Fresno's Civil War Revisited may shift to spring

Published online on Saturday, Oct. 03, 2009

Every fall for the past 20 years, Civil War enthusiasts in blue and gray wool uniforms have clashed in mock battles at Kearney Park.

But Fresno's annual Civil War Revisited could move to the spring, if the Fresno Historical Society's idea for a new fall festival honoring pioneer rancher M. Theo Kearney comes to fruition. The society sponsors the Civil War event.

"No decisions have been made," said Jill Moffat, executive director of the Fresno Historical Society. "We have a lot to decide."

"We're trying to start a new event and keep the Civil War Revisited," said Historical Society board member Chuck Rigsbee.

A major question is whether the National Civil War Association, which partners with the society to hold the annual re-enactment, could come to Fresno in the spring. Members of the re-enactors group attend several Civil War events each year.

At the event Saturday, one of the group's leaders, Mike Sanders of Yuba City, said the NCWA was "pretty adaptable" about the date but was concerned that other re-enactment groups -- especially the other large group at Kearney Park, the American Civil War Association -- might not be able to attend.

"We'd really like to see both units here," Sanders said. "It gets the numbers up, and it gives you a real feel for what the battles were like."

ACWA director Thomas Bispo declined to comment on the possible date change but did say "there are other events in the spring" that could pose conflicts.

Even if the Civil War Revisited can be moved to a spring date, there's the question of whether the Historical Society could quickly plan another Civil War event for spring 2010, about eight months away.

"That would be really quick, or we could skip a year" to hold the first spring re-enactment in spring 2011," Rigsbee said. "It's up in the air."

The weekend-long Civil War Revisited draws 30,000 spectators and participants every year, including about 1,600 fifth- and eighth-grade students and their teachers, who attend a schools-only field trip Friday.

In the past, some teachers have wanted the Civil War Revisited moved to the spring, Moffat said, to coincide with classroom teaching about the war.

At the Civil War Revisited, students can talk to volunteers portraying historical figures of the day.

"To be able to walk up to Abraham Lincoln and ask a question, it brings history real," Rigsbee said. "I think that's part of the fascination."

If the new fall festival happens, Moffat hopes children will learn as much about food and agriculture as they do about the Civil War.

But the festival is only in the idea phase, Moffat said. "We don't even have a name," she said.

The event would focus on Kearney's part in creating an agricultural boom in Fresno County in the late 1800s.

"What he created out there made Fresno County the breadbasket it is," Rigsbee said. "It would teach children where food comes from."

A land developer and vineyardist, Kearney employed new irrigation techniques to establish thriving farms in arid Fresno County.

Kearney established his own 7,000-acre Fruit Vale Estate around today's Kearney Park. The estate was almost a small town in its own right, with cottages, a men's dormitory, a tea house, general store, slaughterhouse, meat market, creamery, barns, stables, a warehouse, blacksmith shop, lake and swimming pool.

The house called Kearney Mansion today was built in 1903 as the superintendent's lodge.

Kearney also developed the narrow dirt road to Fruit Vale Estate into the scenic Kearney Boulevard. He helped organize the California Raisin Growers Association and donated Fruit Vale Estate to the University of California for agricultural research and recreation for Fresno County.

The Historical Society doesn't want to lose the Civil War event at the expense of the festival, Moffat said.

"The Civil War is a love of ours. We realized many years ago it's not our event -- it's a community event. We want to be sensitive to that," she said.

Nearly 16,000 California volunteers enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War.