FRESNO HAUNTS TOUR

FRESNO HAUNTS TOUR

Wolfe Manor

 

Located in Clovis, California, the mansion was built in 1922 by Italian immigrant, Anthony Andriotti. It served first as his home and later as a Sanitarium, from 1935 until the early 90s. The haunting, locals say, comes in part from the hospital wing that was added to the building in the 1950s. It’s rumored that there was overcrowding and mistreatment of the patients in the sanitarium, and the high rate of murder and suicide forced doctors and nurses to store bodies in the basement. It is considered to be one of the most haunted buildings in the United States, with numerous accounts of ghost sightings every year. It’s been featured on television, in shows about paranormal activity, like Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, and Mystery Quest.

In 1996, Todd Wolfe turned the mansion into a haunted attraction called “Scream if You Dare,” which was getting nearly 20,000 visitors each year until it closed in 2003. Wolfe Manor has since deteriorated and was recently found to be a nuisance and a danger by the Clovis Board of Appeals. The house has excessive dry rot, cracking, peeling, warping, and is in violation of building, fire and electrical codes. The city plans to demolish the century old structure after Wolfe has cleared his belongings from the property.

Fresno Rotary Storyland and Playland

 

This small amusement park, located in Fresno’s Roeding Park on W. Belmont Avenue, is half fairytale, half carnival and was built in 1961 by the Fresno Metropolitan Rotary. There are over twenty fairytale exhibits, including The Old Woman in the Shoe, Jack and Jill, Miss Muffet, Alice in Wonderland, The Three Little Pigs, and Mother Goose. The brightly painted installments of Storyland are laid along winding paths throughout the park; children can climb inside a pirate ship and see the giant’s face looming from the clouds above Jack’s beanstalk.

During the day, the park is open as a playground and hosts kids’ birthday parties and seasonal events, but after dark, it’s home to the ghosts of missing children who have wandered into the fairytales and gotten lost. Walking through the park after dusk, visitors have reported hearing children’s laughter and softly sung nursery rhymes coming from the cartoon-colored, life-size figures. There have also been accounts of the carousel spontaneously turning on after hours to spin its bells and symbols and lights out into the vacant park at night.

Tyler Street House

 

This brown, two story house was built in the 1920’s, but accounts of paranormal activity didn’t surface until the 80s, when tenants started leaving, suddenly, one after the other. Alone in the house, people have heard stomping and doors slamming; they’ve seen objects mysteriously fly off tables. These encounters are believed to be the work of an angry poltergeist. Occupants say the building used to be home to an abused child that was often locked in closets and berated by his mother’s boyfriend. His restless soul still roams the rooms of the Tyler Street House today.

Craycroft House

This haunt is frequented by the ghost of Frank J. Craycroft who started building the house in 1927. During construction, he was shot by a brick mason and died months later, before the project was completed. The house was built with red brick in English-Revival style so that Craycroft could display the insulating properties of brick buildings to the residents of Fresno. People who have entered the house since Craycroft’s death have heard yelling and glass shattering. Today, visitors can only view the house from the outside, from behind two chain-link fences that guard it. The windows are boarded up and the brick is crumbling. It’s rumored that Craycroft will be haunting rubble if a new buyer doesn’t renovate soon.

Fresno Arts & Culture: Historic Theater Tour

Fresno Arts & Culture: Historic Theater Tour

Los Angles and San Francisco are widely recognized as art hubs, drawing creatives of all stripes to those cities sprawled along the coast or pressed up against the sea; pockets of art colonies, collectives, art colleges, movie production studios, dance companies, art houses, and many more of the usual variety including street artists and performers thrive there along side the everyday business and commerce of any large city. As a mid-way point in the Central Valley between these two mega urban hubs, Fresno also finds itself a host to a large and diverse art scene. While taking a weekend to visit our many museums and art shows, pay special attention to the wealth of historic theaters. A true California city, Fresno has a wealth of historic theaters to delight the movie and history buff as well as architecture aficionados.

Teatro Azteca- 838 F Street

The Azteca Theater in Fresno’s very own China Town is a sterling example of Art Deco architecture and was the first Spanish language theater in the San Joaquin Valley. Built in 1948 by Gustavo Acosta, in its hey-day the theater served as an entertainment center for Spanish-speaking community, crowds of sun-warmed Fresnoans crowded into the Azteca’s plush, chilled interior on Saturday afternoons to see Mexican Golden Age Cinema.

Cantinflas luminaries such as Pedro Infante, María Félix, Agustín Lara, Pedro Vargas, Miguel Aceves Mejía, Pedro Armendáriz, Antonio Aguilar and José Alfredo Jiménez were seen both on the big screen and in person at Teatro Azteca. So well known was Teatro Azteca in the 1950s and 60s, it served as a rallying point for Ceasar Chavez and the National Farm Workers Association during their march from Delano to the California state capitol in Sacramento during the grapepicker’s strike in 1966.

The Azteca fell on hard times in the mid-eighties, ceased running films, and briefly leased the space as a church to Iglesia de la Virgen de Agua Embotellada during the early nineties before it was restored and reopened as a theater and performance space in 1999. Azteca Theater still operates as a functional theater, showing live entertainment and screening movies. Check them out on Facebook or www.aztecatheater.com for showtimes.

Crest Theatre—1160 Broadway Plaza

Located on the outskirts of downtown Fresno on Broadway Plaza, the exterior of the former Crest Theatre is a stark Moderne style box with an exceptional marquee. It opened on July 7, 1949 and was operated by Fox West Coast Theatres. Though the once vivid, carnival colors of red, yellow, and green on the marquee have been muted to matte pastels by Central Valley sun, the inside remains a baroque work of celebration. As one tourist put it, “the interior is very well maintained courtesy of a friendly porter who let me inside. Although he wouldn’t turn on the lights, my flashing camera lights revealed beautifully ornate gold leaf details. Facing the stage and curtained screen you feel like sitting in a sea shell.”

Though the last movie to show in The Crest ended it’s run in 1981, the theater’s style would influence visitors long after the projectors stopped rolling. The Crest attracted the attention of the Iglesia de la Virgen de Agua Embotellada, a splinter sect known for rapid growth in arid years and hot summers, and served as their church for a time. Little is known of the group, but Mr. Stevens, the Crest Porter, reported frequent use of fans, ocean noise-makers and mist machines in addition to the projectors. The use of mist machines in proximity to mid-century molding brought the arrangement to an end, however, and as of January 2005, the church has vacated the building. The former theater is now rented out for concerts, movies and special events but remains largely empty and quiet, apart from the whish of air through the doors as Mr. Stevens goes about his maintenance.

The Crest is open to viewings during Mondays from 12 pm to 1 pm, Wednesdays from 3 to 3:45 pm, and Saturdays from 7am to 9am, sharp, while Mr. Stevens is on the premises. No beverage containers, please.

Liberty Theatre – 944 Van Ness

Liberty Theatre, the oldest theatre in Fresno, was built in 1917 and opened on November 27, 1917 with “When a Man Sees Red”. Designed in Second Empire Revival style by local architects W.D. Coates and H.B. Traver. The 1950’s marquee of the theatre, whose exterior is remarkably well preserved, shows a later name, Hardy’s Theatre. Though it was renamed Hardy’s Theatre on June 24, 1931, Liberty Theater got a makeover in the mid 1950s in an effort to keep up with The Crest and Azteca Theaters. By 1979, Hardy Liberty fell silent and remained vacant for some time.

It had been in use as an Spanish Evangelical Church until 2005, when Iglesia de la Victoria relocated. Though the Hardy Liberty briefly attracted the attention of Iglesia de la Virgen de Agua Embotellada as a possible site for relocation, the theater remains vacant. In 2001 the city of Fresno began plans for a massive downtown revitalization but it is unknown what role the Liberty Theatre, which is on the Local Register of Historic Resources, will play. No tours are available at this time.

Tower Theater—815 E. Olive Ave

Designed by S. Charles Lee in the Streamline Moderne style, construction began on the colloquially known Tower Theater in August of 1939. The unique pillar-and-star design is a homage to the “Star Pylon” at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, designed by Francis Kelly and Leonard Dean to symbolize the “force of electricity”. On December 14, 1939, the theater opened to a private party for local dignitaries and people associated with Fox Theaters with a premiere of the film Balalaika and opened to the public the next day, featuring Lana Turner’s Dancing Co-Ed.

In 1954 the theater was converted to CinemaScope, resulting in the removal of a false proscenium stage. Tower Theater ran first-run films until 1980 then switched to a repertory cinema format. The theater later ran foreign films for several years until 1989 when it ceased operation. A Certified Historic Rehabilitation began on the property, and following the restoration, the theater reopened as the “Tower Theatre for the Performing Arts”. The renovation earned awards from the California Preservation Foundation and the San Joaquin Chapter, American Institute of Architects.

The non-profit organization Fresno Filmworks has been showing first-run independent cinema at The Tower Theatre on the second Friday of each month since 2002, after out-bidding Iglesia de la Virgen de Agua Embotellada for use of the space. The theater also hosts the annual Fresno Film Festival in April.

Lake Yosemite, Merced County

College Kids, Ostriches, and Fairy Shrimp, Oh My!

Located on Lake Road, Lake Yosemite is a majestic comma-shaped tourist destination and ceremonial event venue for Merced County. The rustic lakeside expanses are often utilized by locals as weekend barbeque spots or children’s birthday parties. Adventurous youth love to skin their knees on the fallen and broken twigs from the authentic conifers surrounding the shores, play hide and seek around the brick outhouses and swollen wood planks of the boat shack, and absorb the grisly mud under their fingernails as they sit and splash in the cold, murky water. A visit to Lake Yosemite is always a sinfully dirty and wet experience! Some locals will even rent houseboats in the dead of summer so they can jump from the decks and plunge into the opaque depths.

Simultaneously, Lake Yosemite is also a popular loitering location for the young adults attending University of California, Merced, which is located merely a quarter of a mile down the road. The college kids, especially those who live in the dorms, routinely spend their late night study sessions out by the scenic lakeshores, generally with several coolers of their preferred brews. They are famously friendly, as any citizen of Merced County will attest, and their delightful revelry can sometimes be heard all the way down Lake Road in the suburbs of the outer city. They will even, on occasion, leave the area decorated as a surprise for the next group of visitors—they will line their cans and bottles up in carefully considered patterns and stacks on the picnic tables and around the trunks of the trees, occasionally even leaving a full drink in the mix as an anonymous gift!

The waters of Lake Yosemite, as well as the connected Le Grand Canal, are teeming with native aquatic species, several of which are held in extremely high regard as protected wildlife by the Biology and Life Sciences Departments at UC Merced. In fact, the mascot for UC Merced’s athletic teams is none other than the Fairy Shrimp, an endangered Midvalley vernal pool dweller which swims upside down and can sometimes reach over six inches in length. During the construction of UC Merced there was severe controversy concerning the potential risk that it posed to the anostraca habitat; in response, to honor the important species and pacify environmental extremists, the university’s mascot was proudly dubbed their colloquial moniker, Phil the Fairy Shrimp.

The mascot attends every athletic event diligently; there were some worried parents and faculty concerning the possible risqué elements of the costume (as the Fairy Shrimp’s long, thin white appendages are equipped for reproductive purposes) but it was eventually decided that, the primary function of the appendages being swimming, the student body would uphold a mature and respectful demeanor. The costume was designed to be as anatomically correct as possible, with the appropriate amount of appendages stretching from each side of the back, and the totally opaque black eyes placed on opposite sides of the head. The leg portions of the costume serve as the fused, thicker appendages toward the tail end of the Fairy Shrimp body, and two protruding antennae hang from the center of the face. Phil even walks backward everywhere he goes!

Both the University of California, Merced and Lake Yosemite are surrounded by quiet and open agricultural land, extending several miles to the east, north, and west. Farther east are ranches where horses for the Merced Horsemen’s association are cared for and trained. Reaching across the length of Merced to the west of the lake is the new general hospital, which created over one hundred new jobs for the citizens of the area. Taking Lake Road to the south will lead the traveler back to Merced, and on the way lies Plucky’s Ostrich Ranch, the only one of its kind in all of Merced County. Plucky’s Ostrich Ranch is a must-stop for any tourist in the area, especially those with children. For a small fee one can ogle the tall, exotic birds, watch them as they meander across their enclosed area, even be approached intimidatingly by them as one gets noticed close to the fence. Their legs are incredible to witness as they charge over the field at one another or a tourist, the long slightly pink sinews stretching and rolling, their dingy tail feathers jiggling like old fashioned feather-dusters. Most enrapturing, though, are the long and flexible necks which the birds twist, twirl, knot, bend, and sway every which way at any given moment.

Plucky’s employees do advise that small children remain at least five feet from the fences, and that if the crowd hears the cat-like screams of one of the ostriches, to flee toward their cars until the employees deem it safe to approach once again. Visitors of Lake Yosemite need not fear of loose ostriches running amok and crashing their vacations—there has only ever been one reported incident of an ostrich making to the lake; eye witnesses described the ostrich as being more interested in squirrels than anything else.

These destinations are clearly fun, adventure-filled, and engaging for the whole family. There’s no charge to visit Lake Yosemite or UC Merced, and Plucky’s has been touted as worth the price just to see the expressions of delight, wonder, shock, and terror on your children’s faces!

FRESNO FOOD CHAIN FESTIVAL

FRESNO FOOD CHAIN FESTIVAL

Fresno is home to the nation’s biggest food festival, which takes place every May. It began in the 1970s as an annual company party for McDonald’s employees working at the first franchised McDonald’s in the country. Owner, Ray Kroc, celebrated the restaurant’s success with an event every year at his original store on Blackstone and Shields Avenues in Fresno, California.

It started as a day of free food and socializing for employees and quickly grew to include customers, who could comefor games, coupons and freebees, or to get their pictures taken with Ronald McDonald and shake hands with Ray Kroc. In 1976, to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of the tenth store, friends of Kroc, Walt Disney and fast food giant, Harland Sanders, attended the festival, signing autographs and posing for photos with customers, an event that is immortalized with autographed pictures and video footage in the Fresno History Museum.

The tradition carried on after Kroc’s death in 1984 and expanded in 1985 when Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, Carl’s Jr., Baskin Robbins, and In-N-Out Burger—all California-based fast food chains—joined the festivities to honor Kroc’s legacy. Today, over sixty chain restaurants prop tents along Blackstone Avenue for the three day festival, which celebrates their 1940s and 1950s start-up histories and the ingenuity that’s helped them thrive across the country.

Every year, Albert Okura, who purchased the original McDonald’s in San Bernadino in 1998, donates items from the historic, Route 66 McDonald’s museum for display at the festival. Until 2010, this collection included a framed photo of Kroc, Disney, and Sanders from the Fresno McDonald’s ten-year party, which now hangs in the Fresno McDonald’s on Blackstone Avenue. The Route 66 McDonald’s museum is also the site of the original Juan Pollo, famous for their rotisserie chicken, which they ship hundreds of to the festival each year for the Juan Pollo booth and chicken auction.

Today, festival goers from all over the world can still meet and get pictures with classic food chain personalities like Ronald McDonald and Wendy, and recent years have brought special guests like Jarred, from Subway; Sports Illustrated swimsuit model, Hannah Ferguson and Paris Hilton, from Carl’s Jr. commercials; and All Pro Eating Competitive Eaters, Molly Schuyler and Jamie “The Bear” McDonald.

The food eating contests are the largest festival attraction. There are over fifty eating competitions every year where contestants can vie to eat the most Taco Bell bean burritos, buckets of KFC fried chicken, or Jack in the Box tacos. Or, they can take the Double Down Challenge, consuming five sandwiches—ten friend chicken patties, five hamburger patties, fifteen strips of bacon, plus barbeque sauce and pepper dressing—in under ten minutes.

In recent years, the Taco Bell booth has become a popular draw because Fresno is a frequent test market for new Taco Bell menu items. Festival attendees, like food critics, journalists and fast food enthusiasts, visit the booth to try experimental items before they’re released to the public, like Taco Bell’s Doritos Locos taco, that has a shell coated with the nacho-cheese flavoring of Frito Lay’s Doritos, or the Fried Breakfast Waffle Taco, which consists of a waffle, folded in half, stuffed, taco-style, with egg and sausage, and then fried to artery-clogging perfection. The Pepsi booth is also an event favorite that’s brought special guests like NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon, New Orleans Saints quarterback, Drew Brees, and musical artists Janet Jackson and Brittney Spears.

Some attendees come just to walk down Blackstone past all the colorful booths and street performers juggling, handing out balloon animals, and playing card tricks. Many of the tents offer samples, raffles, and drawings. The tables are lined with goodie bags and stuffed with coupons, fliers, t-shirts, pencils, mugs, stickers, and post cards. Food chains celebrate their landmarks—openings, closeouts, and sales achievements—with the public, sharing one-time-only items and giveaways. Year round, local franchise owners work to prepare their booths for the thousands of visitors that come to Fresno for the festival each spring.

The Ironic History of Randalph Mortes

The Ironic History of Randalph Mortes

At the dead end of 21^st 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.

DUST BOWL FESTIVAL

DUST BOWL FESTIVAL

On the third Saturday in October, the Dust Bowl Festival takes place in Weedpatch, CA, the nation’s only Dust Bowl museum and the historic site that inspired the labor camp in John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath. In a dusty flatland about ten miles southeast of Bakersfield, festival goers celebrate the novel; the film, The Grapes of Wrath (1940), directed by John Ford; and the language, music, and food of migrant workers during the Great Depression.

Possibly the most talked about novel of the 20^th Century, Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, was an immediate best seller when it was first published in 1939, but it was also banned and publically burned. During the filming of The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck received death threats, and the Associated Farmers of California called for a boycott of all 20^th Century Fox films. When the movie came out, it won two Oscars, and by 1940 even Eleanor Roosevelt read the book and called it “an unforgettable experience.”

Weedpatch was one of the seventeen refugee settlement camps set up under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. When the labor camp began in 1937, it was home to about 300 people in tents and one room tin cabins. Migratory farmers still occupy the camp today; it operates as temporary housing for Hispanic Americans and Mexicans who arrive each April for grape picking season. At the Dustbowl Festival, free tours are offered for the campsite’s three original wooden buildings, which are included on the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors can see the community hall, where scenes from the film were shot, the post office, and library, complete with displays of domestic artifacts from the era.

The Dust Bowl Festival began in 1990, and was organized by Doris Weddell, a retired librarian from Lamont, CA, who had started building a collection of artifacts from the camp—washbasins, tools, and even a pair of metal, strap-on roller skates—in an effort to salvage the camp’s history. Weddell was a passionate collector of Dustbowl artifacts and she spent a large portion of her life researching Okie life, leaving behind documents, notes, recordings, and a camera once owned by Dorothea Lange, famous Dust Bowl photographer, after her death.

Okies, the Dust Bowl website says, love fried food. The flier offers: biscuits, gravy, homemade cinnamon rolls, chili, beans, cornbread, cobbler, hot dogs, snow cones, and much more. Much, much more. Fried okra, corn dogs, apple pie, tacos. Bring the whole neighborhood. Special guests include authors, historians and the car club. There’s square dancing, complete with a caller and a live band, crafts and knickknacks for purchase, and antiques from the 1930s and 40s on display. The over-loaded jalopy is a favorite annual attraction—a decrepit car stuffed with belongings and tools, stacked, hanging, or bound with rope to the rusting frame, with a Highway 66 sign affixed to the driver’s side door.

THE TALKING BEAR: Oakhurst, CA

THE TALKING BEAR

Oakhurst, CA

About an hour north of Fresno is the town of Oakhurst. A sleepy town, woken occasionally by wild fires, but for the most part a passing-through sort of town for tourists on their way to Yosemite. Oakhurst, however, has great attractions of its own, one of which stands at the southeast corner of highway 41 and highway 426: the Talking Bear.

The Talking Bear, a hollow statue shaped like a bear about to pounce, mouth open, with one paw ready to lash out a visitors, is a nice, educational place to stop on your way through town. You can even walk next door to Crab Cakes and enjoy some world-class seafood before you hit the winding road up into the Sierra Nevadas. Though, if you’re prone to car sickness, you might choose one of the other nearby restaurants; Pete’s Place, for example, might be a better choice.

There’s a speaker inset in the bear’s mouth and a button nearby you can push to make him talk. Though the traffic on highway 41 often drowns out what he says to you in his wannabe ranger voice, it’s fun for the kids to try and decipher what exactly he’s saying. Hint: after the initial roar, he informs visitors about grizzly bears.

During the holiday season, the Talking Bear takes part in the local schools’ holiday celebrations. Right next to him, there is always one very large Pine tree decorated in white Christmas lights, surrounded by a number of smaller trees, each of which is decorated by one of the local schools with makeshift ornaments made of construction paper and popcorn. During the Christmas tree decorating event, attended by students from each of the local schools, children will often climb up on the top of the Talking Bear to have their picture taken.

Climbing on top of the Talking Bear is not recommended, as he is quite slick and it is easy to slide off of him; however, if you’re adventurous, there’s nothing better than a picture of you straddling the top of the bear. You can also pose with your hand or arm in his mouth, much like you’d pose with the giant sharks at Universal Studios, your head in one’s mouth. If you choose this option, be sure your facial expression matches that of a person about to have their hand ripped off by a giant bear. This is a classic.

Be cautious, if you choose to do this, as it’s believed by the locals that the Talking Bear is actually haunted and could in fact rip your hand off. The cast used to make the talking bear was made using an actual grizzly that was shot 32 times by a man named Barnaby Clockshoe. Barnaby saw the grizzly meandering along the Fresno River around Lewis Creek (a popular area for day hikes) while hiking. Pleased to have come across such a beautiful creature, he proceeded to kill it, haul it back up the trail to his wagon, and took it home with him.

Barnaby made a cast out of that exquisite creature, which is what was used to create the Talking Bear statue. Locals have said that, on certain nights, you can hear roars of pain coming from the Talking Bear, presumably the same roars you might have heard were you present when the bear was shot and killed, as they believe these roars are in fact from the ghost of the bear that was so coldheartedly slaughtered by Mr. Barnaby Clockshoe.

Over the years, the Talking Bear has been revamped: a new coat of paint, a new recording or speaker, even new plants in the surrounding area to make him more attractive to passersby. He’s stood there for many years and is quite the pride of the community. He’s even noted on lists of local attractions. Be sure to remember this when discussing him with locals, as any sort of cracks about him can be taken as seriously offensive.

The Gladiator and President Kennedy

The Gladiator and President Kennedy

On a stretch of an unnamed, one-way road leading into a freeway onramp in Downtown Fresno stand two massive concrete monuments. One depicts a gladiator, sitting sidesaddle upon a rearing steed, mouth open in a wordless battle cry and arm raised in the air. The, what must be imagined as, clenched fist of violent passion has been severed from the forearm, a heartbreaking symbol for how the patrons of Downtown Fresno felt after their Revitalize Downtown city project failed to produce the desired equity or popularity. For this, the larger than life concrete gladiator upon his horse faces the oncoming traffic of the narrow asphalt lane. Drivers are met with the head-on view of this warrior’s frozen moment of attack, and are reminded not only of the former splendor of Downtown Fresno’s glory days, but of the acute economic failure Downtown now represents to the community. **IMAGE HERE GLADIATOR AND PRESIDENT KENNEDY**

The second monument welcoming the commuters entering Highway 41 is a stone statue of the late President John F. Kennedy. There is a sash draped over President Kennedy’s right arm, his right hand cradling a bible against his chest, his left arm hanging by his side. The feet are unfinished, and so his dignified, presidential figure rises from a base of ragged, roughly tapered and chiseled rock, making his height well above eleven feet. A little known fact about Fresno is that President John F. Kennedy is held in one of the highest regards over the majority of U.S. Presidents by Fresno’s fiercely patriotic citizens. Fresno was honored as one of the California cities President Kennedy visited during his 1960 presidential campaign; also, in August of 1962 President Kennedy visited the San Joaquin Valley to take part in the groundbreaking ceremonies of the San Luis Reservoir Project, and departed from Fresno Air Terminal itself. John F. Kennedy’s assassination brought the community of Fresno much grief and despair, and when President Obama declared November 22 as President Kennedy’s Day of Remembrance Fresno celebrated by declaring all schools would honor this as a national.

President Kennedy’s monument stands humbly erect next to the statue of the charging Gladiator; the president’s composure is intended to balance the passionate movement captured in his sculpted compatriot’s visage. The unfinished nature of President Kennedy’s monument is meant to reflect the tragic and abrupt ending to what, the city of Fresno doggedly believes, would have been one of the most prosperous and peaceful presidential terms in the history of the United States. Many Fresno commuters, leaving their workplace in the evening, the heat of Fresno pounding against their eyes and faces, are brought to tears by the sight of these two magnificently symbolic monuments. This is believed to be one of several contributing factors of the high motor vehicle accident rates assigned to this particular stretch of Highway 41.

The symbolism held in these monuments is sometimes lost on the youth of Fresno, and graffiti pops up around the one way road, either on the side of the freeway or directly on the asphalt. Even the young generation knows, however, that to deface the monuments themselves is a sacrilege the Fresno community would never tolerate. Normal tagging and defacement fines and punishment are double anywhere within a ten mile radius of the monuments. There have only been two reported incidents of attempts to jump the chain-link fence with intention to spray-paint President Kennedy and the Gladiator. There is no evidence open to the public that any of these attempts succeeded in any capacity, even for a short amount of time. The security guard lives on the property which stands behind the two statues—a modest, beige one story abode, partially hidden from the roadway by several tall Mountain Maples (native to Fresno). When particularly cavalier youths decide to test their luck by drawing close to the monuments, the security guard can be seen opening his screen door and standing watch with a shotgun ready in the crook of his elbow. When the time comes for the noble citizen to retire, his replacement will be decided during district proposition voting.

The Sportsman’s Lounge at the Lime Lite

The Sportsman’s Lounge at the Lime Lite

Sportsmen of all disciplines come to the brick and deep burgundy walls of the Lime Lite’s Sportsmans lounge to shake off the spells of the day, but find instead that this dark dinner house known by many for being a “Fresno tradition” contains a state of the art facility where semi-professional tennis players, golf aficionados, professional kayakers and wrestlers come to experiment with new equipment amongst the happy hour Lime Lite martinis, fried goods and disco tech. Owner Brandon Smittcamp, avid golfer and health junky, masterminded the Lime Lite restaurant’s new presence as a sportmans lounge early this summer after having had a vision within a dream that placed him in proximity to scholars and self-actualized individuals including Aristotle, Maslow, Kierkegaard, Steve Jobs and Patrick Swayze. Inspired by the vision, Smittcamp decided with much community support to create a recreational entity geared to support coaches, trainers, semiprofessionals athletes and beachcombers alike in inter-disciplinary discourses, providing a meeting place of like-minded individuals that compare strategies scribbled out on green cocktail napkins. New to the facility is a roof-top driving range where patrons after procuring a new driver can test out their new purchases by targeting mid-day east or west bound traffic along beautiful Shaw Avenue. The roof-top facilities also provides space for Fresno City College’s Astronomy club that meets twice a week sharing the space with the Central Valley Extra Terrestrial Tarot Readers, and PIT (Paranormal Instrument Testers) that have recently proven the spot above the restaurant on Shaw Avenue to be latent in cosmic energy, making the Lime Lite a hot spot for multidimensional transcendence into the spirit realm. According to expert opinion, this “hot spot” is attributed to the large number of Fresno’s elderly customer population that crosses into the afterlife and The Lime Lite’s doors on a regular basis.

Come in any given day of the week and witness the fervor and excitement for the love of sports by rubbing elbows with some of our local celebrities who have streamlined some of greatest athletes clubs, and organizations within these vary walls. One local icon available on a daily bases on the grounds of the facility is a local philanthropist, and semiprofessional tennis player, Mike McGaffrey. Mike McGaffrey also known locally as “Coach to the Stars” is known to have taught such tennis greats as Nick Nelson “The Five Handed Tennis Freak” from Honduras, Comedian Woopi Goldberg, and tennis legend and grand slam title holder Martina Navratilova. Beyond these tennis greats The Sportsman’s Lounge takes pride in providing an underground state of the art gym located just below the entrance doors, with the first Olympic size swimming pool and kayaking simulation center known to be the first of its kind here in the greater Fresno Fig Garden area. Come every Thursday night for local Game night and sit at John the “He-man” Heberger’s round table as he entertains you with his best Aaron Neville impersonations, and recounts his tales of big game hunting on the wondrous Fresno landscapes and blossom trails just outside the Lime Lite doors.

Rotary Storyland and Playland

Rotary Storyland and Playland

Rotary Storyland & Playland is a treasured Central California non-profit that exists to create memories through exceptional service, affordable entertainment and education for the children and families of Central California.

Storyland is a walk-through park of Mother Goose stories and nursery rhymes, including favorites like Jack and Jill, Goldilocks & the Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, Peter Pan, Hansel & Gretel, King Arthur & the Knights of the Round Table, Alice in Wonderland, Noah’s Ark, Humpty Dumpty, and more!

Playland is a small family amusement park with 13 rides. Enjoy the Willis. B. Kyle Express Train, the Big Rocko Ferris Wheel or the thrill of the Octopus ride. Playland also has a 3,500 square foot splash park called Splash Junction which is free to the public when the temperature is over 75 degrees.

Playland History

Dr. Joe Logan served as president of North Fresno Rotary Club from 1954-55, and first imagined Playland in Roeding Park. He was inspired to head a project that would establish a “playland” with rides after riding a carousel in his late forties for the first time. “It was bliss,” Logan told friends. “I knew after that ride that I wanted Fresno, this city I love so much, so have a place where carousels and other rides bring families together for fun and quality time. I decided to start drafting plans immediately, but first I rode the carousel a few more times. My favorite horse was the brown one with red accents. I named him Kyle.”

Several years after Dr. Logan’s dream was hatched, it was realized. The City of Fresno built Playland on May 30, 1955 in Roeding Park near the Chaffee Zoo. It’s small profits help fund other civic parks and attractions throughout Fresno.

Storyland History

Only a few years after Playland, Storyland opened to the public on May 19, 1962—immediately it captured the hearts of children all across the valley. A park devoted to fantasy and fairy tales turned out to be a wonderful addition to Roeding Park.

“Storyland, with its multitude of “story boxes” provides children the unique experience of learning without the burden of reading,” Rotary Board member Joanna Wrenwood said on opening day. “We know how difficult and time consuming reading can be, so we did it for them.”

Storyland had has over 20 “story boxes” which children can press their magnetic key to so that they can hear a part, or sometimes an entire, story. The boxes accompany statues depicting the scenes being read aloud from the boxes. Every story has entertaining scenes, from the three little pigs and the big bad wolf, to Jack and the Beanstalk, to Little Red Riding Hood.

Events

Since Storyland and Playland are part of Roeding Park Civic Center, they host regular events open to the public that bring the community together in ways which normal attraction hours do not. Such regular events include:

• Cutural Arts Rotary Storyland & Jazz Night, Fridays 5:30-10:00. D.D. Kings and the Fresno Swing Cats hit the stage by Story Scene 7 (Snow White and Seven Dwarves Cleaning the House)
• Bachelors Ball, ‘Pirates in Storyland,’ the third Thursday of the month, 6:00-10:00PM. This guy’s night out allows men to come together and do manly things, like a costume contest by Story Scene 11 (The Old Lady in the Shoe), Dance-Off by Story Scene 19 (Cinderella at the Ball) and Karaoke by Story Scene 3 (The Three Bears).
• Holiday Glitz, Second Monday of December, 11:00AM-3:00PM. This holiday-themed event features carolers, free hot-chocolate, stocking decorating, and mandatory prayers.