Los Banos Rotary Club History
Milliken Gives Local History

Ralph Milliken, local historian and walnut rancher, Tuesday noon of last week gave members of the Rotary Club a brief history of the community of Los Banos, its origin and growth.

After briefly relating the history of this part of the valley from the time of the Spanish explorers up through the early '50s, and to 1870, when a German by the name of Kreyenhagen, who for several years had operated a general store at the old Lone Willow State Station, moved his store and business to a site, two miles south of the present town of Volta, that later became known as Old Los Banos.

Kreyenhaugen's son brought groceries and merchandise by wagon from Gilroy once a week, and also carried mail back and forth to Gilroy for the growing number of settlers who were moving into the Badger Flat area. The government established a post office at his store in November, 1873, and gave it the name of Los Banos, the name by which the region along the Los Banos creek had been known since the early Spanish days.

A two-story hotel, operated by Harry Thornton, became the social center for the sheepmen and farmers in the area who gathered there for dances, social and political functions.

The new community also became an important station for the stages operating from Gilroy and between Visalia and Stockton, the stage road roughly following the west bank of the San Joaquin river most of the way.
When the railroad came through in 1889 the railroad men wanted to locate the new town on the high land near Trent Station, but were refused permission by the landowner, Uriah Wood. Shortly afterward Henry Miller donated to the railroad a portion of his horse pasture west of his Canal Farm headquarters and the depot was located on its present site. Miller & Lux owned the store in Old Los Banos in which the post office was located and one night the stock of goods and the post office were quietly loaded up and hauled over to the new townsite. Gradually other residents of the old town moved their buildings to the present Los Banos, and a number of those buildings are still standing and in use today.

Regarding the origin of the May Day picnics, Milliken stated that picnics and celebrations were common with the people since the arrival of the first settlers, but that the first May Day celebration and picnic to be sponsored personally by Henry Miller was held at the Canal Farm on May 1, 1890. Five hundred people, the largest crowd that had ever gathered on the West Side, were present for the event, including the present County Recorder, W. T. White, who was then one of Miller's employees.

Milliken said the origin of the May Day celebration frequently has been confused with Miller's famed Canal Completion Celebration, given on July 6, 1897, to celebrate the completion of the Outside Canal, which was finished that year as far as Los Banos creek.

The first Los Banos doctor, Milliken said, was Dr. Charles Wade, who came here from Chinese Camp in the spring of 1891. Dr. Wade was successful in moving the Odd Fellows lodge from Chinese Camp to Los Banos, which accounts for the name, Mountain Brow, by which the lodge is still known. Dr. Wade also helped establish the Masonic lodge here and later helped organize the first Los Banos fire department. He was also one of the leaders in the organization of the West Side Union High School, which at that time was the second high school in the county and served all of Merced county west of the river. The Los Banos grammar school dates back some eighty years to settlers organized a school district on the plains under the name of the Los Banos school district. The old schoolhouse was later moved to town and still stands on Fifth street, opposite the Catholic Church.

The oldest firm, Milliken concluded, is Miller & Lux, founded in 1858. The Canal Company dates back to 1871. The oldest institution of all is the Odd Fellows Lodge No. 82, founded in 1858 at Chinese Camp, and later moved to Los Banos.

April 25, 1950

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