1909: How about a vacation at Skaggs Hot Springs?

The following is a 1909 travel brochure for vacationing at Skaggs Hot Springs in Sonoma County, California

only four hours’ ride from San Francisco by boat, train and automobile. The Sausalito Ferry is the traveler's starting point, and a half-hour ride on our incomparable bay brings you to the Marin shore, where two trains daily connect for Skaggs Hot Springs. As the train whirls through the far-famed Sonoma Valley with its luxuriant vineyards, olive groves and blossoming orchards, the traveler views a scene of natural grandeur unequaled on the Pacific Coast.

 Sorry, but it appears we're 115 years too late.

Famous Skaggs: Tyler Skaggs

Tyler Skaggs is a professional baseball player currently pitching for the major league Los Angeles Angels.  He was drafted in the 2009 draft from Santa Monica High School and previously pitched for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Famous Skaggs: "Brother Skaggs" the Gambler

A few years ago I wrote a post about two Skaggs brothers from Western Kentucky who made a living gambling along with other pursuits.  One of the brothers, E. H., was evidently quite famous and wealthy from Faro gambling.  From the book Sucker’s Progress: An Informal History of Gambling in America by Herbert Asbury:

His name was Elijah Skaggs, but he was better known as "Brother Skaggs, the preaching Faro dealer" because of his costume, which never varied throughout his professional life regardless of climate or weather - frock coat and trousers of black broadcloth, black silk vest, white shirt with high-standing collar, white cravat of the choker type wound several times around his scrawny neck, black stove-pipe hat and black patent-leather gaiters.

Famous Skaggs: The Real-Life Maverick Brothers

Remember the Maverick brothers from 1960s TV?  Bret and Bart Maverick were brothers in the Old West who were constantly getting into and out of trouble, usually involving money, women or both.  Well, there were two Skaggs brothers, E.M. and E.H., that were a lot like these guys in the same time period.