Madera history

The first mill was built in 1852 by John Harms.

In 1853, Harms sold the mill and it was moved to Crane Valley just below North Fork.

The mountain area is rich in the history of the 1859 California Gold Rush towns, with such names as Coarsegold, Finegold, Grub Gulch, Ahwahnee and Nipinnawassee.

As the Southern Pacific Railroad laid its tracks south through the San Joaquin Valley in 1872, it brought into existence the towns of Modesto, Merced, Minturn, Borden, and Berenda – but not Madera.

The California Lumber Company was the first large lumber enterprise, and began business in 1874.

The City of Madera began development in 1875, when lumber started arriving at the railhead via the flume.

Madera in Spanish signified "timber." The county derived its name from the town of Madera, named when the California Lumber Company built a flume to carry lumber to the railroad there in 1876.

On March 21, 1877, the residents held a meeting to discuss the construction of a school building and it was decided that construction of the school must be started right away.

On May 21, 1878, the officers of the bank, led by a man with the unusual name Return Roberts, incorporated another lumber company, the Madera Flume and Trading Company.

Over his line many world notable saw the Yosemite, including former President Grant in his world tour in 1879.

In fraternal matters, the first lodge formed in Madera was the Madera Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, in 1885, Odd Fellows, Woodmen of the World and other organizations followed.

Much of what opposition there was to the new county lay in the foothill areas, where old timers had affectionate relations with the past of Fresno and had personal and business connections with the City of Fresno by way of Pollasky (now Friant) rather than with the newer Madera. It was in the winter of 1892-93 that a movement for county division reached its height in the Madera area.

He reorganized the lumber enterprise as the Madera Flume and Trading Company, built more mills in the mountains, constructed a large planning mill at Madera, and in 1893 started the Commercial Bank of Madera, later merged with the Bank of Italy.

In March of 1898 the first Chamber of Commerce was formed.

Under Cox’s astute direction, the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company was incorporated, and on May 8, 1899, it took over the assets of the Madera Flume and Trading Company.

December 4, 1906, there was a fire in the cupola of the courthouse, causing$8,000 damage.

The City of Madera was incorporated on March 27, 1907.

Until pacing in 1912, those three blocks and the rest of the wide main street named Yosemite Avenue were chuck-holed and billowing with dust in the summer, thick with mud miring wagons to their axles in winter.

Opposite the courthouse park, on Yosemite, is located the very handsome county library building, erected in 1917.

In 1919, a group known as the Gold Chain Council was formed to get what was then a dirt road of various qualities, conditions and dimensions made into a State highway.

The original board of directors of the district, chosen January 2, 1920, were: E. M. McCardle, chairman; J. W. Schmitz, J. B. High, W. H. Benson, and N. E. Saunders.

A railroad was constructed to carry logs from the timer belt to Pinedale, and shipping began in July 1923.

Then in 1931, economic depression again raised its ugly head.

From the History of Fresno and Madera Counties, 1933, Joseph Barcroft, editor for Madera County.

The school district was incorporated in 1966 for the purpose of consolidating the administration of schools across the city.

In 1969, the State Highway Commission and State Legislature finally incorporated Bootjack Road into Highway 49.