The City of Colusa has a long history of festivals, starting around 1900, which energized the community, celebrated local history and customs, and brought visitors to the downtown.
Saturday’s Colusa Founders Day celebration marked its third year as a fun, free, mid-morning summer event for everyone to enjoy, especially those who love local history.
Founders Day is sponsored by the Pioneer Review, Colusa County Chamber of Commerce, and the City of Colusa Heritage Preservation Commission, in partnership with the Colusa County Library, Colusa Fire Department, Colusa County Arts Council, and Rotary Club of Colusa as an annual event that commemorates the June 16, 1868, incorporation of the City of Colusa.
The 2023 Founders Day included a vendor fair in Veterans Memorial Park, kids activities at the Colusa County Courthouse Gazebo Park, which included performances by Fiddlin’ Brothers and Joe Moye, and special activities at the Arts Council gallery and Colusa Branch Library.
At the Colusa Fire Station, a free hamburger and hot dog lunch was held, along with a station tour of historic exhibits and a kids mini muster.
“Each year, we kind of change up the theme,” said Colusa City Councilwoman Julie Garofalo, who led the 2023 walking tour. “The first year, we focused on the area around the Colusa County Courthouse. Last year, we focused our tour on Chinatown. This year, our focus was Colusa Fire Department history and Colusa Police Department history. This year, our fire department celebrates its 150-year anniversary. Last year, our city police department celebrated its 100th anniversary.”
The highlight of Founders Day was Garofalo’s guided tour of the Jay Street homes that once housed Colusa’s early notable citizens, including Johnson Grover, who had served on the Town Board of Trustees (predecessor of the City Council) prior to his election as the city’s fire fire chief (Hook and Ladder Co. Forman), and Jeremy R. Totman, Colusa’s first town marshal, who served at the helm of Colusa Police Department from its formation in 1922 to 1940.
Garofalo said Founders Day was a great way to celebrate the history of both departments and honor the people who served the community.
Following the walk down Jay Street on Saturday, the tour stopped at Julie and Mike Garafalo’s home for refreshments, before continuing to the downtown for a discussion on historic fires, including one that started at the Dexter Livery Stable (201 5th Street) on July 26, 1883, which destroyed dozens of businesses, killed nine horses, and injured one firefighter.
“Fortunately, no one died,” Garofalo said. “Firefighter Neil O’Donnell nearly lost his life when a wall collapsed and a stray brick struck his head. O’Donnell recalled later that it was one of the hottest blazes he ever experienced.”
Garofalo said Colusa’s water supply at the time was inadequate to handle the flames, and firefighting equipment at the time consisted of one outdated pumper-style contraption and the “bucket brigade” boys of Colusa’s Hook & Ladder Company.
About 20 people were on the tour, stopping to discuss the Chinatown Fire on July 12, 1877, which destroyed 17 businesses and killed one, and the Oct. 28, 1908, fatal fire at the National Hotel, a two-story wooden structure built on the corner of Main and 6th Street in 1851 and considered one of the finest hotels in the state.
“The fire broke out about 4 o’clock in the morning, so everyone was asleep,” Garofalo said. “The cause of the fire was a faulty flue in the kitchen. It went upstairs into one of the rooms and just spread.”
Garafalo said the fire was noticed by a watchman at a livery stable across the street, who sounded the alarm, and guests sleeping on the second story awoke to find the hallways impassable.
“The only way out was to jump from the second story onto the ground,” she said. “A lot of people sustained injuries but they survived, except for one guy who decided he would take his chances and take the stairs. He was burned, and without good treatment or antibiotics, he succumbed to his injuries.”
Although the Fire Department will formally celebrate its 150th anniversary on Nov. 21, Colusa’s firefighters volunteered many hours fixing up the station prior to Founders Day, placing historical exhibits into new display cases, and framing and mounting old fire insurance maps.
Visitors to the station on Saturday enjoyed extensive fire department history, compiled by Colusa County Historical Researcher and former Colusa Volunteer Firefighter John Morton.
The department possesses 11 binders of department history, the first four completed 20 years ago for the CFD’s 130th anniversary celebration.
The first two albums consist primarily of Colusa’s efforts to form and fund a fire department, newspaper articles, original town ordinance, original by-laws, and information about the city’s first firefighters.
Morton said he then completed additional albums about fires and other department history and helped memorialize the addition of Colusa’s only firefighter ever killed in the line of duty to the California Firefighters Memorial Wall in Sacramento in 2003.
John A. Murphy died from injuries he received on April 12, 1937, while fighting a fire in the Nelsen Building, 650 Market St. Murphy was born in Colusa in 1896. He served as a volunteer with the Colusa Fire Department from 1915 until he succumbed to his injuries on May 22, 1937.
Morton, who now lives in Woodland, said it took about four months to compile the first four albums in time for the department’s 130th anniversary, and he has continued the project over the past two decades.
Morton is in the process of completing the 12th album of Colusa Fire Department information to be presented for the 150th anniversary.
In addition to the guided historic tour, residents and visitors to Colusa on Saturday were able to take themselves on a self-guided tour of all Colusa’s historic downtown structures.
Colusa Rotary sponsored the Heritage Preservation Commission’s brochures with the map and information. Julie and Mike Garofalo and Denise and Ed Conrado sponsored the storyboards, which Stitches provided at cost. The storyboards were placed along Market Street prior to the event and left up through Monday for the public to enjoy.
Connie Adan and Sherri Garofalo organized the vendor fair as a fundraiser for Colusa Fire Firefighters Association’s programs, such as Santa on Wheels. The Pioneer Review and Stitches Embroidery & Customs sponsored the children’s activities.
Founders Day is one of many spring and summer community events hosted by various organizations in the City of Colusa. Many of the events planned for this summer were started in 2021 as the city was emerging from COVID-19 restrictions. ■