Eastern Fresno County Historical Society

Wildfire expert and longtime Central Sierra Historical Society board member, John Mount, helped demonstrate a controlled burn for an upcoming ABC 30 documentary. We will post on our Facebook page when we know the air date.

The creek empties into the North Fork Kings River near Balch Hydroelectric powerhouse, at an elevation of 1,240 ft (380m). The creek got its name from a dog nam...ed "Dinkey". It is said a group of hunters were attacked there by a grizzly bear. Dinkey tried to fight the bear, but was fatally injured. See more

The EFCHS is looking for landscaping companies to bid on maintenance of our grounds. Please message us to do an on-site visit for bidding. Thank you!

On Saturday, March 20th we were able to provide a venue for a beautiful wedding! Here are a few photos! Congratulations to Becky and Sam, and Talia!

Trimmer Springs RD | Kings River behind Pine Flat dam.

Don't forget to visit our website, with many historical photographs, old maps, history and reference sources at www.efchs.org !

You're invited to an online meeting Come join our Zoom monthly meeting on Tuesday February 9. Socializing starts at 6:30 PM Pacific time. Then at 7:00 PM, Bob... Givens, our resident DNA expert, will give a presentation on Family Tree DNA. The syllabus for this presentation is available on our new website under the Events tab. To attend the meeting, just click on the hot link below. Since it can take a couple of minutes to connect, we recommend that you start your connection about 5 minutes before the scheduled start time. https://zoom.us/j/98062775963

I enjoyed the message from our President Elizabeth Laval in today's Fresno County Historical Society newsletter. Here's a brief excerpt: "This month, we are gen...uinely thrilled to release a series called African American Voices, an oral history collection from 2004 - 2006. Even better, become a fan at facebook.com/fresnohistory and enjoy special segments from our Tour Guide, Candice Hill Troutman, each Saturday at 1:00 pm."..."February is Black History Month, and your Fresno County Historical Society is proud to showcase, not just for 28 days, but always, an outstanding collection of images and oral histories that present, not interpret or alter, the African American experience in our own region. Most certainly, our archive is not comprehensive, and we welcome all additions, either through donation or our own gathering." See more

East trimmer springs road sycamore bridge ca

Everything you might want to know about State Highway 168 https://www.cahighways.org/ROUTE168.html

1935 Road map of Fresno County https://www.davidrumsey.com//RUMSEY~8~1~247281~5515351:Fre

Historic Trimmer Springs Resort 1889 behind Pineflat dam.

Hi guys! We recently made a video where we talk about the history of a town named Friant, the Friant Dam, and the former county seat of Fresno that's located at... the bottom of Millerton Lake. We hope you enjoy this video and are able to learn something about the history of these towns built along the San Joaquin river. See more

http://www.gribblenation.org//ghost-town-tuesday-millerton

Inside the Eastern Fresno County Bud Olson School of History Museum...Did you know that our museum has SIX BUILDINGS of artifacts, history and photogrpahs? We... have extensive displays on our large museum grounds. While we are not open due to Covid 19, we thought we would bring you a glimpse of the inside of our recently refreshed main building, the Bud Olson School of History. We have been busy updating the museum and adding a new building just now in the finishing touches. We hope to be open soon, until then...... (My apologies, I am not much of a vidographer, so the video is a little crude!...Jerry Sewell) See more

Vaqueros Branding Cattle, Southern Kern County or Southern San Luis Obispo County. Image taken mid 1880s by C.A. Smith of San Luis Obispo. Earlier this year I... was able to acquire an unique collection of vaquero images, many with the names and locations identified. The collection wasn't cheap, but I knew that I would never see such a group of photos offered again. This is one of my favorites. It shows several vaqueros with a roped steer, which is getting branded. The Central Valley of California was home to thousands of such men, who learned their trade while working for the Spanish Missions. Most were Native Americans. Later vaqueros were schooled on large cattle ranches which spanned much of the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. It is a part of Central California's history that was barely documented and even more rarely photographed. See more

November 27, 1941 Jefferson declared itself an independent state in patriotic rebellion against the States of California and Oregon and planned to se...cede every Thursday until further notice. The rebellion was short-lived but long-remembered, as folks there will remind you. The US map includes all proposed breakaway territories. Visit ThisWeekinCaliforniaHistory.com #California #stateofjefferson See more

A few weeks ago I was invited by a fan of this page to hike into the Millwood Area to visit the site where the original saw mill was located. Two days before o...ur trip it snowed so we had to make more of an effort to get there. It was a great 4 mile round-trip journey and I learned where some of the Millwood structures used to be. Here are a few photos of the hike and I will post some Then/Now views shortly. Thank you, Joshua Hardin for a great trip! See more

Today, Tour Manager, Candice Ac Hill, introduces the next installment in the ongoing series from our Ethnic Oral History Collection. Enjoy meeting Addie Robinson who settled with her family in Madera in 1919.

History of Kings River behind Pineflat dam. The Balch Powerhouse is one of the oldest hydro developments on the Kings River, originally completed in 1927 by San Joaquin & Power, a predecessor of Pacific Gas & Electric.

Florence Lake, Sierra National Forest high Sierra, Eastern Fresno County. Reachable via the Kaiser Pass Road, traveling to Kaiser Pass at 9,196 feet elevation.... The road was constructed in the 1920's as part of the SCE Big Creek electrical project. The dam at Florence was completed in 1926 and water from the lake is diverted into tunnels through solid granite, 13 miles known as the "Ward Tunnel". The project is part of the San Joaquin River/Kings River watersheds, consisting of 16 different powerhouses between PG&E and SCE. The San Joaquin River is considered the most used water in the world!. Water flow is actually recycled back and forth in PG&E's Wishon project between Courtright Reservoir and Wishon Reservoir! For more see www.efchs.org for historical information on Eastern Fresno County history See more

This last week we posted the history of Mountain Rest, also known as "Widow Waites" and of "Cressman's" General Store. Both of these were located on Tollhouse... Road. Fresno County's History as a county of California started in 1851 with the establishment of a military post about a mile and half above the present day Millerton Lake dam on the east side of the San Joaquin River. Mining and lumber were the first "industries" of the area with mining along the River and its contributory creeks. With the miners and the establishment of the village of Millerton, (The first county seat of Fresno County) the need for lumber became increasingly important to the growth of the area. The mountains northeast of Millerton held vast resources of lumber. The difficulty reaching those forests necessitated access via a road. In 1854, a road, trail or path, more or less, was constructed from the an area located off of Big Dry Creek, at the base of the mountains, near Sarver's Peak (now known as Tollhouse Peak). From there, it rose to Pine Ridge to the spot later known as "Widow Waites" gaining elevation from 1,900 to 4,800 over a mere 3 and a half miles. A very steep grade. The first lumber mill, at Pine Ridge, in 1854 required a established way to reach the valley. The entire history of Toll House grade could be written as a book, so we will not write one today, although this post is pretty verbose! Toll House grade, named because it ultimately became a road that required payment of money to use, was known as the "beast killer" because of the steep, winding, prone to washouts along cliffs, would also become the only road to the Sierra Mountains of North Eastern Fresno County. The grade had many difficulties, from requiring dragging a log behind your wagon to slow down the descent, to requiring passengers to walk at certain points because the team of horses simply could not pull the weight up! The grade also became a testing ground for automobiles, of all makes, many of which are no longer around, boasting of their ability to climb the road to the mountains. For many years races were held between the village of Toll House to Pine Ridge, drawing hundreds of spectators. This too is another chapter in the history of Tollhouse/Pine Ridge to be told later. The horse drawn stages between Fresno and Clovis operated for many years bringing both lumber mill workers and tourists/vacationers to the mills and resorts of the mountains. Those stages either started in Clovis or Fresno. Some operated daily, others every other day. Some operated year around, including changing from wheels to horse drawn sleds! The stages were either 4 horses or 6 horses. During the summer, the heat of the valley, and the difficulty of running horses uphill in such heat, many stages ran overnight, arriving at Shaver the next morning. Stage stops along the way, included leaving Clovis, stopping at Academy, Letcher, Humphrey's, Toll House, Mountain House, and at Widow Wait's, and from there to Armstrong's, Okenden's and Shaver Lake. (See other posts on each of these stage stops.) The photo's show the advertised route and the typical stage and the transfer to a horse drawn sled in the winter. From the archives of Eastern Fresno County Historical Society.

Still closed under COVID-19 rules unfortunately! Happy Holidays and we hope to see you in 2021!

Post Card Boole Tree Fresno, California 1901... "The Boole Tree, by far the largest giant sequoia in Converse Basin Grove, was named around 1895 by A.H. Sweeny, a Fresno doctor, after Franklin A. Boole, a supervisor of the logging operation who spared the tree's life due to its great size. Before 1931, it was thought by many to be the largest tree in the world (although the General Grant Tree was more popularly known as the largest tree in the world at that time), but it is now known as the sixth largest tree, after five other giant sequoias: the General Sherman tree, the General Grant, the President tree, the Lincoln tree, and the Stagg tree. Boole features the largest footprint of any living giant sequoia, measuring 113 ft. (34 m) in circumference at the base." (Information courtesy of Wikipedia) What does a person who buys and sells scraps of paper for work do on his day off? I hang out with friends. Me and my friend Perry are located at the lower right of the picture. I am sitting on his back. Thanks Perry! #CaliforniaEphemera

Flume Tender, Between Shaver Lake and Clovis, California. Image taken 1910-1912. Lumber that was cut around Shaver Lake was milled into boards and placed in f...lumes to travel the 50-60 miles from Shaver Lake to the mill in Clovis. In order to keep the lumber moving, tenders were employed to monitor the flow of water and lumber 24 hours a day. This brave fellow is standing on a board attached to the granite face of a cliff. Not a job for the feint of heart. See more

Pamphlet "Central Valley Project" United States Department of the Interior 1955... The Central Valley Project was begun in California in 1933. #CaliforniaEphemera

Great article in today’s Bee on Cressman’s. Out of ashes, hearts beat strong

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DAMAGE UPDATE 9/18/20. First of two today. Boy Scout Camps All Boy Scout camps were inspected Wednesday. Camp Kern was the only one to sustain substantial damage. It appears all but one small structure was lost. Camp operators were notified prior to this post.