An Invitation

The Society extends a warm invitation to you ---- to friends, neighbors, scholars, history buffs--- to join our growing membership roster and be part of building a new 21st century institution dedicated to the history of California’s Central Valley region. Our history is a remarkable part of the California story. It’s the story of people and their relationship with the land. It’s an American story.

Be a Partner as we

• Advocate on behalf of historic preservation, working with local and state government to preserve our region’s architectural landscape
• Maintain an archives that houses history of the Central San Joaquin Valley from the 1850s to the present
• Collect oral histories, artifacts, photographs, letters, journals, family scrapbooks
• Celebrate the history of California’s Central Valley through exhibits, publications, preservation tours, lectures and conferences
• Sponsor living history events
• Administer one of the most significant historic sites in the San Joaquin Valley, the home of agricultural pioneer, M. Theo Kearney
• Develop history curriculum for classroom use and workshops for teachers
• Collaborate with regional historical societies and museums to link historic sites and bring collections together for research and exhibition
• Create a place in the heart of California that brings together the forces of research, educational programming, and preservation to address some of California’s most important challenges.

Partnership Opportunities

Society Council
Benefactor $1000 - $5000
Patron $500
Sustaining $250
Contributing $100
Active $45
Senior $35
Student/Educator $25

Members of the Query Club, one of Fresno’s historic women’s study clubs, photographed in 1896 by H.H. Alexander.

Annual Meeting/Panel Discussion

Photograph: Irrigation headgate, 1890s,
Fresno Historical Society Archives

A Panel Discussion
Essential H2O: History's Perspective on the Future of Valley Water

Water. No resource is as vital to California's agriculture or as immersed in controversy or as linked to the history of the Valley. The panel will discuss today's water policy debate in the context of the epic quest for water that transformed California's San Joaquin Valley over the past 150 years. They'll explore history's impact on the future.

Panel Members
Chris Campbell, Water and Land Use attorney with Baker, Manock and Jensen Randy McFarland, Historian & Communications Representative for the Friant Water Authority & Daniel Nelson, Executive Director of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority.

Tuesday, March 16
Bonner Auditorium at Fresno Art Museum
2233 North First Street at Clinton

6:15PM Annual Meeting; 6:30PM Dessert & Wine
7:00PM "Essential H2O" Panel Discussion

Members $15 Non Members $20
Please call for your reservation
Carole Lester 559.441.0862

Or purchase tickets online: CLICK HERE
(Tickets will be held at check-in)
Space is limited

Presented by The Fresno Historical Society, Westlands Water District & Friant Water Authority