The Jay Chapel Story
In 1893, Richard Curtis Jay made a coffin for an indigent woman who had died on the dole. The embalmer who was serving Madera at the time refused to give the woman a funeral because she had no money. Jay stepped in and took care of the matter. The insensitivity of the embalmer prompted Jay […]
The Madera Flume
This rare 1898 photograph of flume construction shows what a Herculean task it was to build the 56-mile water slide. The trough traversed a rugged country far from roads during its journey. In many places, it literally clung to the sides of steep bluffs; at other points tiptoed precariously across deep ravines on spindly trestles. […]
The Six-Mile House of the Madera Flume
These two unidentified women went to a lot of trouble to get their picture taken on this flume tender’s house c. 1900. Known as the Six-Mile House, it was one of a string of flume tender stations along the lumber flume. As the name indicates, it was six miles from Madera. The flume tenders had […]
President Grant got a surprise in Madera
As the little town of Madera was growing up in the 19th century, several important politicians visited here. Presidents, former Presidents, and would-be Presidents met at Captain Mace’s hotel on the corner of E and Yosemite Avenue to begin a journey that would take them to the Big Trees and beyond. One of these was […]
Madera’s first murder case
In May of 1893, Madera County was carved out of Fresno County, and immediately the newspapers south of the San Joaquin River began a campaign of gloomy prognostications, the most serious of which was the prediction that lawlessness would reign supreme in the fledgling burg of Madera. By the end of summer, however, it was […]
Looking back at Old Timers Day
Every community has something that makes it unique. Some towns boast of a particular industry; others point to some nearby natural attraction, while in many cases an annual event will help to provide identity for a city. As an example of this latter category, one could cite the Chowchilla Stampede, Coarsegold Rodeo, and Oakhurst’s “Peddler’s […]
Can anyone really replace Ed Gwartney?
Ed was a self-described product of the “Okie” migration who never earned a high school diploma but became a pathfinder of new trails in the teaching of history. He was the founder of the James Monroe Children’s Museum and he has left it to others to build on his passion that created the unique educational […]
Coarse gold created Coarsegold
Long before the town of Madera was on the map, gold — heavy, coarse gold — was discovered in abundance along a gulch in what is now Eastern Madera County. With miners probing for placers on every creek and stream of the southern Mother Lode, it is no surprise that this entire area, approximately 35 […]
Hensley Lake named for sheriff of Fresno County
The Sheriff’s granddaughter sat composed and alert while I probed her memory for pieces of Madera County’s past. She told me of her days in Pershing School and then Lincoln School. She took me down the halls of Madera High School from which she graduated in 1932. Then she turned the other way to go […]
Glimpses of Madera in 1912
Madge Cook was born in Madera in 1904. Eighty-five years later, she made a presentation before the Madera County Historical Society in which she gave the highlights of her memories of early Madera. Here, she remembered our town as it was in 1912. “The Sugar Pine Lumber Company (was) located in Madera… east of town. […]
