JSCNHM home • Spring 2012 • vol. 4 no. 2

Tulare County

Photo Gallery (.mov)

Alta District Historical Society

P.O. Box 254
Dinuba, CA 93618
Phone: (559) 591-2144
Fax: (559) 591-3947
Email: info@altadistricthistoricalsociety.org

A non-profit organization whose primary purposes are to encourage and promote the study of the history and culture of the Alta District and the surrounding environs; to collect , classify, and publish, historical information, data, facts, and folklore with reference to this area.

Balch Park

38625 Balch Park Road
Springville, CA 93265
Phone: (559) 539-3896

Located among beautiful Giant Sequoia trees, Balch Park and Mountain Home State Forest are adjacent camping locations in the Sequoia National Forest.

John Muir loved the area. He wrote fondly about it, saying it was home to "the finest block of the Big Tree forest in the entire belt on the North Fork of the Tule River." The famous Hercules tree is among the stand of redwoods.

Balch Park is the gateway to beautiful meadows, crater lakes and a wonderful wilderness experience. The 160-acre park has two small stocked ponds and 71-campsites. The campground is one of the most developed in the area—with paved roads, RV spaces, and flush toilets.

Central Sierra Historical Society and Museum

P.O. Box 617
Shaver Lake, CA 93664
Phone: (559) 841-4478
Fax: (559) 841-4479
Email: cshs@netptc.net
Website: http://www.sierrahistorical.org/index.htm

The Central Sierra Historical Society and Museum boosts a membership of over 500 individuals, businesses, and organizations. CSHS was founded in 1991, but its roots date back to the early 1980s, when a group of individuals in the Central Sierra recognized the need for an organized effort to preserve the fast-disappearing history of the area.

In addition to museum building, CSHS is actively preserving local historical treasures, such as the Pine Logging Camp and a 1912 caboose from the SJ&E Railroad and collecting the oral histories of area pioneers. The "Museum Without Walls" series of lectures, field trips, and social events have helped to build educational programs that will be further expanded when the new museum is ready to welcome visitors. A Museum Store at CSHS headquarters in Shaver Lake provides adults' and children’s books on California history, Native American culture, pioneer lives, natural history, wildlife, environmental issues facing the West, and recreational activities in the Sierra.

In addition to the museum building, visitors will be able to see a fully restored, historic Caboose from the SJ&E Railroad that operated in the early days of the Southern Calif. Edison Big Creek Hydroelectric Project. Attend an event at the Amphitheater and, coming soon, tour a fully operational Hydroelectric Power Plant.

Throughout the summer months, the Sierra Steamers hold several daylong demonstrations of a Dolbeer Steam Donkey. Our visitors can experience the power of this amazing machine that was used to drag large logs from where trees were felled in the forest to a historic sawmill or railroad line. Kids especially enjoy pulling the handle to make the whistle blow... a whistle that can be heard throughout Shaver!

The Amphitheater is nested between lovely cedars and huge boulders... it is our goal to promote activities that the community can enjoy, such as outdoor movies, melodramas, live music, business events, and weddings.

Porterville Historical Museum

257 North D Street
Porterville, CA 93257
Phone: (559) 784-2053
Fax: (559) 784-4009
Email address: phm@portervillemuseum.org
Website: http://www.portervillemuseum.org

Porterville Historical Museum is located at 257 North D Street, Porterville, CA
It is housed in a Southern Pacific Passenger Station built in 1913. The collections focus on the history of the Southern Tulare County area. The exhibits include baskets and artifacts from the Native Americans who lived here; items associated with the cattle raising industry; guns dating from the American Revolution to the 1950s; bedroom furniture and compatible items dating to 1900; patterned glass, antique and near-antique cut glass and other items dating to 1900s; veterans exhibit including items from Spanish American, Civil War, most from World War II, and Vietnam; musical instruments, a pump organ, a Victrola, and a case honoring band Director Buck Shaffer; items from old dentist and doctor offices; barber chairs and pole; and a kitchen from about 1900.

Outside exhibits include a collection of farm implements from the early 1900s; 1910 and 1923 fire trucks; horse drawn ice wagon; mosaics depicting events from the history of Porterville; 1895 Fire Bell.

In the Exhibit Room - Each year from Thanksgiving to New Years it is filled with a Toy and Model Train exhibit with a dozen or more toy trains of all sizes and all running at once.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks

47050 Generals Highway
Three Rivers, CA 93271
Phone: (559) 565-3341
Fax: (559) 565-3730
Website: http://www.nps.gov/seki/

This landscape testifies to nature's size, beauty, and diversity–huge mountains, rugged foothills, deep canyons, vast caverns, and the world's largest trees!

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks lie side by side in the southern Sierra Nevada, east of the San Joaquin Valley. Visitor activities vary by season and elevation (1,370' to 14,494').

Sequoia National Forest and Giant Sequoia National Monument

1839 South Newcomb Street
Porterville, CA 93257
Phone: (559) 784-1500
Fax: (559) 781-4744
Website: http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/sequoia/

The Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, administers the Sequoia National Forest which consists of three ranger districts. The Giant Sequoia National Monument has two separate sections; the northern portion on the Hume Lake Ranger District nearby Dunlap, California, and the southern portion on the Western Divide Ranger District just east of Springville, California. The Kern River Ranger District lies at the southern end of the forest near Lake Isabella.

The Sequoia National Forest is one of nineteen National Forests in California. It takes its name from the giant sequoia, the world's largest tree, which grows in more than 30 groves on the forest's lower slopes. The Sequoia's landscape is as spectacular as its trees. Soaring granite monoliths, glacier-torn canyons, roaring whitewater, and more await your discovery at the Sierra Nevada's southern end. Elevations range from 1,000 feet in the foothill region to peaks over 12,000 feet in the rugged high country, providing visitors with some of the most spectacular views of mountainous landscape in the entire west.

Tulare County Historical Society

P.O. Box 295
Visalia, CA 93279
Phone: (559) 359-4197
Website: http://www.tularecountyhistoricalsociety.org/

Promoting interest in the history of Tulare County and preserving the heritage of our area for future generations. Since 1948, the Tulare County Historical Society has placed 27 markers to commemorate historical sites, individuals and groups, some as joint projects.

Tulare County Library

200 West Oak Avenue
Visalia, CA 93291
Phone: (559) 713-2700
Email: questions@tularecountylibrary.org
Website: https://www.tularecountylibrary.org/

Straddling California's eastern San Joaquin Valley and the western ranges of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Tulare County Library serves all the citizens of Tulare County. The Library is operated by Tulare County and has branch libraries in fifteen communities. The Tulare County Library is a member of the San Joaquin Valley Library System, a cooperative network of ten public library jurisdictions in seven counties of California's central valley. The Tulare County Library is also a member of the Heartland Regional Library Network of the Library of California.

Tulare Historical Museum

444 West Tulare Avenue
Tulare, CA 93274
Phone: (559) 686-2074
Email: lthullen@tularehistoricalmuseum.org (Lynda Thullen)
lruminer@tularehistoricalmuseum.org (Linda Ruminer)
Website: http://www.tularehistoricalmuseum.org/

Preserving and showcasing the history of the City of Tulare. The museum is associated with the Tulare City Historical Society.

In 1980, a group of Tulare residents with a passion for local history formed the Tulare City Historical Society. Their mission was to build a museum that would tell the story of Tulare from its beginning to modern times. The Tulare Historical Museum opened in 1985 on the site of Tulare’s first real public school house. The beautifully crafted exhibits showcase Tulare’s past, beginning with the Yokuts Indians, the area’s first inhabitants.

In other exhibits, you will encounter Tulare’s pioneer families and see fully furnished rooms from their homes and businesses. You’ll meet Tulare’s heroes, including Olympic champions Bob Mathias and Sim Iness; military leaders Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr. and General Maurice Preston; and renowned aviators Tex Rankin and Bryan Allen.

The museum’s Military History Wing is home to the Manuel Toledo Military Collection and contains uniforms, photographs and artifacts from our nation’s military conflicts beginning with the American Revolutionary War.

 

 

 

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