Question: How did Gettysburg Avenue get its name and why is there such an interest in Civil War re-enactments in Fresno?

-- Bill Edinger, Fresno

Answer: Gettysburg Avenue, which shows up on a 1922 map, may have been named in honor of the Civil War battleground because the Valley has a strong connection to the conflict, according to Jill Moffat, executive director of the Fresno County Historical Society.

Many civic leaders in early day Fresno and the county of Madera were Civil War veterans, including Dr. Thomas Meux, a Confederate. "They carried very strong feelings when they moved out here," Moffat said.

About 17,000 California men enlisted in the Army during the Civil War, but most of them spent the war in the West. Local historian and biographer Paul Vandor wrote in 1919, "military authorities kept a watchful eye on the region in the San Joaquin Valley which was believed to be a stronghold of southern sympathizers" in Snelling, Millerton, Visalia and Kings County.

Several companies of volunteers from California did fight in Civil War battles, according to the California Center for Military History.

At least one other Fresno street, Dennett Avenue, was named for a Civil War veteran, Confederate Col. William Bibb Dennett, because it bordered property he owned, according to Melissa Scroggins, librarian in the California History and Genealogy Room in the downtown library.

The Civil War Revisited, sponsored by the Fresno County Historical Society, has been a popular event at Kearney Park since 1990. It has grown into one of the largest Civil War re-enactments west of the Mississippi, Moffat said. The two-day event draws more than 30,000 spectators.

Paul DeNubilo, president of the American Civil War Association, said re-enactors like Kearney Park for its size and terrain.

The Civil War Revisited provides entertainment, with all the "guns and crashes," but the romance and turmoil of life in the late 1860s also is appealing, he said. Spectators also enjoy learning about the social, political and economic differences between the North and South and between the Civil War years and now, he said.

Q: Are any of the Fresno Fairgrounds buildings constructed by the military during World War II still in use?

-- Jeff Dippel, Fresno

A: During World War II, the Fresno Fairgrounds was used first as an assembly center for Japanese-Americans being evacuated from the West, and later as Army Air Force Basic Training Center Number 8.

More than 35,000 soldiers had 10 weeks of basic training at the center before going to other centers to train in armaments, aircraft maintenance, photography and communications.

The U.S. government spent more than $1 million to build barracks, warehouses and other buildings on the Fairgrounds property and more barracks across Butler Avenue. About 500 civilians worked at the center as clerks, electricians, gardeners, blacksmiths, plumbers, dental hygienists and service-club hostesses.

The Army Air Force occupied the Fairgrounds from 1942 to 1947. The Fresno Fair wasn't held for five years during the war but resumed in 1948.

Today, the former armory houses the Big Fresno Fair's home arts building, said Fair spokeswoman Danielle LeBouef.

-- More about Green Shade Louie: After the answer to a question ran on March 7 about Fresno Bee horse-racing handicapper Frank Arthur, known as Green Shade Louie, two readers sent e-mails about Arthur.

Lee Jeffries of Coarsegold wrote that Arthur "also did live sports on KJEO-TV 47 in the 1960s. He wore his green shade [and] had the sound of a typewriter in the background during the sportscast."

Arthur also co-hosted a live television show called Fresno Sports and Variety on Saturday afternoons, Jeffries said. Local television personalities Fay Reese did the live variety segments with local talent and Dick Carr did the announcements and commercials.

"Frank Arthur was one of the iconic figures in Fresno radio during the early '60s," wrote Bob Tyrcha of Fresno. As sports director for KYNO radio during his heyday, Arthur "was on the air as himself and Green Shade Louie would make occasional appearances," Tyrcha said.