YOSEMITE — You are invited to an apple picking party in Yosemite this Wednesday, Aug. 15, from 9 a.m. til 4 p.m. This is an annual event that was started as part of efforts to help reduce bear-human contact in the park, and to “Help Keep Yosemite’s Bears Wild.” “The historic, ripe apples attract bears to developed areas and alter ...

Madera County Film Commissioner Dave Wolin displayed the benefits of filming in Madera County and the Southern Yosemite region to the film industry during the quarterly meeting of the California Film Commission in Los Angeles last week. Using a powerpoint presentation, Commissioner Wolin showed some of the history of Madera County filming, from the “Great Outdoors”, filmed at Bass Lake, ...

Tombstone, Ariz., may have been “The Town Too Tough to Die,” but it wasn’t too tough to be scandalized by “The Masked Canary,” a performer at the Birdcage Theatre. There she was, a voice like an angel, and there they were, the miners and soldiers who came more to hoot and ogle than to listen. The local upright, uptight matrons ...

Rich Severson, author, teacher, professional musician and Coarsegold resident, recently hosted a jazz guitar concert at the Queens Inn Wine & Beer Garden in Oakhurst. Twenty guitarists and 10 bass players from across the United States performed at the event. All of these musicians were participating in an annual five-day Yosemite Jazz Workshop at Evergreen Conference Center, hosted by Severson ...

The Pizza Factory in North Fork has started a new tradition – Live Music on Tuesday Nights! Every Tuesday, one of the local groups comes out to entertain, and it is a treat to have live music in North Fork this summer! Performers so far have included: Amy Duke, accompanied by Dave Novell of Sugar Pine fame; the very lively ...

In 1965 a group of community members decided that Oakhurst needed something to get the tourists driving through town on their way to Yosemite National Park a reason to stop (and spend money) in our Mountain Village. With the help of the current Chamber of Commerce, the “Golden Chain Theatre” was born. www.goldenchaintheatre.org/

The Squirrel Cage Theatre Company was founded in 1974 by a group of local thespians as a vehicle to generate funds to maintain and improve the Town Hall, the former multipurpose room of the old North Fork School, which had been sold to the townspeople for $1.00. The North Fork Boosters were created some time later, to take over that ...