Historical Society produces virtual tour of Sonora
More than 20 years ago, the Tuolumne County Historical Society partnered with the City of Sonora to offer walking tours of historic downtown for fourthgraders as part of their California history studies.
A combination of factors over the past two decades, including decreased numbers of volunteers to lead the walking tours, meant organizers could offer fewer and fewer tours. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic early last year brought an abrupt halt to the program.
However, the nonprofit organization based at 158 Bradford St. in downtown Sonora has teamed with the Soulsbyville-based Justin Flores Productions to produce a 2-hour, 22-minute virtual tour of historic downtown Sonora on 1,000 DVDS that each include a 24-page booklet and downloadable, supplementary classroom materials.
It’s taken more than a year and $13,000 in grants and donations for people with the Historical Society to convert their previous walking tour program to a virtual format, Sherry Blake, coordinator for the society’s research center, said this week.
The finished DVDS and booklets have already been distributed to 22 fourthgrade teachers at 16 schools — every elementary school in the county, both public and private — and the Historical Society is touting its achievement by offering more than 900 of the DVDS for public sale at $20 each.
The introductory segment of the virtual tour is hosted by a salty character called Hardluck Lin, portrayed by author and storyteller Linda Clark, who
now lives in Southern California.
Clark lived and worked in Tuolumne County seasonally and year-round from 1985 until July and was a longtime leader of the walking tours program for fourth-graders from 2002 to 2019, she said this week in a phone interview.
Asked about what motivated her to get involved in walking tours and the history of downtown Sonora, Clark said she hated history when she was a youngster in school until she focused on “the remarkable history of the American West,” the westward movement of explorers, migrants, and settlers, and California’s Gold Rush history.
When she and her husband moved to Tuolumne County in 1999, Clark took several classes focused on Mother Lode history and became a docent at Columbia State Historic Park so she could learn more.
Clark said she came up with the persona of Hardluck Lin when she put on a particular hat, which demanded she tell history “in the manner of those early California Argonauts who sat about campfires warming hands, drying britches, and sharing stories that would one day be memorialized as history, legend, or even as myth.”
She calls it “edu-tainment.”
When the walking tours first began in 2000, it was Sherrin Grout, a ranger at Columbia State Historic Park back then, who came up with the idea. Organizers did a dry run that year to get the tours ready for the city’s 150th birthday celebration in 2001, according to Pat Perry, city historian.
Volunteers and other adults led the tours of downtown Sonora and its historic buildings, as well as other nearby historic sites.
Initially the tours took up most of the school day, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and included lunches paid for by the Sonora Sunrise Rotary Club, Perry said. Then, tour times were shortened and lunches were eliminated. The program was always limited in the number of students and schools it could accommodate each year.
Members of the Historical Society’s virtual tour committee who helped convert the walking tour program to a virtual tour included Marilyn Thompson, Sandra Walker, Sandy Ruoff Fisher, and Don De Luca, Levi Flores, Justin Flores, Clark and Blake.
Blake and her husband hand-delivered virtual tour DVDS to 22 fourthgrade teachers at 16 schools on Monday.
“We wanted to make sure the teachers got them,” Blake said Friday.
“This is a priority project for the historical society. We even took one over to Tenaya Elementary in Groveland.
Earlier Friday, Blake said, 55 more virtual tour DVDS were mailed to grantees and donors; to volunteers who took part in the walking tours in the past; to city and county elected leaders and administrators; and to some Tuolumne County schools officials.
Grantees and donors gave $14,000 to support
the project and the Tuolumne County Historical Society spent $13,000, Blake said. Grants for the project came from entities including Front Porch, Inc.; Black Oak Casino; the Toni Gibson Fund, the Celestini/alves Fund, and the Youngborg Fund, which are administered by the Sonora Area Foundation; and the Historical Society itself. Donations came from Penney Danicourt; David and Linda Crocker; Joseph and Nancy Celentano; Clark; and
Dan and Sherry Blake.
Copies of the virtual tour DVDS are available for $20 each. For more information call (209) 532-4227 or email coordinator. tcmuseum@ gmail.com. Copies will also be for sale at the Tuolumne County Museum, 158 Bradford St. and the Tuolumne County Visitors Bureau, 193 S. Washington St.