Sunday, Mar. 03, 2013 | 08:15 AM
Question: What became of the effort years ago to form Ponderosa County in the Fresno County foothills?
-- Betty Colvin, Squaw Valley
Answer: The effort to carve Ponderosa County from Fresno County on 2,706 square miles east of the Friant-Kern Canal began in 1979 with the formation of a citizen's committee, the Mountain Alliance.
Foothills residents sought to form their own county after years of complaints that Fresno County government neglected their needs and ignored their opinions.
Other foothills residents formed a group, Citizens for Unity, to oppose leaving Fresno County.
Supporters for Ponderosa County collected 22,999 verified signatures to put the secession question on the ballot in June 1982, but voters defeated the measure. Early election returns, with most precincts reporting, showed Ponderosa County losing by a 3-to-1 margin.
If the effort to form Ponderosa County had succeeded, it would have been the state's first new county since 1907, the year that Imperial County in Southern California became the state's 58th county.
Q: When was the Mason Building built in Fresno? Was it demolished?
-- Les Dougherty, Blanchard, Okla.
A: The six-story Mason Building was constructed of reinforced concrete and brick at 1044 Fulton St., now the Fulton Mall, in 1917-18.
At the time, it was "one of the first structures to alter dramatically Fresno's skyline," according to the Local Register of Historic Resources. Other "skyscrapers" were built within the next few years, including the Hotel Fresno and the Helm and Rowell buildings.
The Mason Building was designed by architect Eugene Mathewson, who also designed Fresno's 1905 City Hall, which was torn down in 1961, and the Mattei and Brix buildings, which still stand.
Mathewson designed the building for Florence Mason Palmer of London, England, daughter of Fresno pioneer William Chapman, who built it as an investment property. She died before the building was completed.
The building's ownership changed hands through the 1960s. During the early 1980s, the building's elevator was still hand-operated. The Mason Building was added to Fresno's Local Register of Historic Resources in 1980.
Q: I remember the cartoon Ol' Sarge from World War II. Who drew the cartoon?
-- Virginia Arioto, Fresno
A: Ol' Sarge was drawn by book illustrator and comic book artist Howard Peter Tumlinson in the 1940s and 1950s.
Tumlinson, who died in 2008 at age 87, had said he didn't originate the Ol' Sarge character, who first appeared in the late 1930s drawn by other artists. But Tumlinson's depiction of the tough-looking drill sergeant became iconic.
Tumlinson even gave the character a backstory as an "ex-con from Brooklyn who was too tough for Alcatraz," according to the Texas A&M student newspaper.
Tumlinson served in World War II and, after the war, he graduated from Texas A&M, where his Ol' Sarge character remains an unofficial mascot.
