Every year in November, my mind is filled with memories of the Mordecai family. This is when the descendants of George Washington Mordecai gather at Refuge, the ranch he founded in

Never in the history of Madera have so many milestones emerged to be celebrated in a single year, but this year we are setting a record. In 2026, we will observe

From the pages of the Fresno Expositor. • • • Oct. 11, 1876 MADERA — The new town laid out by the California Lumber Company in this county [Fresno], at the

The crowd gathered at the Athletic Hall on Yosemite Avenue for Madera High School’s commencement exercise in June 1903. Folks had to climb the stairs to the second floor that night,

It was the middle of August, and in a few days school would begin again for Burt Hambleton and Jimmie Thurman. The summer of 1902 had been pure elixir for the

More than 110 years ago, a huge parade inched down Yosemite Avenue as it always did on the anniversary of our nation’s Independence. Crowds lined the street to see the procession

For Lenora “Nora” Salazar, success was never measured by awards or accomplishments. It was measured by the lives she touched. Salazar was more than a businesswoman, mother, and community leader. She

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.

The woman left her little Italian village in the province of Lucca and walked along the dusty road with a cart full of flowers to sell. Suddenly she stopped and thought,

If they ever establish a Madera County Hall of Fame, Judge William M. Conley will surely be near the top of the list. He became the first Superior Court Judge of