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Ontario museum goes for the gold
Wednesday, April 28, 1999
By David Seaton
Daily Bulletin |
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ONTARIO -- Yes, there was life in the Inland Valley before
George Chaffey descended from Canada and started building cities here.
The largely forgotten era of the Californios - the society of Mexican cattle
ranchers - has been resurrected at the Ontario Museum of History and Art in a
display running through Aug. 1. |
The show depicts the rapidly changing period when Southern California was
transformed from sprawling ranches to a collection of boom cities, railroads and
citrus farms.
| The project, with satellite displays at regional historic sites,
libraries and museums, is called "Distant Gold: Inland Southern California
1848-1882."
With a $10,000 grant from the California Council for the Humanities, the
museum has created a regional exhibit with the main display in Ontario featuring
artifacts, photographs, maps and interpretive text about the time period. |
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It is the Ontario museum's first original display and the first time it has
worked with other agencies and museums to create a regional exhibit. It also is
part of the The Sesquicentennial Project, celebrating 150 years of California
statehood.
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"This is a difficult era to research," Museum Director
Teresa Hanley said. "There aren't a lot of materials, and we didn't have
any artifacts."
Hanley said 1848-1882 was chosen, in part, to draw attention to a time of
rich multiculturalism not unlike the ethnic transformations unfolding in
Southern California today. |
The period, bookended by the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill and the year
Chaffey founded Ontario, marked the end of the short but vibrant culture of the
Californios and the influx of Europeans and Americans.
"Some people think there wasn't anybody living here before 1880,"
said Mari Uriz-Torres, the museum's registrar. "That's not true."
The Gold Rush coupled with statehood in 1850 brought a surge of settlers to
the area, ending the dominance of the Californios, romanticized for their love
of horse-racing and fiestas lasting several days, Hanley said.
The exhibit includes free performances by actors portraying famous people of
the period.
College professor and middle school teacher Roberto Garza amused and educated
members of the Ontario Kiwanis Club last week with his portrayal of Pio Pico,
California's last Mexican governor.
"I think it was most informative and impressive," said Rita Nelsen,
who grew up near the Pio Pico Mansion in Whittier. "You find more about
Marilyn Monroe than Pio Pico in history books."
Other performances will include recreations of Antonio Garra, a Cupeno Indian
who led a tax revolt in 1851, and Biddy Mason, a former slave who rose to
prominence in the early black community of Los Angeles.
For information on event dates and times, call (909) 983-3198. |
