For The Madera Tribune Arcola School in 1926. “I always look back upon the days I spent in Arcola School as among the happiest and most profitable of my life, and I always feel a sense of reverence for the Arcola School of old, whenever I pass the present one” — Dr. Dow Ransom, 1938. With these words, one of Madera’s most highly respected physicians paid homage to the first school he attended upon arriving here as a 12-year-old lad in 1892, and in doing so, he helped keep an

For The Madera Tribune The Indian scare of 1870 reached as far as Fresno Flats. The Battle of Fallen Timbers, Little Big Horn, the Sand Creek Massacre, Wounded Knee, the Mariposa Indian War — all of these are well known encounters between Native Americans and Europeans, as the American frontier moved inexorably west. While these and countless other battles have been recorded, the Indian uprising of Madera County has for the most part escaped the scrutiny of historians. Nestle

When Punxsutawney Phil looked to see if he saw his shadow on Groundhog Day this year, the report was that he did indeed see his shadow. According to tradition, this meant we were predicted to have six more weeks of winter. Now, here it is, six weeks later, and for Madera it hasn’t looked like winter lately. In fact, it looks like we are getting ready to have some downright hot days in the near future, in MARCH. All that said, we are less than a week from the first day of spri

Katrina Soliz/The Madera Tribune The Chowchilla community looks on as the annual Western Stampede commences Friday. Hundreds turned out for the cattle drive along Robertson Boulevard. The event, which spans through the heart of downtown Chowchilla, began in 1958. Madera County is home to the only authentic cattle stampede in the state and hundreds came out for the historic event that kicked off the 69th annual Chowchilla Western Stampede with fanfare, rodeo royalty and plenty

More reasons for Christians not to associate with the Democrat party: The Trans-Gender Movement. Progressives, Democrats, celebrate the transforming of children into the opposite sex. They promote this evil by insisting in the teaching of children as young as kindergarteners about sex. It has become their acceptable pattern for raising children; give them information so they can find out who and what they really are. This pattern only adds to the normal confusion of moving fr

Jim Lukach, Wikimedia Commons Enhance your Saint Patrick’s Day meal with some freshly-baked Irish soda bread. I wasn’t going to write about the typical Saint Patrick’s Day (coming up on Tuesday, March 17) meal of corned beef and cabbage, but I decided to give it a little attention. I went grocery shopping about a week ago, and had corned beef on my shopping list, followed by a question mark, because I wasn’t sure the stores had put any out yet. I found some, just two or three

For The Madera Tribune The Berenda Hotel, circa 1880. Once upon a time herds of antelope roamed over much of the San Joaquin Valley. So numerous were they in the 19th century that one community not far from Madera took them for their mascot and named their little town after the fleet-footed animals. Although the town of Berenda is long gone, its name remains in the form of a school and in the memory of a few old timers. Berenda was born when the Central Pacific Railroad cross

A couple of years ago, I wrote about the lifespan of a refrigerator. In 44 years of marriage, we have had four refrigerators in our house, each one lasting about half the time of the previous one. The refrigerator we have now is about two-and-a-half years old, so I’m thinking I’d better start looking around for another one soon. I’m not fond of the refrigerator we have now. When the last one quit working, after six years, I almost cried. We could not find one like it. It had