CHAPTER 11: DUST

…pepper trees Mrs. Whaley planted 150 years ago…

“Whaley House Museum.” Whaley House Museum, Save Our Heritage Organization, http://whaleyhouse.org/

“If you took a handful of the top soil…the endless inner green sea of the chamise.”

Austin, Mary Hunter. Earth Horizon: Facsimile of Original 1932 Edition. Sunstone Press, 2007, pp. 185-186

But I’m a used-up man…I’ll stay there if I can.

“What Was Your Name in the States?” The Days of '49: Songs of the Gold Rush, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 1957, http://www.folkways.si.edu/logan-english/the-days-of-49-songs-of-the-gold-rush/american-folk-historical-song/music/album/smithsonian

Fifty years ago it belonged to a widow…who died in the kitchen of pneumonia… 

“The Verna House.” Whaley House Museum, Save Our Heritage Organisation, http://whaleyhouse.org/verna.htm

…the gallows loomed before this house was built…until he strangled to death.

The hanging happened on 18 Sep. 1852. The original article reporting on it was published in the San Diego Union and reprinted in the following source: 

“Hanging Yankee Jim,” Los Angeles Herald, vol. 1, #5, 7 Oct. 1873 

…the love seat where Violet Whaley bled to death…damaged goods at twenty-two…

“Whaley House Museum.” Whaley House Museum, Save Our Heritage Organisation, http://whaleyhouse.org/

“traffic our own history…a new kind of cash that did not depend on crops.”

Didion, Joan. Where I Was From. Harper Perennial, 2004, p. 167

“fable of confusion”

ibid. p. 45

Dolly the fox terrier…

“Whaley House Museum.” Whaley House Museum, Save Our Heritage Organization, http://whaleyhouse.org/

The Whaley’s daughter, Violet, shot herself in the chest with her father’s revolver…

“Inquisition by Coroner's Jury upon the Body of Violet E. Whaley.” Inquisition by Coroner's Jury upon the Body of Violet E. Whaley, Save Our Heritage Organisation, http://whaleyhouse.org/coroner.htm