Background and History of the
Lafferty Ranch Issue

Context

 

Documents

Listed below, in reverse chronological order, are some of the seminal documents of the 11-year efforts to open Lafferty Park, dating from the early 1990s. They provide some of the background for the current situation.

2005


2004


2003

2002

2001


2000 and earlier

 

Miscellaneous

  • Home page of the Walk to the Park events led by Friends of Lafferty Park throughout 2002.

  • The Legend of Teerlaghie, a multimedia fable sent to us some years ago by an unknown cyber-Aesop. We're not sure what it has to do with anything, but we link to it in the interest of showcasing e-folklore.

 

Searching Newspaper Archives

The following newspapers have covered the Lafferty issue with some regularity:

  • The Petaluma Argus Courier has provided the most complete coverage of the controversy. Unfortunately, the Argus Courier has no online archive prior to around June 1999, and even more recent archives are incomplete. Back issues are available at some Sonoma County Library branches, but searching and retrieval is laborious.

  • The Santa Rosa Press Democrat also has extensive coverage of Lafferty and related issues. Articles, editorials and letters to the editor from late 1994 to the present are available online from the Press Democrat archives. The PD now makes its searchable archives available without charge (hurray!).

    Note that if the word "Lafferty" is part of your search string, you will encounter a lot of obits in the Press Democrat, as there is a mortuary in Santa Rosa with that name. One way to avoid them is to enter "Lafferty Ranch" in the entry box and click the "exact phrase" button.

  • The Northern California Bohemian (formerly the Sonoma County Independent) has had provided spotty, summarized coverage of the controversy from its alternative newsweekly perspective. Back issues are now hard to find online.

  • The San Francisco Chronicle & Examiner have published a few articles about Lafferty Ranch and related issues. Their archives are also free.

Of course, you can also try the general Web search engines to search for words or phrases of interest.

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