8 • August 2018 • UPBEAT TIMES, INC. Weird Facts & Trivia - 2


The Lipizzan or Lipizzaner is a breed of horse closely associated with the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Austria, where they demonstrate the haute école or “high school” move- ments of classical dressage, includ- ing the highly controlled, stylized jumps and other movements known as the “airs above the ground.” The horses at the Spanish Riding School are trained using traditional methods that date back hundreds of years, based on the principles of classical dressage.


“Maybe


everyone can live beyond what they’re capable of.”


Markus Zusak


~The Bounty of Sonoma County~


Sonoma County’s First and Foremost Viticulturist Yegor Chernykh


By Jo Diaz of Gyserville, CA. ~ jo@diaz-communications.com


wine grape and mak- ing wine, is rarely discussed. Perhaps it’s because it was so fleeting. Yet, it’s very important to note and not


W be left current trailing


into the sunset. Es- pecially now, during this


time of


the renewed Russians interest in what resources the United States has to offer.


The Russian River, Russian River


Valley, Rus- sian River Road


From the Rus- sian Ameri- can Company Council, an 1813 report to Emperor


trade Califor- and the


ho arrived in So- noma County first, to


begin growing


sian maritime fur traders which was important for the Russian American Company. Hunters were working east from Kamchatka, along the Aleutian Islands, to the southern coast of Alas- ka. Some continued to migrate southward, and finally arrived at their southern-most


post.


They called it Fortress Ross (Крпость Россъ).


Today it’s called Fort Ross (Russian: Форт-Росс). Better known, when we


think of California history, are stories handed down of Span-


indelible fingerprint in Russian River Valley, with their viticul- tural practices. They then re- turned to Russia, just missing the gold rush, as it turns out. (Big historical regret there, I’m betting.) Unlike the Christo Crew, who invaded in 1492, and killed as many natives as they could find, the Russians were more polite and integrating. They bought land from a native Pomo tribe. Then, they established a terri- tory in the Fort Ross area, cre- ating the Fort as it now stands; a tourist destination. It’s not the presumed Italians, French, nor the


Spanish,


but the Rus- sians who have the dis- tinction


of


understand- ing the real “bounty


of


the county.” Hence,


the Al-


exander, con- cerning with nia


establishment of Fort Ross” “This settle- ment [Ross] has been orga- nized


through


the initiative of the Company. Its purpose is to establish


a


[Russian] set- tlement


The Russians Arrive – Jo Diaz photo there www.comfirstcu.org 8 • August 2018 • UPBEAT TIMES, INC.


or in some other place not oc- cupied by Europeans, and to introduce agriculture there by planting hemp, flax and all manner of garden produce.” [From: The Russian American Colonies]


It was an invasion of Rus-


ish, Italian, and French im- migrants; because they came, they saw, and they stayed, dur-


ing that idealized Gold Rush time. But, historically speak- ing, it was the Russians who made that very first mark along the Pacific coastline, leaving an


[PHOTO CREDIT: By Russian Post, Publishing and Trade Centre “Mar- ka” (ИТЦ «Марка»). The design of the stamp by A. Polotnova. Scanned by Dmitry Ivanov. – From a personal collection, Public Domain.]


name Russian River Valley and the Rus- sian River, for example; they left their mark. From For- tRossState- Park.org:


“Science Un- der Sail: Rus- sia’s Great Voyages to America


[in]


1728-1867 tells the story of early Rus- sian maritime


exploration in the North Pacif- ic. [Nearly 300] years ago, Rus- sian naturalists, ethnographers, astronomers, cartographers, geographers and artists first de- scribed the west coast of Amer- ica to the rest of the world. To this


“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” ~ Lao Tzu


... continued on page 9


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