Minarets – The Town
Minarets, or Media as it was also known, was located near the intersection of Road 400 and Road 406. In the mid 1890s, as Madera County was being carved out of Fresno County, Minarets was considered as a candidate for county seat.
Some mountain folks didn’t like the idea of having to travel all the way to Madera to do their county-related business, so this seemed to them to be a good solution to that problem.
When Madera was selected as county seat, Minarets slowly faded away. From all accounts, it seems to have existed only from 1894 to 1898. Minarets was also called Media because folks thought it was in the center of California.
E Clampus Vitus is considering placing a monument nearby, but we would like more information. What was actually located there? Are there any photographs still in existence? Was this a legitimate town? Does anyone have any stories of life in Minarets? Any help would be thoroughly appreciated.
Thank you,
Dan Carrion
E Clampus Vitus
Follow-up to the History Mystery #74
This is not the Strawberry according to many sources and the location is still undetermined.
However we found a book on tungsten mines in our area from all the postings, and folks can come to the Raymond Museum, study it, and help us home in on the location.
The trees in the background were touching to some of the ideas we received. The response was wonderful.
Thanks to all who commented,
Lynn Northrup
Raymond Museum
