Preserving Our History At Tulare County Museum

As early as the 1920s, an effort was made to establish a museum for Tulare County. This initial effort failed, but reemerged in 1936 when Hugh Mooney left $5,000 to Tulare County for park improvements. The county chose to build a museum with the money; however, the lingering Depression and World War II delayed construction. The building was not finished until 1948.

Tulare County Museum operates on a county budget approved by the Board of Supervisors. However since the beginning, Tulare County Historical Society has been actively involved in the museum's growth, donating funds for additions and repairs, as well as members' time and effort to restore old structures.

Tulare County Museum

Kathy McGowan, Museum Curator

Mooney Grove Park

27000 S. Mooney Blvd.

Visalia, CA 93277

559.733.6616

Tulare County Museum Board

Donald Bennett (TCHS)

Bill Horst (TCHS)

Joanne Ledbetter (TCHS)

Brian Lewis (Tulare County Library)

Kathy McGowan (County Museum Curator)

Neil Pilegard (County Manager/Parks & Recreation)

A barn grows in Mooney Grove Park. But it's much more than a barn. Those who might not have visited the park since last fall will be astonished to see a 17,000 square-foot aluminum frame rising 40 feet into the air beyond the county historical museum. It stands nearly as tall as the surrounding Valley oaks. The building's familiar trapezoids and triangles make it easy to identify: It's a barn. But what a barn.

When finished in the fall 2009, it will house the latest in multimedia technology, two centuries' worth of artifacts and testimony, a vivid celebration of the diversity of Tulare County and the contributions various groups made to agriculture and history. This barn will welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors a year, most of them school children, as it tells the stories of the native peoples, the vaqueros, the Nisei, the immigrant Portuguese and Dutch, the Chinese merchants, the Irish rail builders, the farmworkers from Oklahoma and South America. It will trace the development of agriculture from the time of the vast rancheros to coming of irrigation to the point where Tulare County is among the most productive farmland on the planet.

The Tulare County History of Farm Labor and Agriculture Museum is a collaboration. Many different groups are coming together to build it. The cornerstone is the Tulare County Historical Society, which obtained a state grant of $1.4 million to build a museum that would show the contributions of different groups to county history and agriculture. Tulare County, which owns the museum, is contributing to the project as part of a transformation of Mooney Grove Park into a living testament to history and culture.

Different ethnic groups have been recruited to contribute their stories, in the forms of exhibits and banners and in multimedia kiosks that will tell the story of the many cultural and ethnic groups that have found homes here.

The Tulare County Office of Education is continuing with its learning programs at the new museum, with a state-of-the-art learning center that will expand its capacity to reach literally millions of students. And the private sector has already embraced the project and energetically contributed to aggressive fundraising with hopes of raising $2 million in less than two years.

The project is moving rapidly. The new building transforms itself every week. When completed, it will reflect the design of a typical barn building, but will have innovations in lighting, heating and cooling that are the latest in sustainability.

A museum grows in Mooney Grove Park. And much more than a museum.

Funding Comes From Multiple Sources

State grant: Tulare County Historical Society was awarded a $1.4 million grant in 2006, specifically to develop a museum to reflect contributions to local agriculture of local ethnic groups.

County funding: Originally the county adopted a master plan that would include a museum costing $3.2 million. Lower construction costs in the recession have limited that to $2.5 million. The county's funding commitment is expected to be $2 million. That does not include Regional Learning Center costs or exhibit costs.

Fundraising: Private and public fundraising is under way by the Tulare County Historical Society. Co-chairs are Stan Simpson and Delora Buckman. The group needs to raise at least $150,000 to open the museum in September. Ultimate fundraising goal is $2 million.

Tulare County Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

We appreciate all donations supporting our Museum Improvement Fund.