The Madera Movie Theater
This architect’s drawing of the new Madera Theater thrilled the town when it was published in the Madera Tribune in 1941. Before the year was out, the building had become a reality. Before movies, people were entertained in the Old Madera Opera House on the corner of B Street and Yosemite Avenue. Residents flocked there […]
The mysterious town of Borden
When the folks in charge of the High-Speed Rail began first to talk of starting the project at Borden, folks all over the state began to ask, “Where is Borden?” The answer came swiftly; it was a tiny, 19th-century town about four miles south of Madera. Not long after that, some people wanted to know […]
Madera almost never was
Every historian writing of the founding of Madera includes an account of how the town was almost never built. As the story goes, when the California Lumber Company began building its flume from the mountains to the Southern Pacific tracks in the Valley, it had its sights on the little town of Borden for the […]
Sacrifice of the sheriff’s son
Madera County Sheriff William O. Justice wore his badge for 20 years — from 1935 to 1955. During that time, he wrestled with some pretty thorny issues. An influx of striking cotton pickers caused a riot under his watch. Four Madera policemen somehow lost their guns to four crooks, and if that wasn’t enough, a […]
Looters struck Madera’s Chinatown
California’s wildfires are disastrous and heartrending. Lives have been lost and entire communities have been destroyed. Some folks have lost everything, but there is something more. Added to the distress of lost lives and property are reports that looters sometimes find their way into the destruction to help themselves to anything of value that might […]
Fresno slammed Madera schools
When they carved Madera County out of Fresno County, the newspapers of Fresno never failed to take pot shots at its new neighbor to the north. In 1893, the public tone in Fresno turned blatantly sarcastic. “How dare these ingrates even propose leaving the nurturing arms of Fresno!” An excellent example of these journalistic sour […]
Madera’s first physician
The doctor came to Madera in April 1877, when it was just six months old. The young, upstart village then consisted of 25 buildings, most of them dwellings. It could hardly compare with the mining community of Buchanan, from whence C.E. Brown came, but it had promise. That’s why he decided to remain and become […]
Fresno Flats went to the dogs
When S.W. Westfall was elected to the job of sheriff, he knew that the task would not be easy. Madera County had its share of troublemakers, and it took a great deal of patience to ensure domestic tranquility in the face of the criminal element that roamed the countryside. Occasionally, however, it wasn’t the robbers, […]
Berenda’s surprise visitor from the mountains
The appearance of big game on the floor of the San Joaquin Valley was not an unusual sight during the 19th century. Bear, mountain lions, deer, and antelope were often found along the waterways that coursed across the plains. By the turn of the century, however, only the ubiquitous jackrabbit was left. Civilization had eliminated […]
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 […]
