Did you know that the 1960s “Big Valley” TV series was inspired by a woman rancher in West Calaveras? Or that both the first and the most famous olive orchards in the entire region were in Wallace? How about Capt. Messenger during the Civil War or Catts Camp or the San Joaquin & Sierra Nevada Railroad or the area’s connections with Charles Darwin and Old Ironsides?  Something From Nothing, The Early History Of West Calaveras County, Volume II the second collection of the popular monthly columns penned by historian Sal Manna for the Valley Springs News, tells all of those fascinating stories and more.