"Something From Nothing II: More Early History of West Calaveras County" is now available. Discover more of the fascinating and colorful history of west Calaveras County in northern California, the pioneering people and events that shaped Gold Country towns such as Valley Springs, Burson, Wallace, Jenny Lind, Campo Seco, Camanche, Milton, Paloma and more. Bringing together the "Something From Nothing" monthly columns #101-200 plus a bonus previously unpublished article, each penned by author and historian Sal Manna and first published in The Valley Springs/Calaveras County News from July 2014 to October 2022, this volume features dozens of never-before-revealed stories as well as hundreds of historical photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries, most published here for the first time. The women who owned West Calaveras are finally afforded the respect owed them, a Lulu Higginbotham poem is published, and the man who taught Thomas Edison how to shoot is revealed. Colorful stories of surprising social reformer Thirza Rathbun, Chinese and Japanese settlers, former slaves, a free love cult, murders and Hollywood movies are told. Herein is a curse and a divorce, a good reverend and a philandering parson, a taxman and a civil engineer, an actress and a newspaper publisher. There is drunkenness and temperance, builders and salesmen, ranchers and rustlers, pottery and chairs, matchbooks and tokens, and far more than one might expect about post offices. There are heroes and villains. Within these pages also lie connections to the American Revolution, War of 1812, Mexican War, Civil War, Spanish-American War and World War I. The once-ignored, the mentally disabled, will be recalled. A language will be given its due as well, with an original article in an English language newspaper published in Spanish for the first time in Calaveras history.You will travel the Cherokee Trail and the Mormon Trail, ascend Yosemite’s Half Dome, join a cattle drive, and survive a tornado. Mysteries will be solved, about Paloma/Fosteria, Pete Ormes, Las Juntas Patrioticas, Helisma, Rossetti’s, and much more. There is the astonishing tale of Ruby Felch aka Princess White Cloud, and even a story about dogs. This is local history, state history and even American history as experienced within the borders of one of California's original counties. Following 2020's "Something From Nothing: The Early History of West Calaveras County" (Calaveras History Publishing), copies may be purchased via Amazon or through the Society for the Preservation of West Calaveras History website or by check to SPWCH, PO Box 714, Burson, CA 95225 ($20 plus $5.95 shipping).