The Wild West lived on at Fresno Flats

For The Madera Tribune

Fresno Flats, circa 1880.

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Gold! The discovery of the precious metal along the Fresno River brought thousands of placer miners into Madera County, and by 1851, they were calling their gathering Fresno Flats.

Over the years, Fresno Flats emerged from its tent city status to take on all of the characteristics of a settled community. In time the town could boast of two hotels, a rooming house, five saloons, a grocery store, and a general merchandise store. Located along a curve in the road between Raymond and Ahwahnee, Fresno Flats really began to prosper when in 1880, the nearby Gambetta mine was opened. Then in 1891, the Thomas Hotel was built.

Just below that thin veneer of refinement, however, lay all of the emotions of the Old West. Men still packed pistols in Fresno Flats at the turn of the century, and some were quite willing to settle their disputes with them, even if it meant a public fight right out on the porch of the Thomas Hotel.