Over a million people a year walk, hike, or ride horseback on the amazingly diverse trails of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. From a short, easy stroll into a magnificent giant sequoia grove to a strenuous backpacking trip to the summit of rugged Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the 48 contiguous states, these paths offer people of all ages, inclinations, and abilities a multitude of opportunities to experience the parks’ wonders in the very best way: at a walking pace, free to pause whenever they please, immersed in the sights, scents, sounds, and thrills of the wild world.

     Ranging in elevation from less than 2,000 feet up to 14,500 feet, the trails traverse over a thousand miles to connect the major features and extraordinary environments of these spectacular parks. Who builds these beckoning byways, and who maintains them in the face of floods, fires, avalanches, rock slides, falling trees, deep snows, and thoughtless trail-cutters?

     Since the National Park Service was established in 1916, this essential work has been carried out primarily by NPS Trail Crews (while Civilian Conservation Corps workers contributed a tremendous amount of trail maintenance from 1933 to 1942). Beginning in the 1970s, the parks have also been partnering with volunteer service organizations such as the Youth Conservation Corps to help maintain the miles of trails being “loved to death” by the increasing national interest in outdoor recreation.

     It’s not easy to get hired on to a Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks trail crew. First, applicants must realize that their work locations may be in any area of these two parks, which are 93% wilderness and span “an extraordinary continuum of ecosystems, arrayed along the greatest vertical relief (1,370 to 14,495 feet elevation) of any protected area in the lower 48 states.”

     Trail crew positions require wilderness travel and camping skills; the ability to hike at high altitude for extended periods of time and up to 20 miles a day while carrying backpacks, tools, and supplies weighing at least 50 pounds; and the ability to perform masonry and carpentry work in addition to a full spectrum of basic trail work, including clearing fallen logs, removing encroaching vegetation, digging to maintain drainage structures or trail tread, and moving materials of all shapes and sizes in rugged terrain.

     Are you still interested?

     Trail crews in these parks work outdoors in temperatures varying from over a hundred degrees down to near ten degrees, and may experience heavy rain, hail, and falling snow. Typically, the work environment is hot, dusty, dirty, and sometimes noisy. Working long hours, hiking or riding horseback in rough country, crews may encounter hazards such as poisonous plants and animals and high, cold, swift water at stream crossings.

     They construct, repair, and maintain bridges, abutments, aesthetically pleasing rock walls, walkways, causeways, trail tread, water bars and retainer steps. Their tools include rock bars and drills, jacks, chisels, a variety of saws, timber tongs, draw knives, planes, and other masonry and carpentry tools, which they also clean and repair.

     Heavy physical effort is required in using both hand and power tools; frequently lifting , carrying, or rolling objects such as rocks and logs weighing over 100 pounds; moving slabs and boulders weighing several tons with rock bars; using hammers to crush or shape rock; and shoveling extensively.

     To provide for visitor access and safety, the crews build all kinds of trails, from accessible trails meeting Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines in some frontcountry sites to trails that climb to high mountain peaks in the backcountry. Laws including the National Historic Preservation Act, the National Trail System Act, the Wilderness Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Clean Water Act all apply in Sequoia and Kings Canyon.

     These laws require trails to avoid damaging habitats or disrupting important lands, waters, or historic or prehistoric sites. To protect cultural and natural resources, crews may route trails around sensitive areas, construct boardwalks over wetlands, or seasonally close trails during nesting or migration times.

     Crew members must also have the ability to live and work effectively in remote, primitive backcountry areas in close contact with small numbers of people for two to twelve weeks at a time. Crews typically consist of three to ten NPS workers, and a Cook for work in the backcountry. Crews may be supplemented by work groups from the California Conservation Corps, the Student Conservation Corps, Volunteers-in-Parks, and other programs. To support backcountry projects, pack trains periodically bring in food, mail, supplies, and equipment.

     Would you like to gain the extra skills and responsibilities of a crew leader?

     Trail crew leaders not only perform the full spectrum of trail work themselves. They also have to perform inspections, surveys, and inventories of facilities for maintenance needs to provide for accurate planning and scheduling of work, and make informed recommendations for operational improvements. They plan, lead, and supervise the crew’s work, provide training, emphasize and monitor safety, and, of course, write reports.

     Additionally, crew leaders must possess and maintain an NPS Blasters License because they serve as Blaster in Charge to remove obstacles such as logs and rocks from trail tread, to quarry stone for masonry work, and to establish trail bench in bedrock areas. They also assist in mule and horse packing operations by riding on mountainous trails, preparing supplies and materials for mule transport, tying on loads, and leading pack animals. To move big boulders and logs in the wilderness, they set up and use human-powered winches and rigging such as high-lines.

     The crews often coordinate with backcountry rangers to determine and prioritize projects in their work areas, and frequently assist park visitors by providing information about trails and weather, helping with communications and directions, and even participating in searches for persons reported missing or overdue.

     Have you had the opportunity to thank a trail crew yet? Next time you’re traveling on some part of the tremendous trail network in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, pause to reflect on what you’re walking on and appreciate the work of the dedicated, skillful men and women who have labored for such long hours in such difficult conditions to make your journey as smooth and safe as they can.

     As a young worker from the Eastern Sierra Conservation Corps serving in our parks put it, ” It takes tremendous grit and passion for a member of a national park trail crew to thrive. Though the days may be long, the physical demands arduous, and the unexpected challenges difficult to navigate, one thing is for sure: serving on a trail crew guarantees an unforgettable experience.”

     (If you’d like to try to join a national park trail crew, check usajobs.gov and search for “maintenance worker trails”.)

May, 2020

NOTE:  To find the “History of the Wilderness Trail System of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks,“ see Granite Pathways, by William C. Tweed (Three Rivers, CA; Sequoia Parks Conservancy, 2021).

     Earth Day was still an infant, and the modern environmental movement was just getting its legs when the Yaudanchi Ecological Reserve was created in 1975.

     Back then, when most people probably couldn’t define the word “ecological,” the folks at the California Department of Fish and Game (now the California Department of Fish and Wildlife) noticed that a patch of unused former Tule River bottomland near the Porterville State Hospital was a popular breeding site for great blue heron, a wading bird partial to wetlands and the largest species of North American heron.

     That recognition became the starting point for a remarkable collaboration of interests that included the Tule River Indian tribe, state and local office-holders, local environmental activists, the Boy Scouts, the hospital, local farms and businesses, water districts, and many volunteers in creating a nature preserve.

     Today, the Yaudanchi Ecological Reserve continues to live up to its name on 164 acres adjacent to what is now called the Porterville Developmental Center. The account of how the site was defined and preserved comprises a series of changing players, fits and starts, and shifting motivations. The end result is a rarity in Tulare County: A sizable tract of foothills valley rangeland that is left almost entirely to the designs of nature, where indigenous animals, native plants, a pond, remnants of a riparian woodland, and migrating birds constitute the main attractions, and the public is welcome to walk among them.

     The Yaudanchi site was owned for many decades by the Porterville State Hospital, housing its sewage treatment plant and related buildings. But by the 1970s, those buildings were long gone, and the land had reverted to a wild, vacant tract. Thus, in 1975, the state of California announced its intentions to sell as surplus property the unused 88 acres next to the hospital.

     The movement to make this land a preserve was initiated by a rookery of great blue heron, the Porterville Garden Club, and the Tule River Indian tribe. The Garden Club was the first to identify the site as the home to a sizable rookery of the huge birds. The Tule River Tribal Council named the site “Yaudanchi” as homage to the original native Yaudanchi Yokuts residents of the Porterville area.

     Several local interests, including the Porterville Environmental Council, mobilized to preserve the heron rookery. Among community groups that joined were two local water districts, the Tea Pot Dome Water District and the Vandalia Water District; the local chapter of the Safari Club; the Boy Scouts; and eventually the Friant Water Users Authority and the California Department of Fish and Game.

     An important development occurred in October, 1975, when the Porterville State Hospital advisory committee supported a resolution for a wildlife reservation and heron rookery on the property. Made up of prominent citizens and health-care professionals from throughout the San Joaquin Valley and beyond, the committee included Dr. Jack Ramos of Fresno, Sue B. Ely of Tulare, Helen Hansen of Menlo Park, Margaret Foley of Visalia, and Howard Smith of Porterville. Medical Director Dr. James T. Shelton welcomed the resolution and suggested the property be sold to a non-profit for $1.00 so that it would remain preserved.

     The plan, however, needed the approval of the state Legislature. In early 1976, the Porterville Recorder reported that Assemblyman Gordon Duffy said the state would not sell the property but would retain it as a heron rookery.

     By then, a great number of groups were supporters, notably the Sierra Club; the American Association of Retired Persons; the American Association of University Women; the Audubon societies of Tulare, Kern, and Fresno counties; the Tulare County Board of Supervisors; the Porterville City Council; and the Porterville Farm Bureau.

     In mid-1976, the finishing touches were put on an agreement that would preserve the Yaudanchi property in perpetuity as a nature reserve. The agreement maintained that the preserve would continue to be owned by the state of California and managed by the Department of Fish and Game.

     For most of the next 20 years, however, there was little management, and severe drought in the 1980s devastated the grove of cottonwood and sycamore trees that was essential to the blue heron rookery. The big birds began moving away.

     Yaudanchi started on the road to its current status as a true ecological reserve with a couple of related developments in the 1990s. First, the California Sierra Chapter of Safari Club International, an organization that was among Yaudanchi’s original supporters, began some management of the site, promoting wildlife and restoring habitat.

  Then in 1997, the Department of Fish and Game received a $20,000 grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to make improvements in the site’s water supply, including lining some ponding basins and directing water to and from wetlands habitat. The Sierra Safari Club matched the grant with $10,000 of its own and donated more than 400 volunteer hours to developing the site.

     By that point, Fish and Game wildlife biologists noted that Yaudanchi was already a valuable habitat for wildlife, including bobcats, ducks, the San Joaquin kit fox, several species of hawks, great horned owls, and various wading and shore birds, including migrating species.

     The reported size of the Yaudanchi Ecological Reserve has fluctuated over the years, because an exact survey was never made and some land was added to the original site. Several sources identified it as 88 acres in 1975. The city of Porterville’s current general plan site map defines it as 164 acres, slightly more than a quarter section.

     The reserve also has continued to receive assistance. The Safari Club has worked to create habitat for many local birds and animals (more than 75 species) as well as migrators. Community groups and schools are invited to help by planting trees and other vegetation. The Tule River Parkway Association donated hundreds of oaks. Volunteers from organizations such as WildPlaces have periodically removed non-native invasive species. Managed uses include cattle grazing and groundwater recharge.

     Today, Yaudanchi Ecological Reserve enables us to amble through a landscape that after many years and many changes once again resembles this countryside as it appeared over a hundred years ago, now managed to abet the land’s service to nature. Visitors are invited for nature walks, bird-watching, field studies, photography, volunteering, and exploring the habitat of one of the San Joaquin Valley’s natural treasures.

                                                                                                                                                                           June, 2013

2017 Update: Yaudanchi Ecological Reserve is currently closed to the public. Its status as an Ecological Reserve and as a TCT Treasure is to be determined. As the TCT Project team learns more, we will post further updates.

     To walk the streets of Wilsonia is to walk through a living past. Perhaps nowhere is there a better example of the ever-changing American dream.

     The mid to late 1800s was a time of dreams, especially in the far western United States. Freedom, equal opportunity, and settlement of vast, unoccupied government lands were seen as the unquestioned rights of every citizen. In sprawling, newly formed Tulare County, the forests were there for the taking, to explore, settle, and cut without restrictions, to divide into sections of ownership, to use and abuse at will. There was certainly more than enough for everyone.

     In 1857, Joseph Hardin Thomas set up a lumber mill in the county’s high timberlands near today’s town of Pinehurst. That opened settlement and logging in a prime area of Giant Sequoia trees until the 1870s, when a growing conservation-conscious public began an effort to save the grove.

     Daniel M. Perry held a homestead claim for 160 acres that lay just outside the grove. He watched as the conservation efforts grew through the years, and finally sold the parcel to lumberman Smith Comstock—just one year before the formation of General Grant National Park, in 1890. Times turned hard in the 1890s, the land changed hands several times, and no extensive logging on it ever took place.

     The turn of the 20th century heralded astounding changes for Tulare County. With the mass production of automobiles, recreational roads began to wind into the mountains, and interest in preservation of the forests gave way to new leisure-time pursuits.

     California Fish and Game Commissioner Andrew Ferguson could see the potentials. He gained private title to the Perry tract in 1918 and turned a portion of it into a summer home subdivision. A staunch Democrat and ardent admirer of then President Woodrow Wilson, Ferguson placed a large sign with a portrait of the President at the entrance to the subdivision, proclaiming it “Wilsonia.” He also placed some restrictions. No meadows could be sold and no trees over six inches in diameter could be cut without consent of Wilsonia’s governing body.

     In 1919 Ferguson sold 20 of the 160 acres to a group known as The Masonic Family Club, and the self-governing group built 24 cabins as a separate part of the Wilsonia community. The rest of the land continued to be subdivided until, by the late 1920s, the tract had 180 landowners and 150 homes.

     Wilsonia was the perfect example of a recreational mountain community of its times. It was a family retreat, with the women and their children making the rustic cabins their full-time summer homes. Dances, social gatherings, neighborhood barbecues, cooperative campfire programs with the Park, hikes, horseback riding, and functions to raise money for a community clubhouse filled the summer days.

     But it didn’t last. In 1931, Andrew Ferguson died, and his son Thomas sold 20 acres of the Wilsonia tract to the federal government for a new approach to General Grant Park’s headquarters. Next, Thomas sold a 40-acre strip along the eastern boundary to a private individual. Finally, he sold the remaining unimproved land to the Park Service. This gave the federal government a large stake in the community and was to portend even more unsettling changes.

     The biggest change came in 1940, when General Grant National Park became part of the new, greatly expanded Kings Canyon National Park. Overnight, Wilsonia was transformed from a private National Forest residential enclave into a National Park inholding.

     Since the 1930s, the National Park Service had made it clear that one of its goals was to eliminate private inholdings in parklands. But it wasn’t until the 1960s, after the Great Depression, World War II, and recovery from them finally ended, that a new wave of conservation and preservation efforts could be addressed.

     Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks then included Wilsonia on a list of their historic cultural resources; but they also began working toward a now-mandated Park Service policy to eliminate private inholdings. With passage of the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund in 1965, the parks set up a “willing seller-willing buyer” program to acquire as many inholdings as possible. Kings Canyon National Park used the funds to buy as many cabins and commercial properties in Wilsonia as possible..

     One commercial owner and 12 cabin owners took long-term leases and continued occupancy until their leases expired. Eleven of those cabins remain as historic structures. The Park burned or razed others to return the sites to their natural state, but left intact some that might possibly be used for park administration, only to let the structures deteriorate. It denied uses such as horse corrals on some of the open lands, leaving them untended and uncared for, while it actively pursued more landowners who might be willing to sell. And the historic community began to disintegrate.

     The Park Service continued its land acquisitions until only 100 private acres remained. It also changed its management guidelines with a requirement that private property holders get approval from the Park Service before making any changes that might be deemed incompatible with the surrounding park.

     In 1978, a group of Wilsonia residents took a complaint to the United States House of Representatives, protesting the new Park policies that had not had adequate public hearings. Their action helped establish new legal guidelines for public input on government policies. Still, the policies didn’t change, and the community continued to decline.

     Finally, in the summer of 1991, another community group met to determine what could be done to save Wilsonia. Political action had achieved few results; perhaps national and state preservation guidelines would. If they could get Wilsonia listed on the National Register of Historic Places, further destruction of the community’s historic buildings might be stopped.

     The project took years of effort. The community raised funds to employ a professional historian who documented the private holdings and history of the community. Then it hired a Los Angeles firm to guide it through a long process of California State Office of Historic Preservation determination of eligibility. After that, the Department of Interior reviewed the findings. Finally, on March 14, 1996, the Wilsonia Historic District was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

     In the following years, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks have worked together with the community to maintain and improve the district’s lands and structures. Once again, changing times have helped the process. For the Parks, not only the listing’s required need for historic preservation, but a growing American emphasis on public/private partnerships, has opened opportunities for new programs and cooperation.

     For Wilsonia, its recognition as an important historical resource has been the fulfillment of an American dream. That dream may continue to change, but the community and its vital history will live on for us to share.

April, 2016

     Located in a beautiful giant sequoia grove on Redwood Mountain, adjacent to Kings Canyon National Park, and now surrounded by Giant Forest National Monument, Whitaker’s Forest maintains the oldest permanent research plots (established in 1915) in California. There, the University of California, Berkeley’s (UCB) Center for Forestry studies vegetation, breeding birds, resident mammals, controlled burning, and giant sequoia growth and regeneration. At Whitaker’s Forest Research Station these types of studies will have been conducted for over one hundred years as of 2015.

     In 1910, Horace Whitaker donated all 320 acres of Whitaker’s Forest to UCB, with the restriction that the land be “held in its present condition for forestry investigation and research.” Whitaker had moved from the East Coast to California in 1856, and to Tulare County in 1858. Near Orosi he established a stock ranch in Stokes Valley.

     He was quite a colorful character, always driving a two-wheeled cart, forbidding dogs on his property, and sometimes putting up fences across roads. Even so, he acquired a significant amount of property. In a county tax lien sale in 1895, he bought the forested land at the end of the road leading up from Badger to the western slope of Redwood Mountain.

     The land had been logged from 1870 to 1878 by the Hyde Mill, and Whitaker made rails and fence posts by hand from the large quantities of sequoia chunks that were left scattered over most of the property from the milling days. John Muir visited the area surrounding the Hyde Mill and Redwood Mountain in 1875 and was in awe of the magnificent trees and vistas, but was equally appalled by the mill’s “. . . forming a sore, sad center of destruction . . .” in the sequoia forest.

     Whitaker built a cabin on the flat where the mill had stood. He became very attached to the property, spent time every summer there, and developed a strong sense of conservation and land stewardship. In 1910, in failing health, Whitaker met with the President of UCB to discuss donating his forest property to the university.

     In August of that year a deed was created and signed, giving the university title to the property upon his death. Less than two months later, on October 16, 1910, Whitaker died and was buried on his ranch in Stokes Valley.

     In 1914, the university’s Division of Forestry was established on the Berkeley campus, and in 1915, UCB professor Woodridge (“Woody”) Metcalf surveyed Whitaker’s Forest and began setting up study plots to monitor the growth within the sequoia groves. Some of these plots have been measured regularly ever since.

     In 1926, Metcalf, along with the heads of 4-H organizations in Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, and Kern counties, began to organize a summer youth camp at Whitaker’s Forest. They planned to educate the campers in forestry and conservation. Camping began in 1926, and in the late 1920s and 1930s the camp expanded to include multiple tent platforms, a bathhouse, and a swimming pool on the site of the old Hyde Mill.

     From 1945-1947, an additional camp site, the Bruin Camp, was developed on the northeast side of the road. Consisting of five buildings and 25 tent platforms, it functioned as a camp for children with diabetes. At their peak in the 1950s, the two camps served over 15,000 students a year. But the last camping season was in 1960, and in the fall of 1961, due to increasing health standards and safety concerns, and because the extensive development went well beyond Whitaker’s provision that his forest should remain a forest, almost all of the camp facilities were removed. Three cabins, a barn, two bathhouses, and a power shed from the camps remain.

     Until the early 1960s, the western national parks and national forests adhered to the old Smokey Bear philosophy of putting out all fires on the lands they managed, no matter where the fires occurred. In the late 1950s, however, Dr. Harold Biswell of UC Berkeley’s School of Forestry began research and an informational campaign that would change nearly everyone’s view of how best to manage these forests.

     He and his students conducted what he called his “little burns” in the Whitaker’s Forest groves. This was the first research on the use of prescribed burns in western forests. Biswell tirelessly advocated for a more modern and beneficial method of dealing with fire in the forests, and now his doctrines are widely accepted among forest ecologists and forest managers.

     Today, research continues at Whitaker’s Forest with the goals of providing methods on how best to sustainably manage sequoia forests while protecting the native flora and fauna that live there. In accordance with Horace Whitaker’s deed restrictions, the property is being maintained in its forested state in perpetuity, used for research and teaching. The public is allowed access free of charge (with reasonable regulations), but large-scale grazing activities are prohibited, along with selling or dispensing “whiskey or other intoxicating liquors.”

     What a great gift Horace Whitaker gave to benefit his beloved forest, forestry science, and all the generations to come. You can stop and thank him for it when you visit, because, in 1936, at the request of his niece, his grave was moved from his old ranch to lie forever in his forest, beneath a fine group of young sequoias just where the road bends in the old mill clearing. There, inside a little picket fence, a sequoia wood marker commemorates “Horace Whitaker, Donor of the Forest.”

November, 2014

     It all started with the vision for a river refuge — a place for the people of Porterville to access the natural world without leaving town. The Tule River Parkway Association (TRPA) was originated by Don Zuckswert, a professor at Porterville College, sometime prior to 1990 to advocate for and assist the City of Porterville in creating a pathway along the river.

     Today local residents can retreat to the 2.2–mile Tule River Parkway for a stroll, jog, bicycle or horseback ride under leafy shade trees. The more adventurous may explore a network of informal sandy trails winding along the river’s floodplain and to the river’s edge from Jaye Street to Westwood.

     This story is about how the action of local residents transformed the river and simultaneously inspired a change of heart about the value of the Tule River.

     The Tule had been neglected and mistreated. The river was looked upon as simply a conduit for water conveyance rather than a dynamic ecosystem. Old tires, discarded appliances, furniture, and refuse littered its path. Bulldozers scoured the riverbed to open up the channel for flood control and attempted to decrease an infestation of the noxious Arundo weed ( Arundo donax). Unfortunately, the unwanted plant thrived after bulldozing by sending up thousands of new shoots while native plants including Elderberry bushes were plowed over.

     TRPA members Don Zuckswert, Don Stover, Art Cowley, Teresa Stump, and later Cathy Capone dedicated themselves to the cause of cleaning up the river and making it accessible to the public. They rallied the support of residents by holding meetings, and writing letters to city officials and editorials to the Porterville Recorder. They documented the trash-strewn riverbed, infestation of invasive plants, and bulldozing of the riverbed in a photographic slide show titled “River of Shame” – and presented it to local service clubs such as the Morning Rotary and the Garden Club in order to raise awareness and support for the parkway.

     The vision for a river pathway earned the attention of Porterville’s civic leaders early on. In 1992, the City of Porterville’s Tule River Parkway Master Plan proposed a pathway stretching from the Friant-Kern Canal eastward to Bartlett Park near Lake Success– a distance of more than 12 miles. The City began the slow and tedious work of purchasing the land, acquiring permits, and obtaining funding. A break-through happened when Edward B. “Ted” Cornell and his wife, Elizabeth, of Cotton Center, donated a key 17-acre parcel. That donation fulfilled the matching funds needed to procure a $400,000 grant from CalTrans, and the trail building began.

     The TRPA built momentum by activating the populace — getting hundreds of people to come down to the Tule and work together to begin transforming the river of shame into a healthy waterway ecosystem. “People did not realize that there was this potentially incredible resource right in the center of town,” stated Capone. “We had to engage them.”

     Naturalist-guided walks engaged residents in learning the importance of fostering native plants and trees along the riverbanks to provide wildlife habitat. The walks educated residents (and the powers that be) about more environmentally friendly management practices for taking care of rivers.

     River cleanups involved volunteers from Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Wal-Mart Distribution Center, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Porterville, to hundreds of others working together to remove the heaps of trash, discarded tires, and appliances from the riverbed.

     According to Cathy Capone, the slow growth of oak trees seemed, at times, to parallel the pace of progress with the river parkway. When asked about the ultimate lesson learned from her over twenty years of involvement in the project, Capone summed it up, “If we work together we can get a whole lot more done than if we work individually. Look to your city council, look to your board of supervisors, look to other organizations. Don’t give up your goal. Find partners.”

     Porterville broke ground on the first section of the parkway in December, 1998. In April of 1999, the first half mile had been completed, from near the Highway 65/Highway 190 junction north and eastward to Indiana Street. In February, 2003, the next segment, from Indiana to Jaye Street (.9 mile), was dedicated. Next came the .7 mile stretch from Jaye Street to Main Street, dedicated in January, 2005.

     TRPA has gotten grants and donations and involved many dozens of volunteers in beautifying the parkway by helping to plant and maintain hundreds of trees along the paved trail. Improvement and expansion of the parkway continues with a new neighborhood park adjacent to the river at Plano and community interest in formal parkway paths between Westwood and Highway 65, and from Main Street east to Plano.

     At the heart of Porterville’s General Plan 2030 are guiding policies that include protecting the Tule River Corridor as an open space resource to meet multiple needs, including bike and trail linkages, storm water drainage and treatment, wildlife habitat, and active and passive recreation.

     Truly, a change of heart has occurred, and the value of a river has enriched the lives of Porterville residents. And the Tule River Parkway continues to grow. “We’d love to connect the parkway to Bartlett Park at Lake Success, and connect it going farther west also. Some of our more adventuresome members would love to see it go to the Great Divide,” says Cathy.

                                                                                                                                                                                       February, 2014

UPDATE, 09/27/24:  In 2014, the City of Porterville was planning to extend the Parkway eastward from Main Street to Plano Street and westward from Highway 65 to Westwood, for a total length of 3.5 miles.  Construction has now begun on the eastward extension, to take the paved pathway from  S. Main Street to Fallen Heroes Park near S. Plano Street.  Two bridges will connect the pathway with the large island that can be seen from the Plano Street bridge and the park.  The new section will include solar lighting, retaining walls, and trail signage, and should be completed within a year.  TRPA and the City of Porterville will also use U.S. Fish and Wildlife grant funding to enhance habitat for native birds and wildlife in the project area, removing invasive non-native plants and planting and tending four distinct habitat communities.  (Volunteers have already created 31 wildlife-friendly gardens in the Native Plant Demonstration Project that runs east along the existing Parkway from the trailhead at the intersection of Parkway Drive and Oak View Street.)

At 5:34 p.m. on March 11, 1933, the Long Beach earthquake severely shook California. It set off a chain of reactions which brought down a major building at Tulare High School and replaced it with today’s cherished and historically recognized auditorium.

Centered offshore, the magnitude 6.4 1933 temblor damaged many of Southern California’s unreinforced buildings, including a large number of schools. Between 115 and 120 people were killed. A month later, the state legislature passed the Field Act, mandating that school buildings be earthquake resistant. Shortly thereafter, the main building at Tulare High School, including its auditorium, was condemned as unsafe.

Accordingly, the big 1908 Greek Revival style building was then torn down, and classes were moved into local businesses, onto the front porches of neighboring homes, and into tents on the school’s lawn. School activities were spread around town, with assemblies and concerts held in the Tulare Theater and the Women’s Clubhouse.

Construction of the new building, with an attached classroom wing, was one of the 19,004 projects across the U.S. that were partially funded through the Public Works Administration (PWA), a New Deal program that spent 3.3 billion dollars during the Great Depression to provide jobs and stimulate the economy. It gave Tulare Union High School District a grant of $60,388 toward what would become $175,000 in construction costs.

Plans were developed for the new building to hold the school’s offices, a larger auditorium, and several classrooms. The architect was W. D. Coates, of Fresno, who also designed the Civic Auditorium in Hanford, the Fresno Auditorium and Hall of Records, and Porterville High School. Coates used the then popular Art Moderne style. This form of Art Deco emphasized curves and long horizontal lines with smooth exterior surfaces to create an aerodynamic form. Its simplicity also reflected the hard economic times of the early 1930s. Blueprints were completed in November, 1935, and construction began immediately under general contractors W.J. Ochs and Midstate Construction of Fresno.

The building’s front features tall square columns and a curved upper facade. Entry is through large steel doors with leaf designs sculpted into a stucco border. The lobby has large rounded curves at its corners, and gold Art Deco light fixtures run the length of the interior corridors. A large mosaic on the east wall depicts the first Tulare high school of 1891, the second of 1908, and workmen constructing the new building. One of the goals of the PWA was to employ artists as well as construction workers.

The new 25,187 square foot auditorium had a seating capacity of 1400. At the time, the population of Tulare was 4000. Scott & Co. furnished and installed the seats, and General Seating Co. of San Francisco supplied all the stage equipment.

The building was finished in the spring of 1937 and was dedicated on May 30. It was first used two days later, for the Class of 1937’s graduation ceremony. The following year’s graduating class included Elmo “Bud” Zumwalt, who later became a U.S. Navy Admiral and the youngest man to serve as Chief of Naval Operations.

Thereafter, the auditorium was used for school plays, musicals, graduations, and community concerts. During WW II, cadets at Rankin Field, the Army Air Force training center southeast of town, put on “The Follies,” a talent show of humorous skits based on popular radio shows and movies. Jack Webb, famous for acting in and producing the “Dragnet” TV series popular in the 1950s and ’60s, was the Activity Director at the base and produced several of these talent shows.

The newly-formed Tulare County Symphony Orchestra performed its first concert on April 8, 1960, in the auditorium, with tickets selling for $1.00. Tulare High School orchestra conductor Robert Cole led this group of volunteer musicians that would develop into one of the county’s premier musical organizations. For many years, the Symphony has performed Children’s Concerts in the auditorium for local third and fifth graders each October.

During the 1970s and 1980s the auditorium developed significant problems. The roof leaked, the stage curtains and rigging systems badly needed repair, and the wooden floor of the stage was seriously worn and becoming unsafe for dancers. Additionally, the building was inadequately cooled by its 1937 swamp cooling system.

A committee of community members formed and planned for a major expansion and renovation of the building, but it soon became apparent that the projected $3 million cost was too high, and the planned changes would diminish the historical value of the building. The committee chose instead to preserve all the distinctive Art Moderne features while still refurbishing the auditorium.

Meanwhile, the Auditorium Restoration Committee worked on nominating the then-60-year-old building for placement on the National Register of Historic Places. The research for this application outlined the significant historical features of the structure and provided the basis for the renovation plans. On December 17, 1999, the Tulare Union High School Auditorium and Administration Building was listed on the National Register, cited as an excellent example of well-preserved Art Moderne/Streamline Moderne architecture, and recognized for its beautiful design and outstanding PWA construction.

Contributions from many individuals and organizations raised the $1 million needed for the renovation. Seats in the auditorium were named for those contributing more than $125. Benefit concerts, including ones performed by country singers The Gatlin Brothers and Pam Tillis, also helped raise funds.

The entire building, inside and out, was repainted, and new maple flooring restored the stage, along with a new rigging system, curtains, and lighting and sound systems. For audiences, the most noticeable upgrade was the seating. The old and creaky wooden seats were shipped to Michigan, where they were refurbished by the same company that had made them in 1937. With refinished wood and new padding, they provided a much more comfortable audience experience. Six dressing rooms and an upstairs bathroom and shower were also refurbished.

The Grand Opening of the restored building was on October 13, 2001. The program was a doo-wop extravaganza, with performances by The Charades, The Platters, and The Cornell Gunter Coasters. Bill Ingram, Tulare Union band director at that time and Restoration Committee member, said “Their music will highlight the acoustic changes in the space.” Classic cars from the 1950s and ‘60s on display in front of the auditorium enhanced the doo-wop theme. A highlight of the grand opening was the unveiling of the striking Art Moderne style Donor Board in the lobby.

Now in its ninth decade, the TUHS auditorium building continues to serve its community well. Facing Tulare Avenue, its sleek, aerodynamic façade reminds passersby of how the people of a small city can work together to preserve and renew one of its greatest treasures.

May, 2017

     In June, 1980, a group of citizens concerned about the loss of historical buildings and artifacts from the City of Tulare’s past formed the Tulare City Historical Society. Their first project was a big one: to raise $375,000 to build a museum on the site of the town’s first public school. With the help of their chief fundraiser, C.R. “Budge” Sturgeon, within two years they raised enough to begin construction.

     The first phase, a 7400 square foot structure, opened on November 16, 1985. Phase two was completed seven years later. It added office and storage space, the Tom Hennion Archives Center, and the Heritage Art Gallery, which serves as both an art gallery and event/reception space used by the community.

     In addition to military memorabilia, the museum’s exhibits concentrate on the city’s founding, life at the beginning of the 20th century, and the achievements of the town’s heroes. A self-guided audio tour of the museum is available at the entrance desk.

     On July 25, 1872, Southern Pacific Railroad engineer Andrew Neff drove the first locomotive to the end of the line at what would become the town of Tulare. Southern Pacific was pushing its rail line south through the San Joaquin Valley then and expected the existing communities to offer it land grants and up to $300,000 in cash.

     When the twenty year old town of Visalia refused, the railroad decided to establish a new town ten miles to the south. Farmers in that area gladly granted land to the railroad, and Tulare was born. Named for the tall “tule” reeds growing around the edge of nearby Tulare Lake, the town was intended to be the major railroad terminal for the southern Valley.

     Southern Pacific soon built a machine shop and roundhouse south of the current Inyo Avenue, and a passenger and freight depot on the southwest corner of the future Tulare and J Streets. With the monthly $40,000 railroad payroll, the town grew steadily from a population of 25 in 1873 until the early 1890s, when its population was 2.697.

     Then a double disaster struck. In 1891, Southern Pacific decided to move its repair center to Bakersfield, since it was extending its tracks south through the Tehachapi Mountains. The loss of the railroad jobs to the Tulare economy was compounded by the national financial panic of 1893 and the depression that followed. Though the local economy floundered and a number of businessmen left town, the community survived by emphasizing its strong agricultural base.

     Exhibits in the C.R. Sturgeon Hall recreate a historic barber shop and blacksmith shop, plus what one would have seen a hundred years ago in the kitchen, parlor, and bedroom of a typical Tulare home. Other displays remind visitors of important 19th century events in Tulare’s history. One exhibit shows the devastation wrought by three fires that destroyed the wooden buildings of downtown. No record shows exactly how many were destroyed in the fire of 1875, but 25 buildings were burned in 1883, leaving only one standing, and then the 1886 fire leveled 77 more.

     Among the unique exhibits at the museum are those about Tulare’s heroes. These include Bob Mathias, Sim Iness, Richard Torrez Jr., Bryan Allen, Admiral Elmo R. “Bud” Zumwalt, and Manuel Toledo.

     Mathias and Iness were local boys who became Olympic champions. Mathias was a football and track star at Tulare Union High School. After graduation, he concentrated on the decathlon, and in the following summer of 1948 won the decathlon Olympic gold medal in London. He then attended Stanford University and in the 1952 Helsinki Olympics repeated his gold medal triumph.

     Both of Mathias’s Olympic medals are on display in the museum. During his career, he competed in 13 decathlons, winning all of them. After appearing in four Hollywood films and a short-lived TV series, he was elected to the United States Congress in 1966 and served for eight years representing the Central Valley.

     Garland Simeon (Sim) Iness was a football and track standout at Tulare Union High School, alongside fellow teammate and classmate Bob Mathias. Specializing in the discus, Sim narrowly missed making the 1948 Olympic team. Continuing to set records at Compton Junior College and USC, Sim won the discus Olympic gold medal at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, where each of his throws set a new Olympic record.

     Sim would go on to set the discus World Record in 1953. He, too, returned to the Valley, and served as a teacher, counselor, and coach at Porterville High School and Porterville Junior College for 39 years. Memorabilia of both Iness and Mathias from high school through their Olympic competitions are displayed at the museum, as are remembrances from Mathias’s political career.

     Richard Torrez Jr. became the third Tularean to bring home an Olympic medal, winning the silver in men’s super heavyweight boxing in the summer 2020 Games (held in 2021 in Tokyo). Born, raised, and trained (by his father) in Tulare, Torrez shone athletically from age 5. Before winning the U.S.A.’s first Olympic heavyweight boxing medal in 33 years, Torrez achieved ten national championships (his first at age 10), a Golden Gloves national title in 2017, and a bronze at the Pan-American Games in 2019.

     He signed up in late 2021 for a pro boxing career that will enable him to continue to train with his dad in the family gym and to give back to the community that raised him. Many of his medals, uniforms, and other memorabilia are on display in the museum.

     Another Tulare High School graduate, Bryan Allen, a hang glider pilot and a very strong cyclist, became the first to fly a human-powered aircraft that met the difficult criteria for the historic Kremer Prize when he pedaled and piloted the Gossamer Condor around a 2 kilometer figure-eight course in Shafter in 1977. The plane had a wingspan of nearly 100 feet, but weighed only 70 pounds. Three years later, Allen flew (pedaled) the Gossamer Albatross, a successor plane, across the 22 mile wide English Channel. Pictures of both these flights are part of the display dedicated to his achievements.

     Admiral Zumwalt, a Tulare High class Valedictorian, attended the U.S. Naval Academy. In 1965, at the age of 45, he became the youngest Rear Admiral in U.S. history. He also commanded the U.S. Naval Forces in Vietnam. In 1970, he became a Full Admiral when he was appointed Chief of Naval Operations, once again the youngest in history. Tulare named a downtown park in his and his father’s honor, and the U.S. Navy recently named its newest class of destroyers for him.

     The Robert & Geraldine Soults Hall serves as the Military History Wing, which houses the Manuel Toledo Military Collection donated by World War II veteran and Tulare jeweler Manuel Toledo. Its foundation is an extensive group of U.S. military uniforms and artifacts from the Civil War to the first Gulf War. Uniforms from Nazi Germany and the Japanese Empire, as well as other military memorabilia, round out the displays.

     Toledo grew up in Tulare and fought during WWII with the U.S. 7th Infantry in the South Pacific, where he was wounded several times. During his last long recovery, he resolved to do whatever he could to help other veterans. After returning to Tulare, he was instrumental in establishing the local AMVETS post, the largest post in the nation. In 1987, he opened his own military museum, which provided the foundation for the Tulare museum’s current collection.

     With its ongoing art exhibits, extensive displays, special events, and community involvement, the Tulare Historical Museum is indeed “A jewel among the small museums of California.”

March, 2016; updated July, 2023

     Nestled within the oak preserve protected by Visalia’s Mooney Grove Park, the Tulare County Museum complex holds a vast collection of our county and state’s history, including one of the largest Native American basket collections in California. It also displays a great variety of artifacts of the pioneer era, a trove of historic agricultural equipment, dozens of restored structures from the late 1800s on, and many other treasures, appealing to all ages, that tell the history of Tulare County.

     The seed of the Museum was planted in 1934, when Hugh Mooney and his family donated five thousand dollars to fund the building of a museum in Mooney Grove, which had itself been sold to the county in 1909 by his parents and is the oldest county park in California. But it wasn’t until 1947 that approval was given by the county Board of Supervisors to begin building the museum on the specified site.

     In 1948, construction began with the laying of corner stones and a dedicatory address by Dan McFadzean, who was one of the County Historical Society’s first members and also the attorney who had prepared the legal papers for the County’s acquisition of the park from the Mooneys in 1909. The museum was opened to the public on July 1, 1949, and the Tulare County Historical Society ran its operations from 1948 to 1956, when the county took over that responsibility.

     For almost three quarters of a century, the Tulare County Museum has actively partnered with the County Board of Supervisors, the County Historical Society, members of the county’s varied and historic cultures and communities, and many other local organizations and institutions “To protect, preserve and promote a shared understanding of Tulare County’s past and its place in the future by providing the community with innovative, diverse, and engaging exhibits and events.”

     The 1948 structure was originally a single gallery, now known as the Middle Room. Today, it houses a military display, tractor exhibit, Sequoia and Rankin fields aviation display, a Visalia Electric Railroad model train, and the Mountain Connection exhibit, which highlights the Sierra Nevada mountains.

     The East Wing, holding the native basket collection, was added in 1956 and the West Wing, or Annie Mitchell Room, with displays of living styles and early county families was added in 1967, making a total of three galleries. Around 1970, the Gun and Saddle gallery was added onto the main gallery to house the growing collection of firearms and tack, including several of the famous Visalia Saddles.

     The beautiful Masonic Building Façade was donated in 1961 and placed behind the original museum building to create an enclosed space for the Main Street gallery, which holds life-sized replicas of historic business establishments. During the 1960s, many structures, such as the Surprise School, the Emken House, and Visalia’s first jail, were added to a Pioneer Village of original historic buildings and preserved on the museum grounds.

     The museum’s newest addition is the History of Tulare County Farm Labor & Agriculture Museum. This building’s displays include a large steam tractor and a Hackney Auto Plow, along with a reconstructed Linnell Camp house that was used to shelter migrant farm workers. But the main focus of this Museum is its cultural gallery that highlights, one at a time, each of sixteen different cultural groups and their contributions to our county’s agricultural history.

     Each new exhibit brings new involvement in the museum as members of each group provide many of the photos and items on display. The Tulare County Office of Education also produces a video to accompany each exhibit, featuring interviews of local members of the highlighted group. An opening reception with food, guest speakers, and often music offers another opportunity for the Museum to connect with each community in a wonderful way.

     Over the years, the Museum has collaborated closely with the Tulare County Historical Society to acquire historical items for display and to host fundraising events that support vital restoration projects throughout the museum complex. The Clocktower that houses the clock that used to be in the Bank of Visalia building downtown, the Southern Pacific Caboose that was used on the Visalia Electric Railroad, the facade of the Masonic Building that used to be in downtown Visalia, the Main Street gallery, and recently the Agricultural Equipment project have all been funded by these events.

     The Agricultural Equipment Project has been in the works for several years with two components – restoration of displayed equipment, and construction of a building in which to showcase it. Don Vieira and Carl Switzer, members of the Tulare County Historical Society, have been integral in the conception of the project as well as bringing it to fruition.

   Through their efforts, the Museum has partnered with local high schools whose students have been working to restore several pieces of equipment from the collection that have been weathered by the elements over the years. The students’ research on each piece of restored equipment will contribute to the timeline of the history of local agriculture, a main focus of the new building.

     As the Tulare County Museum continues to expand its collection and its educational programming — including yearly classroom tours, lectures, publications, and events — community engagement is vital in making those efforts successful. The Main Street Jamboree is one such free and fun event for the whole family that has helped to connect the museum to the community. Held each year on the last Saturday in April, the Jamboree provides many new and fun ways for visitors to learn about Tulare County history and its important part in the life and growth of California.

     The Tulare County Museum, with its constantly growing and improving displays and events, lies at the core of our county’s history. Set in one of the most beautiful oak groves in Tulare County, it is the perfect place to discover the wonderful preservation of our fascinating past. History can be intriguing. It can be fun. Come join us!

March, 2021