Los Banos’ old and new traditions are featured in a new Merced County Courthouse Museum exhibit. The historic courthouse is at W 21st Street and N Street in Merced. The exhibit’s name is “Celebrations and Festivals around Merced County.”
Pictures line the walls of three rooms in the courthouse. Each one captures unique aspects of the county, from the May Day Fair and the Dos Palos Cotton Festival to the Japanese Mochitsuki and Hmong New Year.
During the March 13 opening program, museum director Sarah Lim said there are “65 events, and each event has at least three photos. You do the math. It’s close to 200.”
In her words, the exhibit’s purpose is “to make Merced County residents appreciate our culture, heritage and history.
“There’s always something to do in Merced County. You don’t need to leave the county. You can go to the Gustine festa. You can go to Livingston for the Sweet Potato Festival. You can even go to Merced for many events—even the Ohana Comic Con is in Merced.”
Lim said, “There is so much we can celebrate—just pay attention to different things happening around here. If you don’t know them, come to see this exhibit and learn about it. And that’s the purpose—to educate and welcome people to our community.”
During the opening program, the Milliken Museum’s director, Dan Nelson, presented the history of the May Day Fair. Starting with the railroad’s coming in 1889, Nelson explained, “All of the Westside towns were essentially moved to the railroad.”
Old Los Banos and Center Point buildings were moved to the site of the current Los Banos by Henry Miller.
To be specifically close to Canal Farm, his then headquarters and now current España’s restaurant, Miller “also picked up a federal post office and moved it where he wanted it,” Nelson said.
After Miller began building new buildings at the site, “the superintendent of Canal Farm Ranch thought it would be a good idea that they celebrate the building of a new town with a barbeque. And in 1890, they had the first barbeque at Canal Farm Ranch,” Nelson said.
Nelson’s slides included historical photos of the celebration, showing some of the first May Day barbecues with Miller serving the beef. Nelson showed its transition from a small barbeque to a statewide event held at the fairgrounds.
“In 1954, the Los Banos Enterprise reported that over 60,000 people came to the fair and parade,” he said. “At this time, May Day was second only to the New Year Rose Bowl Parade.”
Photos showed some of the first bands, fair rides and parades, some of which could be three to four hours long. Parades would eventually be split to have a kiddie parade one day and a full parade the next.
After Nelson, Mary Ann Bloom of Gustine featured the history of the Gustine festas and their deep Portuguese Catholic roots.
Patt Kishi of Winton featured the Japanese Mochitsuki event of Livingston after Bloom, keeping the culture of the local Japanese Americans alive. Ye Thao of Merced highlighted the Hmong New Year celebrations as the single holiday of their culture.
Artifacts from these celebrations are held in central glass cases within the exhibit on the museum’s main floor. As folks toured the exhibit, they could see them gravitate to their own local traditions before learning about some they hadn’t seen before.
Photos included both the new and old of these events, and many locals provided the photos. The exhibit is part of a series of revolving exhibits that inhabit the three rooms.
There is only a limited time to see them before a new exhibit takes their place. This exhibit will close its doors on August 31. Admission to the Merced County Courthouse Museum is free, and the museum is open from 1 to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday.
