with a bird sanctuary wrote to Carson describing how all the birds were dying after DDT spraying took place. More than 500,000 people read Carson’s New York Times Bestseller. Meanwhile, the pesticide industry tried to demonize Ms. Car

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