History & Profiles

Early Hollister Fire Department Hose Company. Photo courtesy of HFD.

History & Profiles

Hollister Fire Department celebrates 145th anniversary

Local powerhouse tends to fires throughout San Benito County and the state.

Tie Sing at his cook stove. Photo courtesy of the Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley and provided by Sharlene Van Rooy.

History & Profiles

USGS field crews historically appreciated good cooking

Backcountry culinary skills of Tie Sing literally put his name on the map in 1899.

SBHS world history instructor Frank Perez teaching in the classroom pre-pandemic. Photo courtesy of Frank Perez.

Schools & Education

SBHS teacher contributes to genocide guidebook

Frank Perez’s approach helps other instructors explore a difficult subject.

Ann-Marie Sayers. Photo by Kirti Bassendine.

San Benito Lifestyle

BL Longform: Mutsun people dream of returning to their ancestral land

Few indigenous families still live in San Benito County.

Early photo of McKinnon Lumber Company. Photo courtesy of John Barrett.

Features

McKinnon Lumberyard dates back to early Hollister

San Benito County’s oldest retail business going strong during pandemic.

The National Hotel, site of the first case. Photo courtesy of the San Juan Historical Society

History & Profiles

BL Longform: San Juan Bautista and the great smallpox epidemic

The struggle to survive a deadly disease in 1868.

The grave of B. B. Barker, San Juan Bautista. Photo by Robert Eliason.

History & Profiles

BL Longform: Burwell Barker, William McGarvey and the missing buried gold

The conclusion of a tragic tale of Old San Juan Bautista.

B. B. Barker, date unknown. Tintype mirrored to show true orientation. Photo courtesy of Lee Chandler.

History & Profiles

BL Longform: 1866 gunfight at Kemp’s Saloon ends in death of justice of the peace

A once-forgotten tale of Old San Juan Bautista emerges from the shadows.

Artist Ruth Asawa creating a looped wire structure (circa 1957). Photo courtesy of Akira Boch.

Art & Culture

Former San Juan resident nominated for L.A. Area Emmy

Akira Boch documents WWII-era mass incarceration of Japanese Americans.

Photo taken by Emilia Gonzalez from Panoche Elementary School.

Art & Culture

Rural students learn photography amid COVID-19 shutdown

Kirti Bassendine works with Jefferson and Panoche elementary schools on composition and framing.

Junipero Serra statue at Mission San Juan Bautista. Photo by Robert Eliason

News

Mission San Juan Bautista removes Junipero Serra statue

Life-size bronze put into storage to avoid possible vandalism.

Mariachi Juvenil Corazón Jalisciense Director Israel Ramirez with his wife Carmen and daughters Carmen, 14, and Miriam, 8. Photo provided.

Art & Culture

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo amid COVID-19

Two Hollister residents talk about planned festivities and how the pandemic has affected the holiday for them.

Jim Jack's Cabin now resides at the corner of Third and Monterey streets in San Juan Bautista. Photo by Robert Eliason.

History & Profiles

Jim Jack: the Mustard King

How one man’s generosity helped San Juan Bautista residents in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The Jesse Hildreth Rose. Photo by Robert Eliason.

San Benito Lifestyle

Beauty and history: the heritage roses of San Juan Bautista

Unique varieties have been growing in the city cemetery for many generations.

Luis Valdez, playwright and founder of El Teatro Campesino in San Juan Bautista. Photo by Robert Eliason.

Art & Culture

Luis Valdez: Papier-mache and the theater of change

In the first of two articles, the El Teatro Campesino founder speaks of his childhood and early beginnings.

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