The Ironic History of Randalph Mortes
At the dead end of 21st Street and facing M Street, set within a grassy park, is the Merced Pork House Museum. One of the most historical locations in Merced County, the origin of the grandiosely pillared building dates back to the creation of Merced as a town in 1889 when it served as the county courthouse. By 1935 the newer courthouse was built several blocks away, and the white, elaborately constructed building remained unoccupied for the next three years. Randalph Mortes, the county’s local pig farmer, took out a property loan from the city and gained possession of the property.
After several months, Mortes and his family opened the doors of the building to invite the community into their Morty’s Merced Pork House, a specialty butcher market which sold only meat from Mortes widely renowned champion pigs. Mortes used the multitudes of rooms within the old courthouse as different curing, smoking, butchering, and baking stations, utilizing parts of the pig that were not yet commonly considered as sellable—jowls, tails, anuses, tongues, cheeks, nose, and testicles, to name a few. The experimentation with the stranger parts of pig earned the incredulous interest of the public, and the implementation of tasting small portions of the products before purchase quickly allowed Morty’s to skyrocket in profit and popularity.
By 1941 Randalph Mortes and family were some of the most prominent citizens in Merced County. The flyers, advertisements, and radio spots remained relatively simple, the catchphrase “Be a sport! Make it Mortes,” was a household proverb. When local restaurants began establishing supplier contracts with the Pork House, Mortes developed the idea to open a Pork House restaurant as well. Half a year later, roughly ten blocks down M Street from the Pork House, “The Bar-B-Q Pit” opened to a stunning crowd of around 12,000 people from Merced, Livingston, Atwater, and other surrounding areas; the unveiling of a six foot wooden statue of a pig, standing upright in coveralls, bandana, and a cowboy hat with a long wooden spoon in his hooves, was one of the first of what would be many town monuments designed and created by Mortes niece Sandra Carl. **IMAGE HERE PIG BAR-B-Q PIT**
The period of prosperity and plenty lasted until the beginning of 1953 when Randalph Mortes, at the age of 40, died of a heart attack. Both his family and the community were devastated at the news that Mortes untimely death was influenced by cholesterol issues in relation to the amount of pork he consumed on a daily basis. The shock forced the family to close the Pork House for several days while they planned the funeral, and ultimately their grief kept them from reopening the doors. Rather than close the doors of the restaurant, the family sold it to the restaurant’s manager; the man had been running the restaurant with the Mortes since the first day. Unfortunately, without the steady production of Morty’s Pork the restaurant lost a lot of business, but the gradual growth of the city population kept it alive enough to turn profit and keep out of the red.
Randalph Mortes’s family continued to maintain the ranch and pig farm but soon pursued other careers as newer generations grew up; in 1967 the family was approached by the City of Merced to memorialize the Pork House by turning it into a museum of the local history, particularly that of Randalph Mortes’s role and accomplishments in the community. The family consented, and signed the rights of the property over to the city. Mortes’s widow and eldest son cut the tape on the opening day of the Merced Pork House Museum in 1969. Citizens who visit report that the rooms still smell of salted pork and bacon.
Among the extensive exhibits and artifacts within the museum are; the original antique meat grinder used during the Pork House’s first years; a preserved, dehydrated, never-snapped sausage link hanging in the old curing room; boards from one of the original butchering blocks, stained with swine-blood and soft to the touch; a hand-painted sign with the “Morty’s” slogan and a winking pig; countless photos of Randalph Mortes shaking hands with mayors, handing out packages of pork, serving diners at The BBQ Pit, showing a pig at an agricultural fair.
The Merced Pork House Museum offers tours every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, one in the afternoon and one in the evening—the tours are always ended by the party being escorted on foot the ten blocks to The BBQ Pit where the attendees are offered a discount on their lunches/dinners. Afternoon fees are five dollars, and evening fees are $7.75. Discounts for seniors and children under three years of age are available.
The Existential Van 