The City of Colusa has a long history of glorious celebrations and festivals, starting around 1900 when the steamship “Valletta” stuffed its decks with passengers and transported them to a picnic and hot air balloon ascensions that were held along the Sacramento River.
Saturday’s Colusa Founder’s Day celebration marked the second year for the festival to bring a fun, free mid-morning summer event to everyone, especially those who love local history.
Founder’s Day is sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, Pioneer Review Community Fund (Community Foundation of Colusa County), and Farmer’s Daughter, and the City of Colusa Heritage Preservation Commission, and the City of Colusa, which has been partnering with local non-profit organizations and businesses to establish post-pandemic outdoor events that energize the community to support local businesses and promote tourism, much as it did in the early 20th century with the Colusa Water Carnival.
The event included vendors in Memorial Park, entertainment, and guided and self-guided tours in downtown Colusa.
Founder’s Day is one of many spring and summer community events hosted by non-profits or the City of Colusa. Many of the events planned for this summer were started last year as the city was emerging from COVID-19 restrictions.
“Sometimes it takes three or four years for an event to become well established,” said City Manager Jesse Cain, whose Public Works staff set up and removed the city’s hand sanitation station, picnic tables, and canopies that were purchased with COVID-19 funds for outdoor events.
Founder’s Day was established in 2021 to honor the City of Colusa’s incorporation on June 16, 1868.
Rich in cultural heritage and diversity, Colusa is not only home to indigenous Native Americans, but the descendants of international migrants worldwide.
This year’s Founders Day focused on the Chinese immigrants who helped develop and sustain the area, including Kam Lee, who lived in the Chinese District and established Chung Sun Market, the longest-running grocery in Colusa.
A highlight of Founder’s Day, which is intended to annually include a multi-location downtown walking event, was the guided tour through the original Chinese districts on Main Street.
Colusa Heritage Preservation Commission President Jon Wrysinski and Colusi County Historical Society President Charles Yerxa led two tours, which, because of Saturday’s exceptionally cool temperatures for June, became in-depth community discussions on the people and historic structures.
Colusa’s residents Mike and Julie Garofalo on the tour shared detailed maps of the original brick structures that once stood on both sides of Main Street, where the Chinese were restricted by prejudice and their own customs to congregate together for comfort and safety.
A network of tunnels reportedly were honeycombed below ground for both legal and illegal activities, Wrysinski said.
After a fire swept through Chinatown in the 1870s, destroying most of the district, Colusa prohibited the building of wooden structures. By the 1890s, as Chinese businesses flourished, most of Chinatown had been replaced with sturdier buildings, constructed for both residential and commercial purposes.
On Saturday, Colusa Taproom’s new owner Jennifer Chapman opened the bar for the tour so people could see the exterior and interior of the beautiful historic brick structure built on 8th street after the Chinatown fire.
“Sometime between 1897 and 1907, it became the Colusa Butter Company,” said Julie Garofalo. “It was a creamery on both sides of the street. Then it was a Chinese laundry for a couple of decades, and then a woman’s residence for a very long time.”
Residents and visitors from outside Colusa also enjoyed the self-guided tour of Colusa historic downtown, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Colusa, and the Virginia Yerxa Community Read storyboards on Market Street, which had been created for the canceled 2020 book-in-common “Joy Luck Club.”
The storyboards, which had many fun facts about Colusa’s Chinese history, were left until Monday evening so more people would have the opportunity to see them.
While a return of the tractor show had been planned, high diesel prices and competing tractor shows in Galt and Durham allowed vintage tractor owners from out-of-the area to make difficult last-minute choices to not participate this year.
Memorial Park activities included a kiddie carnival and Fiddlin’ Brothers performance.
Founder’s Day organizers said next year’s event may focus on a guided tour of the historic homes on Jay Street and possibly a motorcycle show, since gas prices may remain high for some time.
Founder’s Day will always include a vendor fair. Brochures will be provided every year for people to self-guide themselves through Colusa’s historic downtown.
Chamber officials said the purpose of Founder’s Day is to get more people out on a Saturday morning to visit Colusa’s many downtown business establishments. ■