MADERA — There is a treasure trove of images, magazines, films and even home movies from the Madera/Mariposa area available online for the public to access, thanks to the Madera County Library’s specialized History and Family Research room and their work to preserve historical records.
There is film of the Hildreth Rodeo in the 1940s and the Madera County Old Timers Day Parade; boating at Yosemite Lake; aerial views of the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company; records from the Madera County Jail dating as far back as 1893; and film of the Friant Dam – before during and after the construction – all are waiting for you to take a trip back in time. You may even recognize family members during your exploration through the files.
Madera County Library’s specialized History and Family Research room was selected as a California Revealed Library by the California State Library in 2016. Since this selection, staff of the Library’s California History room staff preserved Madera County historic government records through digitization. These records are now available to the public online.
In addition, there were several movie reels pertaining to Madera County history that were preserved through digitization as well.
You can find the Government Records Collection, as well as the movie reels, at https://archive.org/details/maderacountylibrary.
