HERITAGE DISCOVERY CENTER

MADERA, CA

The Heritage Discovery Center in Madera, CA is a family-friendly museum and cultural center that celebrates the region’s past, present, and future. Established in 2004, the center’s mission is to provide access to the area’s rich cultural heritage. Exhibits and interactive activities provide insight into local history, art, culture, and traditions.

The museum’s permanent collection includes historical artifacts from the area, including Native American items, artifacts from the region’s Spanish and Mexican heritage, and objects from the early 20th century. Additionally, the museum hosts a variety of rotating exhibits, lectures, and special events.

The Heritage Discovery Center also houses a variety of educational resources, including a library and research center. The library contains books, manuscripts, photographs, videos, and other materials covering the region’s history and culture. The research center serves as a resource for students, educators, and historians, providing access to original documents, photographs, and other primary source material.

The Heritage Discovery Center is open Tuesday-Saturday from 10am-4pm. Admission is free for all visitors, and the museum offers a variety of educational programs for children and adults. The Heritage Discovery Center is a great way to explore and learn about the area’s vibrant culture and history.

HERITAGE DISCOVERY CENTER is a Uncategorized or General Museum in MADERA CA. US MID #8400601944

The museum is classed as GMU (Uncategorized or General Museums). It comes under American Alliance of Museums (AAM) region: Western (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington). Total revenue from most recent IRS 990 Form: $ 37,020 from tax period 201212 (YYYYMM).

Borden / Chinese labor tombstone (# 2515) A tombstone at the cemetery. Per a contact on Flickr, the characters are primarily place names, all in the Guangdong province in China that was the chief location for the laborers used by the railroads. Based on that contact's interpretation, it also appears that this tombstone was created at some later date and the characters were etched by someone who wasn't fluent in the language.

See the information with adjacent pictures.

Borden / Chinese labor cemetery (# 2522) One of my goals in recent years has been to document the history of abuse of Chinese labor in the early development of California, particularly in rural areas. Earlier, in Bakersfield at the Kern County Museum (previous posts), I had discovered that much of the labor for the development of the railroads in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s were Chinese immigrants, and that the death rates in railroad construction were very high. Using that information, I was then able (see research note further below) to find the site of an abandoned Chinese cemetery along my route just north of Fresno, which is described here.

******
The picture here is the visible remains of what was the Chinese cemetery in what was Borden, CA. The structure on the left was apparently once an altar used in ceremonies, the two markers say essentially the same thing and the following is based on the right-most <u><a href="https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=147956" rel="noreferrer nofollow">marker</a></u>. Note that there is no highway sign indicating this site, to find it you have to know where to look.

Those interred at the cemetery (that was once an acre in size) were among the 2500 Chinese men who built the Central Pacific Railroad in the late 1800’s – railroad construction had a high mortality. The marker notes that many who had been buried here were later removed and their bodies returned to their homeland. Given that there are only 8 headstones, that the cemetery was once an acre in size, and the marker on the left notes that some graves were unmarked, it is reasonable to assume that there are bodies of workers beneath the parking area.

**** Research note

One tool that has become very helpful is Hmdb.org, the online Historical Marker Database. The database lets you search by keywords such as “Chinese” and then provides a list of all historical markers in the U.S., by state, that contain that word. It also provides a map with the locations of all those markers, which proved very useful in locating markers along the route that I was going to be using.

Contact HERITAGE DISCOVERY CENTER

telephone: 5598688680

HERITAGE DISCOVERY CENTER INC
40222 MILLSTREAM LN
MADERA
CA
93636-8123

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If you notice any errors or omissions in the listing, please let us know in the comments section below.

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HERITAGE DISCOVERY CENTER Information

MID #	8400601944
Name	HERITAGE DISCOVERY CENTER INC
Alternate Name	HERITAGE DISCOVERY CENTER
Classification	Uncategorized or General Museums, , Western
Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN)	770308233
NTEECC	A50
Tax period of the latest return filed (YYYYMM)	201212
INCOME	37,020
REVENUE	37,020
LAT/LONG	37.084804, -119.815632
CODES	FIPS State Code: 06 FIPS County Code: 039 US Census Tract: 000109 US Census Block: 2044