The Union Democrat
Seeds of stewardship
Sonora Elementary School students and faculty celebrated Arbor Day on Wednesday with the Tuolumne County Garden Club and accepted a donated, pre-planted, fenced Chinese pistache sapling donated by Subaru of Sonora. A few steps from a venerable oak...
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Free bird
red-tailed hawk recovering from a severe gunshot, arrow, or pellet gun injury was released Sunday by the Sonora-based nonprofit Mother Lode Wildlife Care at a location off Murphys Grade Road northeast of Angels Camp. Residents discovered the injured...
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Born lucky
Sonora resident Mary Louise Nofal Davies, who was born a century ago in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, turns 100 years old today at Golden Sonora Care Center off Greenley Road. She was born on St. Patrick’s Day, but she is not Irish. She is Lebanese by ancestry....
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Drawn discovery
The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., has acquired one of the earliest known drawings of Yosemite Valley and Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfall in North America, and a rare companion lithograph that were both created in 1855 by artist Thomas...
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Pain at the pump
Military conflicts in the Middle East frequently cause global oil prices to spike due to fears of supply disruptions, and the U.s.-israeli conflict with Iran that began two weeks ago has severely impacted Iran, a major oil producer, and access to the...
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‘Dream It, Be It’
About 140 freshmen and sophomore girls at Summerville High School took part in a career mentors event Wednesday that drew many of the leading lights among the area’s working professional women. The Dream It, Be It event was organized and sponsored by...
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Request for relief
The Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 Tuesday morning to request $6.3 million in state funding to build a 25-acre-foot reservoir at the former Sierra Pines Golf Course property in Twain Harte that would provide water during water...
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Forest focus
U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz, the former timber industry executive who has led the federal agency since his appointment by President Donald J. Trump’s administration last March, visited staff with the Stanislaus National Forest, Tuolumne...
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‘Stories Across Cultures’
About 150 people came to Columbia College on Thursday to hear Stephanie Beaverguzman, an enrolled member of the Indigenous Hoopa Valley Tribe of Northern California, and Kyle Cox, cultural resource manager for the Tuolumne Me-wuk Tribal Council, share...
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All cleared
Six months after a devastating lightningsparked blaze tore through Chinese Camp, property owners who lost homes and buildings can now begin rebuilding after Tuolumne County officials announced the completion of post-fire debris and hazard tree removal...
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End in sight
Repairs on storm-damaged sections of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s Main Tuolumne Canal were expected to be completed Wednesday night between Lyons Dam and Twain Harte, PG&E announced Wednesday afternoon. Testing of the canal is scheduled to begin...
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Me-wuk milestone
With an eye toward the future and nod to the past, tribal elders and current-day leaders of the Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-wuk Indians of California gathered this past weekend for a ribboncutting ceremony to mark the reopening of the tribe’s...
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Political roadblock
For more than a month, Republican lawmakers in California have blasted a legislative proposal to study alternatives to the state’s gas tax, declaring it a dishonest ploy by Democrats to hike taxes on drivers — a claim that’s gone viral on social media...
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February boost
February storms brought much-needed snow to the Central Sierra and the rest of the Sierra Nevada range, but region-wide and state-wide, the snowpack’s vital snow water equivalents are still below average for this time of year, the state’s third manual...
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Canal concerns
Known vulnerabilities of Tuolumne County’s primary source of drinking water, the storm-damaged Main Tuolumne Canal, and unfulfilled efforts to mitigate risks to the county’s most crucial water infrastructure asset resurfaced Thursday as staff with...
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Chasing the crown
Three contestants vying for the title of 2026 Mother Lode Roundup Queen were formally introduced Saturday evening during the annual kickoff event at the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Posse clubhouse in Jamestown, marking the start of a months-long...
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Chilly challenge
Braving near-freezing conditions after a week of winter storms, dozens of people gathered at Moccasin Point Marina on Saturday for an icy dip in the frigid waters of Don Pedro Reservoir as part of the 2026 Tuolumne County Polar Plunge. The event is...
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Saddled showdown
Courageous, multiskilled basketball players competed on the backs of cantankerous, rubber-shod burros Sunday on the court inside the Tuolumne Veterans Memorial Hal to raise money for the 2026 Tuolumne Lumber Jubilee. The human hoopers loved it, but...
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Feathered influx
As retired California fish-and-game biologist Jim Maddox best remembers, it all began in the very early 1970s. That’s when he and a couple of Department of Fish and Game cohorts released a grand total of 26 wild turkeys south of the Tuolumne River in...
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Olympic contender
Yosemite National Park, thanks to one of its leading concessioners, competed nearly a century ago to host the 1932 Olympic Winter Games in Yosemite Valley. The modern Olympics are founded on the ancient Olympic Games that began in 776 B.C. in Greece,...
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Winter onslaught
A multiday winter storm, the coldest of the season so far, has already wreaked havoc in the Mother Lode and the rest of the Central Sierra, with heavy rains and snow, downed trees, power outages, closures of roads and businesses, and it’s expected to...
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Legacy in Yosemite
A Yosemite National Park trail is among 10 outdoor routes in the nation “shaped by Black history,” according to Alltrails. “American public lands are full of Black history — stories of strength and community that stretch from coast to coast and...
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Olympic memories
Sonora High School alumnus Marilyn Scheller, 80, played clarinet with the Sonora Union High School Concert Band at the opening ceremonies for the VIII Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley in February 1960 — a day to remember in more ways than one. The...
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A beauty for the ages
Eva Melissa Kelley was born in 1919, which some historians have called a “world-shaking” year. She’s currently living at Golden Sonora Care Center off Greenley Road in Sonora and will turn 107 years old this Monday. Kelley is one of the very few...
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‘Gold & Grit’
Black pioneers of the Mother Lode, including G.H. Ashe, Tom Simpson, Uriah Smith, and Harriet Wright Russell, are featured in an exhibit titled “Gold and Grit: African American Histories in Gold Rush Tuolumne County” at Columbia State Historic Park...
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Bye bye Bird House?
AClovis-based developer with family ties to Sonora is exploring options to relocate a beloved building on Mono Way, known as the Bird House, as he moves forward with plans to build a new Dutch Bros Coffee and Take 5 Oil Change on the property. Michael...
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Heart Fest
Hundreds of students from Tuolumne County schools, including Mother Lode Adventist Junior Academy, Summerville Elementary, and Curtis Creek Elementary, took part in the Adventist Health Sonora 2026 Heart Fest inside the Me-wuk Tribes of Tuolumne...
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Winter in waiting
Winter rangers based at the Tuolumne Meadows Ski Hut in Yosemite National Park since Christmas Eve have compared the start of February with most of January — “dry and warm” for what’s supposed to be the wet, cold season. That could begin to change in...
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Paving prep
Caltrans workers were busy this week working next to eastbound Highway 108 between Rawhide Road and Fifth Avenue in Jamestown, with geotechnical engineers overseeing core sampling work in preparation for a future pavement rehabilitation project between...
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Can’t stop Cashman
While many young adults in America are either going back to school, making a career change or settling down and getting married, Tuolumne County native Keely Cashman is continuing to fulfill her childhood dreams of skiing on the world’s biggest...
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Timely lifeline
The Amador Tuolumne Community Action Agency Food Bank southwest of downtown Jamestown will receive $150,000 in temporary grant funding secured by the Tuolumne County Public Works Department through Calrecycle, supporting a state requirement to recover...
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Serving support
Afundraising dinner featuring celebrity waiters from the Sonora Area Foundation board of directors and retired San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Junior Bryant generated more than $300,000 last week to help replace aging gymnasium bleachers at...
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District in turmoil
Sonora Elementary School Superintendent Cheryl Griffiths was placed on administrative leave Sunday night, two days after the Tuolumne County District Attorney’s Office filed a misdemeanor charge accusing her of failing to report suspected child abuse...
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Back on track
A century-old, 60-ton steam locomotive that used to haul fresh-cut timber for West Side Lumber Co. in Tuolumne is returning to the Sierra Nevada and its new owners plan to put it back to work on a historic narrow-gauge railroad based south of Yosemite...
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Trail talk
District staff and recreation specialists with the Stanislaus National Forest plan to host an off-highway vehicle open house event next Thursday in Sonora to discuss new grant proposals to fund ground operations, law enforcement and restoration. The...
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Lost Jacksonville
Most ’49ers in Gold Rush Jacksonville came to mine the Tuolumne River’s golden gravel beds and establish trading posts, saloons and other establishments where the necessities of life could be obtained. William S. Smart, subject of the accompanying...
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A brief reprieve
The Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to extend the Jan. 31 deadline by 60 days for removal of recreational vehicles and trailers from the sanctioned Camp Justice site for homeless individuals, as well as to set up 15...
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First impression
Visitors and residents to Tuolumne are now greeted by a new “Welcome” sign that was erected last week. The result of a two-year effort spearheaded by the Tuolumne Memorial Museum, the striking sign was designed by local graphic artist Judy Stoltenberg...
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New beginning
A referral to Resiliency Village in Tuolumne County nearly one year ago became a turning point for Journey Hobson, a 29-year-old single mother of three, who’s now one of the program’s few residents to move from homelessness to homeownership. Earlier...
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Symbol scrutinized
They say word travels fast in a small town, and the ageold cliche was as true as ever when residents of Tuolumne County caught wind that Columbia College was potentially considering moving away from its current mascot, the Claim Jumpers. On the...
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Mini makers
ASonora resident who started her own graphic design and marketing business 10 years ago has launched a new venture in Tuolumne County to showcase young entrepreneurs and their wares, and she hopes to connect with young business owners and their parents...
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Polar Plunge is on!
Organizers with Special Olympics Northern California have secured permission to stage the 2026 Tuolumne County Polar Plunge fundraiser at the South Shore Tulloch Reservoir concession venue on Feb. 21, but the concession itself and public access to the...
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Sonora honors King
People celebrating the legacy of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. at Sonora High School on Saturday evoked President Donald J. Trump and his administration’s focus on immigration since his second term began a year ago. The roughly...
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Meet ROSA
Dr. Chris Krpan, an orthopedic surgeon at Adventist Health Sonora, estimates he has done thousands of knee replacement surgeries in 21 years in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties. In the past three years, he’s been using robotic surgical assistant...
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Following the money
California state Sen. Mike Mcguire, a Santa Rosa Democrat, is a die-hard San Francisco 49ers fan. During his first speech as Senate president pro tempore in early 2024, Mcguire gave a shoutout to his beloved team, who were days away from facing the...
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From Yosemite to Nepal
Awoman who was born in Sonora, grew up in Groveland and Yosemite Valley, and has extensive rock climbing and mountaineering experience in California and Alaska is traveling to the Himalayas this week to help teach an ice climbing clinic for Nepali...
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Curtain call
While “coming soon” posters on the wall outside of the Regal Cinemas Stadium 10 in Sonora advertised some of this summer’s most-anticipated Hollywood blockbusters, employees and longtime moviegoers inside the building’s quiet lobby were bracing for the...
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Critters in Color
Columbia Elementary students are using their creativity to help cats and dogs in need of homes through an art show that will be on display until the end of the month at the Sonora Chamber of Commerce’s offices in downtown Sonora, with an artist...
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Fire budget crunch
Tuolumne County fire funding for 2026-27 is scheduled to come before the county Board of Supervisors at a public meeting Tuesday, followed by a discussion and board direction to county staff. Information is tentatively scheduled to be presented by the...
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Yosemite rescues
In Yosemite National Park, an elite searchand-rescue team helps lost hikers, evacuates injured climbers and saves people stranded on the sheer granite cliffs of El Capitan or the steep, slick slope of Half Dome. The team responded to more than 190...
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‘A solid base’
The state’s first manual snow survey of the 2025-26 winter, conducted Tuesday about 60 miles northeast of Sonora in El Dorado County, showed the Central Sierra and statewide snowpack received significant boosts from Christmas week storms. Snowpack...
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Christmas cleanup
Tuolumne County Public Works Solid Waste Division staff are offering county residents the opportunity to recycle their live, non-flocked Christmas trees for free. Nonflocked means no fake white snow powder on the tree. County residents can drop off...
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Winter windfall
In a winter season that’s brought bleak news to tourism-dependent Tuolumne County, Christmas week storm forecasts paid off with enough snow to guarantee a needed boost to the county’s top private-sector industry. Dodge Ridge Mountain Resort received...
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Climbers share faith, fellowship
Gabriel Mann, 41, and Marc Crum, 63, have been climbing individually for decades, and they’ve shared a rope — the essential lifeline that physically links them and represents their trust, partnership, and commitment to venturing to vertical places and...
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Christmas comeback
What started out as an apparent act of vandalism to Jamestown’s beloved community Christmas tree in Rocca Park turned into an inspiring display of resilience and holiday spirit. The 12foot tree, which has been placed in the park’s gazebo each holiday...
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Holiday helpers
An army of volunteers have been helping prepare 500 pounds of turkey, 500 pounds of mashed potatoes, 500 pounds of stuffing, and 20 gallons of gravy to feed about 2,300 hungry people, who will come in person or receive delivery meals and pickup meals...
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Meals and music
The annual 37th annual Mut’s Bean Feed and 44th annual Pop Hudson Christmas Sing drew holiday revelers to downtown Sonora Friday afternoon for a free lunch and a round of community Christmas caroling. The Bean Feed is presented by the Tuolumne County...
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No limits
Agroup of Tuolumne County people who are coping with Parkinson’s disease, a progressive, degenerative neurological disorder for which there is no cure — including one in his 80s who is also dealing with Lewy body dementia — are defying stereotypes,...
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History on deck
A seven-month effort to preserve a piece of Gold Rush history in Calaveras County for generations to come will culminate Thursday afternoon when the 171-year-old Douglas Flat Schoolhouse is lowered onto its newly completed foundation. The public and...
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Back-to-back state champs
The Sonora High School varsity football team took home its second consecutive state title — and the second in the program’s history — on Saturday after defeating Rio Hondo Prep at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo 35-10. A victory parade is being...
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Meals and meaning
On what would have been Richard Jimmie “RJ” Bennett II’S 41st birthday, dozens of residents at Camp Justice were treated on Thursday to hot meals, showers, haircuts and words of encouragement at an event organized by his family in his memory. What...
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History awaits
The Sonora Wildcats are gearing up for their chance to become state football champions for the second-straight year when they take on Rio Hondo Prep this Saturday in Mission Viejo. See Sports on Page B1 for a preview of the matchup, as well as a...
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Good as gold
Sonora High School’s Golden Regiment Band performed a concert Monday night in Bud Castle Gymnasium. The concert featured a medley of spirit songs they’ve played at sports games throughout the season, before they travel to Southern California this...
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State-bound, again
Sonora football went from being one of the more under-theradar teams in the whole state, to being one of the most talked about small school football programs in the country over the course of these past two seasons. And when you’re a team with little...
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Service and tradition
Tuolumne County first responders joined local Scouts last month in downtown Sonora’s Courthouse Square to respectfully retire worn American flags as part of a formal ceremony steeped in tradition. Hosted on Nov. 20 by Scouting America Troops 580 and...
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Ready to roar
The Sonora Wildcats’ quest to repeat as state football champions continues this Saturday when they host the Woodcreek Timberwolves in the CIF Northern California Division 2-A Regional title game at Dunlavy Field.
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Friendly competition
Courthouse Square in downtown Sonora was abuzz Wednesday morning as groups set up for the annual Christmas treedecorating contest organized by the Sonora Chamber of Commerce. More than 50 trees decorated by members of local nonprofit organizations,...
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Native American tribe reclaims 900 acres of Yosemite National Park
A Native American tribe that was displaced by the establishment of Yosemite National Park is getting part of its lands back. The land transfer, from Pacific Forest Trust, is considered a major milestone for Indigenous cultural and land restoration in...
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Small-town showcase
Thousands of people of all ages lined Washington Street for the 42nd Annual Historic Downtown Sonora Christmas Parade, which began at 6 p.m. Friday. It was cold enough for hot coffee and cocoa, which several businesses offered in styrofoam cups...
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Let there be lights
Christmas Town Sonora events officially kicked off Wednesday with a lighting ceremony held at The Red Church and Sonora Fire Museum. For coverage on Friday’s Downtown Sonora Christmas Parade, see Tuesday’s Union Democrat. People snap photos of St....
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Harvest of help
Dave Dumas, a Marine Corps and Vietnam veteran who turned 74 years old Tuesday, has been volunteering and helping to feed and care for veterans and the homeless for more than a quarter-century as director of Harvest Ministries in Tuolumne. Aaron...
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Turkey takeover
Turkey is back on the menu at the former Foster Farms plant in Turlock that closed this May and took with it 500 local jobs. The Diestel Family Ranch, a longtime Sonora-based specialty turkey producer, has taken over the Turlock site and plans to...
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Turkey Trot
The 43rd annual Turkey Trot, hosted by Sonora Elementary took place on Friday, Nov. 21, and saw children, teachers, administrators and parents alike embrace the festivities and the kickoff to the holiday season. Boys and girls in third through eighth...
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‘Dedication and vision’
The Mariposa, Amador, Alpine, Calaveras and Tuolumne Health Board, Inc., a nonprofit tribal health care provider for federally recognized and non-federally recognized tribes in five counties, began by providing health services for Native Americans...
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Dragoon Gulch grind
A dozen workers with chain saws, fuel belts, gloves, helmets, face-shields, chaps, and other gear attacked dense vegetation Wednesday, raising clouds of sawdust and the howling racket of revved-up gas-powered motors near Alpine Lane and the Creekside...
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