In recognition of the many contributions that the Cowboy has made and is still making to Amador County and the State of California.

The Amador County Fair (www.AmadorCountyFair.com) July 24-27, 2014, will feature special events and acknowledgements for “NATIONAL DAY OF THE COWBOY.”  (www.nationaldayofthecowboy.com.)

On June 7, 2012, the California Senate voted to award permanent status to the fourth Saturday in July as “National Day of the Cowboy”.

Many other states and counties throughout the United States will also sponsor special events to celebrate their western heritage.

The Amador County Fair will present a rodeo by the California Cowboys Professional Rodeo Association (CCPRCA) beginning at 8 p.m. on Saturday.  Bull riding, saddle and bareback riding along with all other events associated with professional rodeo will be presented.

Cowboy entertainer/lecturer Larry Maurice (www.larrymaurice.com) will emcee many of the Cowboy activities at the fair.  Maurice has spent the last thirty five years as a cowboy/wrangler/poet/announcer and spokesperson for all things cowboy.  He will also be a featured performer each day during the run of the fair.

The Amador County fair is noted for its equestrian/cowboy events. 

The “Benny Brown” arena will feature a full line-up of activities starting on Wednesday July 23, 2014 with wagon driving exhibitions and competitions, concluding on Sunday with various ranch/cattle related team events.

The music and lifestyle of the cowboy will be featured throughout the fair with music provided by several country, western, Cajun and traditional performers.

The Amador County Fair is exactly what a county fair is supposed to be. Everything is there from livestock shows to arts and crafts of all types, a “Demolition Derby”, a hypnotist, jugglers and the Miss Amador County Rodeo Queen.

Be sure to put the Amador County Fair on your July schedule and be a part of the “NATIONAL DAY OF THE COWBOY”.

PLYMOUTH, CA. Where else, but the Amador County Fair can you meet a wheelwright who traveled the United States by covered wagon and a rifle-toting Mountain Man shopping on the midway, then listen to music from The Eagles, George Strait, and The Spazmatics. 

The Amador County Fair, July 24-27th, is an amazing collection of old and new, traditional and trendy. You can gorge on the once-a-year guilty pleasure of Fair Food, then taste fine award-winning wines with the Amador Winegrowers on Friday night, or hoist a microbrew at the Brew Tastings on the weekend.

“We have to keep things fresh and exciting for our Fair visitors,” says Troy Bowers, CEO of the Fair. “But we need to keep our traditions alive as well. The Fairgrounds is a living history museum that we don’t want to abandon.”

He is speaking of the permanent exhibits that are as much a part of the Amador County Fair as the carnival and corn dogs.  Visitors flock to see the turn of the century sawmill using steam power to cut massive logs, to watch as ore is stamped at the Pokerville Gold Mine, or to see the Mountain Men reenact an old saloon fight.  Alongside the whirling, twirling neon of the carnival, the daily antique tractor parade chugs along. 

As usual there are hours of fun things for kids to do that don’t cost parents a nickel, including free admission on Thursday until 6:00 pm. All kinds of fun activities await in the 49er Kids Town, they can laugh and learn how to juggle with the Jumbo Shrimp Circus and they can learn about Amador County’s Miwok culture under the willow-branch-covered round lodge, where they can make and take home a craft project.  At the Gold Mine they can pan for gold, though they probably won’t end up rich!

There’s a charge for entertainment in the Grandstands Friday through Sunday, but that won’t stop capacity crowds at the Truck Pulls on Friday night, the Rodeo on Saturday and the packed Destruction Derby on Sunday.  Buying your reserved seat in advance is a good idea. Thursday night the arena will host the Mutton Bustin’ preliminary round with the finalists going on to compete during the rodeo.

The Fair wouldn’t be the Fair without everyone in Amador County working, volunteering, or dropping by.  From manning service club booths, to monitoring buildings, to sponsoring various items and activities, residents of Amador County are very involved in the annual event.  The exhibit halls are filled with art, quilts, baked goods, preserves, needle arts, plants and flowers, gems and minerals, and Junior projects.  The barns bustle with animals tended by 4-H and FFA youth, show rings, and with parents not far away making sure all is well.

Tickets are available on line and you can save on Fair admission and Carnival rides. Reserved seats for Grandstand Events and the Wine Tasting on Friday night are available in advance as well. For more information about the Amador County Fair, July 24-27, visit www.amadorcountyfair.com.

ON JULY 4, 2014, AT APPROXIMATELY 1215 HOURS, KIRBY WAS DRIVING HIS VEHICLE (FORD) N/B ON THE CAMP GROUND ACCESS RD. OF LAKE ALPINE WEST CAMP.  KIRBY WAS PULLING HIS VEHICLE OFF THE ROAD, INTO THE DRIVEWAY AT CAMP SPACE 11, TO LET OTHER VEHICLES BY.  AS KIRBY WAS DOING THIS, HE ACCELERATED INTO THE DRIVEWAY TOO FAST.  AS A RESULT, THE FORD PICK UP LUNGED FORWARD AND COLLIDED WITH JOYNER, WHO WAS OUTSIDE OF HER TENT TRAILER.  THE FORD ALSO COLLIDED WITH JOYNER'S TENT TRAILER AND SEVERAL LARGE ROCKS LOCATED ON THE CAMP SITE.  THE FORD EVENTUALLY BECAME HIGH CENTERED ON ONE OF THE ROCKS AND CAME TO REST.  JOYNER SUSTAINED MODERATE INJURIES FROM THIS COLLISION AND WAS TRANSPORTED BY GROUND AMBULANCE TO MARK TWAIN HOSPITAL IN SAN ANDREAS.

LEWIS WAS TRAVELING NORTH ON HOGAN DAM ROAD, APPROACHING THE CALAVERAS RIVER BRIDGE AT AN UNKNOWN SPEED.  AS LEWIS WAS NEGOTIATING A CURVE TO HER RIGHT, SHE LOST CONTROL OF HER VEHICLE AND ALLOWED IT TO RUN OFF THE WEST SIDE OF THE ROAD AT THE SOUTH BRIDGE ABUTMENT.  LEWIS’ VEHICLE WENT OVER A TWENTY FOOT TALL CONCRETE WALL AND LANDED UPSIDE DOWN IN THE CALAVERAS RIVER, IN APPROXIMATELY THREE FEET OF WATER.  LEWIS WAS ABLE TO GET HERSELF OUT OF HER VEHICLE, BUT REQUIRED ASSISTANCE FROM THE CALAVERAS COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT SEARCH AND RESCUE DIVE TEAM TO GET OUT OF THE RIVER.  LEWIS WAS THEN TRANSPORTED TO THE UC DAVIS MEDICAL CENTER FOR TREATMENT OF MAJOR INJURIES.  PERSONNEL FROM CALAVERAS CONSOLIDATED FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT, CALFIRE, AND CLEMENTS FIRE DEPARTMENT ALSO ASSISTED IN LEWIS’ RESCUE. 

ON 07/06/2014 AT APPROXIMATELY 1750 HOURS, PARTY-1 (P-1) (GOMEZ) WAS DRIVING VEHICLE-1 (V-1) (TOYOTA) SOUTHBOUND ON SIX MILE ROAD, NEAR IRONSTONE VINEYARDS, AT AN UNKNOWN RATE OF SPEED.  FOR UNKNOWN REASONS P-1 WAS UNABLE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF V-1.  V-1 LEFT THE ROADWAY, OVERTURNED, AND LANDED ON ITS ROOF.  BOTH PARTIES REMAINED IN THE VEHICLE UNTIL EMERGENCY PERSONNEL ARRIVED ON SCENE AND ASSISTED IN EXTRICATING THEM FROM THE VEHICLE.  PASSENGER-LANDERS SUFFERED MAJOR INJURIES AS A RESULT OF THIS COLLISION, AND WAS TRANSPORTED TO MARK TWAIN MEDICAL CENTER FOR TREATMENT.

AFTER BEING EVALUATED, P-1 WAS PLACED UNDER ARREST FOR DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE - CAUSING GROSS BODILY INJURY.  SHE WAS MEDICALLY CLEARED FOR INCARCERATION AND SUBSEQUENTLY BOOKED AT CALAVERAS COUNTY JAIL.

CHARACTER – Host Roberta Pickett interviews local guests Gwen Christeson and Jane Wilkinson to talk about whether character counts anymore. Indeed it does!

Free with Summer Youth Bus Pass or Monthly Pass

Kids 5 years and under ride free!

Only $1 for Seniors, Students under 18, and people with disabilities…$2 General fare

Free parking at the Sutter Hill Transit Center!

Call 267-9395 to help plan your trip to the Amador

County Fair.

Yosemite Sesquicentennial Celebration

June 30, 1864

I want to thank all of you who have worked so long and hard to make this sesquicentennial celebration of the original Yosemite Grant Act so moving.

The earliest description of this valley comes to us from Dr. Lafayette Bunnell, a member of the Mariposa Battalion that pursued a band of Ahwaneechies into the valley in 1851. 

He wrote, “Domes, peaks, spires, and cliffs were capped with fresh snow, their walls and slopes dappled with it, marking in strong relief the various sculptured forms.  Some were veiled in wisps of cloud, others seemed to rise from a deep blue haze, giving the whole a drifting unreal quality, like a vision…on every side astonished by the size of the cliffs and the number and heights of the waterfalls, which constantly challenged our attention and admiration.”

Word for word that description remains as accurate today as it did then, because of the Yosemite Grant Act that we celebrate today. 

Amidst all the destruction and ugliness and horror of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln paused for a moment to sign an act that set aside something so wonderful and beautiful and serene.

He did this – quote -- “upon the express conditions that the premises shall be held for public use, resort, and recreation (and) shall be inalienable for all time.”

The afternoon of the day he died, Lincoln told Mary that he wanted to see California when the term ended four years later.  There can be no doubt the fabled Yosemite Valley was on his mind.

Four years later, John Muir came to see Yosemite Valley for himself, and there he had his own awakening, resolved for the rest of his life to evangelize for Yosemite.  “Heaven knows,” he wrote, “that John the Baptist was not more eager to get all his fellow sinners into the Jordan than I am to baptize all of mine in the beauty of God’s mountains.”

Two years after Muir’s death, the National Park Service was created and Yosemite was entrusted to its care.  I want to recognize the Yosemite Park Rangers who have ever since welcomed and encouraged succeeding generations of Americans who come to Yosemite.

I have seen the commitment they make on a daily basis to the people who come here to visit. They always stop what they are doing in order to answer questions or help guide a tourist in need of directions. They are the gracious hosts of the grandeur that is Yosemite.    

The Organic Act of 1916 that created the National Park Service further underscored that its purpose was not to shut off and close these natural wonders – but rather to open them for the use and enjoyment of the general public, in the words of the act: “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same.” 

In the view of these visionaries, preserving these resources for future generations did not mean closing them to the current generation.

On the contrary, Muir wanted people to come here to enjoy themselves, knowing that they would go away with fond memories, happy experiences, resolved to return again and again – drawn by the beauty of the valley and their own pleasant time in it -- and resolved to preserve it so that their children and their children’s children could share that experience.

“We saw another party of tourists today.” John Muir wrote in his diary.  “Somehow most of these travelers seem to care but little for the glorious objects around them, though enough to spend time and money and endure long rides to see the famous Valley.  And when they are fairly within the mighty walls of the temple and hear the psalms of the falls, they will forget themselves and become devout.  Blessed indeed would be every pilgrim in these holy mountains…The valley is full of people, but they do not annoy me.”

The Yosemite Grant Act established Yosemite as a public trust, which was itself revolutionary.  The Norman and Plantagenet kings of old set aside vast tracts of land as their exclusive province, in which only a select few with their blessing could enjoy. 

The Yosemite Grant was the very opposite of that – it set aside the most beautiful land in the nation entirely for the people.

Author Peter Hoss noted Lincoln’s maxim “of the people, by the people and for the people” completely describes the philosophy behind the founding of this park. 

 And whenever there is question of its meaning, we can turn to the words of the Yosemite Grant Act and the early advocates of public access and preservation who set in motion the events we honor, celebrate, and rejoice in 150 years later.

This anniversary is not being celebrated just here in the park, but in many of the communities that surround it, a reminder of the very important role that tourism plays in this entire region of California. 

All these communities and the local businesses that support them, are vital elements of the never-ending campaign to promote the park, and they are the most passionate advocates for preserving the Yosemite experience. Their voices, too must be heard.

A half century from now, another assemblage will gather here to celebrate Yosemite’s bi-centennial.  Much in the world will have changed by then, but the tumbling rivers, soaring trees and granite walls will look as they do today.  A new generation that has reveled and recreated in its beauty will gather here then to renew the promise of “public use, resort and recreation…inalienable…for all time.

One thinks of the millions of treasured photos, some sepia-toned with age, others bright new digital images, that occupy an honored space in family scrapbooks throughout the world. Even more treasured are the tales told of epic vacations, horseback rides, biking trips, rafting adventures, family hikes up misty waterfalls, pleasant stays in local lodges or rustic camping trips under the stars.  That is the vital connection between the human experience and the natural one – a connection that renews the former and preserves the latter.

 The world comes to tell old stories and create new ones.  The world comes to extoll the story of Yosemite.

Local residents living with congestive heart failure will soon benefit from scales thanks to a generous $1,000 grant the AmadorCommunity Foundation presented to SutterAmador Hospital and the Sutter CareCoordination Program.  

The Sutter Care Coordination Program, a program that originated over two decades ago under the direction of the Sutter Health Sacramento Sierra Region, started April 2013 in Amador County so that patients with anti-coagulation, diabetes and heart failure could be monitored telephonically by local registered nurse case manager, Mel Welsh. In the case of Heart Failure Management, patients are monitored for 30-45 days post hospital discharge.

“One of the most important signs and symptoms of heart failure to report is weight gain,” says Mel Welsh, RN Case Manager. “This is often the first sign of worsening heart failure.

According to Welsh, if fluid weight gain is recognized early and the patient’s primary care provider is notified in a timely manner, the symptoms may be reversed by adjusting diuretic medication. This early intervention may defer a hospital or Emergency Department visit. Mel receives approximately 10 referrals a month for patients with heart failure from Sutter Amador Hospital. Of those, approximately three will not have a scale.

“Thanks to support from the Amador Community Foundation, beginning August 1 I will be able to provide scales to patients who do not have a scale or who are unable to get out to purchase one,” says Welsh. “This is a tremendous service to our community and will help support prevention, Emergency Department visits and hospital readmission for our heart failure patients.”

“Ongoing support to programs like these is critical to their success,” said Kathleen Harmon, Executive Director of the Amador Community Foundation. “The Amador Community Foundation is happy to partner with Sutter to benefit the lives of people in our community.”

Susan Manning speaks to Tom Slivick about Paws Partners, an alliance joining the A-PAL Humane Society of Amador County and Tri County Wildlife Care, the latter serving native wildlife in Amador, Calaveras, and Eastern San Joaquin Counties.