The Union Democrat
175 years strong
Friday was May Day, long recognized as a day for ancient Celtic, Roman, and Germanic spring festivals and the birth of the modern labor movement in 1886 in Chicago, and it was also recognized as the City of Sonora’s official birthday as an incorporated...
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Open, for now
Caltrans opened Highway 108 from Kennedy Meadows Road to the 9,624-foot top of Sonora Pass at 10 a.m. Thursday, much to the relief of some business owners along the upper 108 corridor who say the past winter has been hard on them. “Winter was very...
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Prayers for leaders
Agroup of more than 50 students, parent-chaperones and teachers from Mother Lode Christian School flew to Washington, D.C., earlier this month to visit memorials, museums and historic sites in Virginia and the nation’s capital, where students prayed...
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Ancestral voices
Mariposa-based members of the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation welcomed visitors with prayers, songs, and dance at an Honoring Mother Earth event, hosted Saturday by the Tuolumne Band of Me-wuk Indians and Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-wuk Indians of...
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Building futures
Many of Tuolumne County’s most influential figures in business, government and philanthropy came together Thursday night for a gala fundraiser that’s expected to meet or exceed the goal of generating $300,000 for the nonprofit Resiliency Village, a...
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Reviving history
A co-ed, sanctioned All-american Soap Box Derby competition for children and teens is scheduled in April 2027 on Stewart Street, marking the return of historic soap box racing that took place in pre-world War II downtown Sonora, city Chamber of...
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Out There
Earlier this month, desperate to catch some waterfall action before flows from a belowaverage winter cease, I did Vernal Fall on the Mist Trail and the base of Upper Yosemite Fall on consecutive weekends. April storms so far have kept waterfalls...
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Station shutdown
The Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 Tuesday to cut $2.3 million from the county’s 2026-27 agreement with Cal Fire, which terminates six full-time county firefighter positions, eliminates one fire engine and its crew, and will result in...
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Home improvement
Thousands of visitors turned out over the weekend for the 43rd annual Home and Garden Show at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds in Sonora, where more than 100 vendors showcased home improvement services and products, landscaping tips, artisan goods and more....
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Cultural stories
The number of Latinos in California has continued growing from the 1500s as part of Las Californias under Spain, from 1821 to 1848 as Alta California under Mexico, and from 1849 through today as the 31st state of California. Latinos are now the Golden...
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Coyote Sam strikes again
Now in its 67th year, the Mother Lode Roundup is still like a hometown reunion, but the 2026 Roundup Rodeo might get staged on Mother’s Day weekend without bucking broncos, cowboy-busting bulls, and ornery steers. The dirty, stinking, foul-mouthed...
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Endangered landmark
Sonora Elementary School graduates who remember attending classes in the Dome in the 1960s are leading an effort to repair the iconic 117-year-old building’s roof, so that the Dome can eventually be retrofitted and restored for public use. Linda...
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Out There
In the week that led up to last Saturday, I knew I wanted to go try to walk up to the base of Upper Yosemite Fall. The forecasts included rain, possible thunderstorms, and potential for snow in Yosemite Valley. I told my buddies we should go for it....
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Last stride
Forty-eight years ago, longtime Tuolumne County resident and retired Union Democrat reporter and columnist Chris Bateman saw an opportunity to capitalize on the “running boom” of the 1970s. What transpired from the young innovator’s mind has become a...
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Past meets present
Sonora High School juniors who are studying Advanced Placement U.S. history got an inside look at the Tuolumne County Museum and History Research Center on Thursday. Their goal was to learn some the basics of how county museum and research center...
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Out There
The dry, record-warm month of March and the state’s April 1 manual snow survey showing Sierra Nevada snowpack at near-record lows mean this spring’s snowmelt is way ahead of schedule, so waterfall flows in Yosemite National Park are peaking right now...
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Small Change 4 Big
Representatives for a Jacksonbased nonprofit that advocates for people dealing with homelessness recently invited Amador County Sheriff Gary Redman to tour Tuolumne County’s sanctioned Camp Justice with Tuolumne County Sheriff David Vasquez and Sgt....
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Wranglin’ Roundup
Past and present Mother Lode Roundup royalty, members of the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Posse and numerous volunteers throughout the community came together on Saturday morning to host the county’s first ever Wranglin’ Roundup. The event saw nearly a...
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Roots and reckoning
Sylvia Alden Roberts is known in Tuolumne County for preserving Black history of the Gold Rush, but her newest book takes an inward look at a formative time in her own life while growing up in the Jim Crow South. In “The Other Side of Nolan Street: A...
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Spring revival
The record-warm month of March brought an early start for some wildflowers, butterflies, frogs and snakes in Tuolumne County. Even if you missed those first blooms, there should probably be ample opportunities to find and enjoy more wildflowers close...
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Winter meltdown
California’s final manual snow survey of the 202526 winter season on Wednesday showed the Sierra snowpack at near-record lows, following an unusually hot March that accelerated this spring’s snowmelt months ahead of schedule. The findings at Phillips...
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Ancient ancestors
Sonora native Debi Bolter shared the latest discoveries from what’s considered to be one of the world’s most important fossil sites for understanding human origins during a presentation Tuesday in Columbia. About 50 people came to Angelo’s Hall in...
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Deadline approaches
Residents of Camp Justice, Tuolumne County’s sanctioned homeless camp near the new Law and Justice Center campus southeast of downtown Sonora, are supposed to be moving campers and trailers out of the camp by this Wednesday or Thursday, Sheriff David...
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Creative tides
Artists with the Sonora nonprofit WATCH Resources Inc., which offers support and services to adults with intellectual disabilities and their families, are preparing a month-long exhibit of handmade, hand-glazed, ocean-themed artwork. The “Under the...
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Topping out
Awet storm — potentially bringing the first rain and snow in more than a month to the parched Mother Lode and the rest of the Central Sierra — is possible next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. The last time it rained and snowed in Tuolumne County was...
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Frontier democracy
With a midterm election year throughout the country, many voters are thinking about issues, candidates and how they will cast their ballot in the primary and general elections. It really wasn’t too different at Mormon Gulch when the ‘49ers there began...
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Mission accomplished
The Blue Zones Project Tuolumne County is wrapping up five years of activities, events and communitybuilding actions to improve the health and well-being of the community. After leading 60 months of community engagement, partnerships and policy work,...
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Honoring heroes
What began as a call for photos and information about local veterans for a special display at this year’s Mother Lode Fair has grown into a far-reaching effort to document — and preserve — Tuolumne County’s military history. Led by longtime fair...
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‘Stories Across Cultures’
Chinese immigrants who came to the Gold Rush often faced mobfueled, government-sponsored, newspaper-backed discrimination, racism and hatred as soon as they arrived in California and the Mother Lode, and some of their experiences were shared Thursday...
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Forest unity
The Yosemite Stanislaus Solutions collaborative and its emphasis on bringing competing interests together to find common ground on fire fuels reduction and forest health were hailed Thursday morning during the first day of a two-day regional meeting of...
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Seeds of stewardship
Sonora Elementary School students and faculty celebrated Arbor Day on Wednesday with the Tuolumne County Garden Club and accepted a donated, pre-planted, fenced Chinese pistache sapling donated by Subaru of Sonora. A few steps from a venerable oak...
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Free bird
red-tailed hawk recovering from a severe gunshot, arrow, or pellet gun injury was released Sunday by the Sonora-based nonprofit Mother Lode Wildlife Care at a location off Murphys Grade Road northeast of Angels Camp. Residents discovered the injured...
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Born lucky
Sonora resident Mary Louise Nofal Davies, who was born a century ago in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, turns 100 years old today at Golden Sonora Care Center off Greenley Road. She was born on St. Patrick’s Day, but she is not Irish. She is Lebanese by ancestry....
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Drawn discovery
The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., has acquired one of the earliest known drawings of Yosemite Valley and Yosemite Falls, the tallest waterfall in North America, and a rare companion lithograph that were both created in 1855 by artist Thomas...
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Pain at the pump
Military conflicts in the Middle East frequently cause global oil prices to spike due to fears of supply disruptions, and the U.s.-israeli conflict with Iran that began two weeks ago has severely impacted Iran, a major oil producer, and access to the...
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‘Dream It, Be It’
About 140 freshmen and sophomore girls at Summerville High School took part in a career mentors event Wednesday that drew many of the leading lights among the area’s working professional women. The Dream It, Be It event was organized and sponsored by...
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Request for relief
The Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 Tuesday morning to request $6.3 million in state funding to build a 25-acre-foot reservoir at the former Sierra Pines Golf Course property in Twain Harte that would provide water during water...
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Forest focus
U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz, the former timber industry executive who has led the federal agency since his appointment by President Donald J. Trump’s administration last March, visited staff with the Stanislaus National Forest, Tuolumne...
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‘Stories Across Cultures’
About 150 people came to Columbia College on Thursday to hear Stephanie Beaverguzman, an enrolled member of the Indigenous Hoopa Valley Tribe of Northern California, and Kyle Cox, cultural resource manager for the Tuolumne Me-wuk Tribal Council, share...
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All cleared
Six months after a devastating lightningsparked blaze tore through Chinese Camp, property owners who lost homes and buildings can now begin rebuilding after Tuolumne County officials announced the completion of post-fire debris and hazard tree removal...
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End in sight
Repairs on storm-damaged sections of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s Main Tuolumne Canal were expected to be completed Wednesday night between Lyons Dam and Twain Harte, PG&E announced Wednesday afternoon. Testing of the canal is scheduled to begin...
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Me-wuk milestone
With an eye toward the future and nod to the past, tribal elders and current-day leaders of the Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-wuk Indians of California gathered this past weekend for a ribboncutting ceremony to mark the reopening of the tribe’s...
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Political roadblock
For more than a month, Republican lawmakers in California have blasted a legislative proposal to study alternatives to the state’s gas tax, declaring it a dishonest ploy by Democrats to hike taxes on drivers — a claim that’s gone viral on social media...
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February boost
February storms brought much-needed snow to the Central Sierra and the rest of the Sierra Nevada range, but region-wide and state-wide, the snowpack’s vital snow water equivalents are still below average for this time of year, the state’s third manual...
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Canal concerns
Known vulnerabilities of Tuolumne County’s primary source of drinking water, the storm-damaged Main Tuolumne Canal, and unfulfilled efforts to mitigate risks to the county’s most crucial water infrastructure asset resurfaced Thursday as staff with...
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Chasing the crown
Three contestants vying for the title of 2026 Mother Lode Roundup Queen were formally introduced Saturday evening during the annual kickoff event at the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Posse clubhouse in Jamestown, marking the start of a months-long...
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Chilly challenge
Braving near-freezing conditions after a week of winter storms, dozens of people gathered at Moccasin Point Marina on Saturday for an icy dip in the frigid waters of Don Pedro Reservoir as part of the 2026 Tuolumne County Polar Plunge. The event is...
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Saddled showdown
Courageous, multiskilled basketball players competed on the backs of cantankerous, rubber-shod burros Sunday on the court inside the Tuolumne Veterans Memorial Hal to raise money for the 2026 Tuolumne Lumber Jubilee. The human hoopers loved it, but...
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Feathered influx
As retired California fish-and-game biologist Jim Maddox best remembers, it all began in the very early 1970s. That’s when he and a couple of Department of Fish and Game cohorts released a grand total of 26 wild turkeys south of the Tuolumne River in...
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Olympic contender
Yosemite National Park, thanks to one of its leading concessioners, competed nearly a century ago to host the 1932 Olympic Winter Games in Yosemite Valley. The modern Olympics are founded on the ancient Olympic Games that began in 776 B.C. in Greece,...
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Winter onslaught
A multiday winter storm, the coldest of the season so far, has already wreaked havoc in the Mother Lode and the rest of the Central Sierra, with heavy rains and snow, downed trees, power outages, closures of roads and businesses, and it’s expected to...
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Legacy in Yosemite
A Yosemite National Park trail is among 10 outdoor routes in the nation “shaped by Black history,” according to Alltrails. “American public lands are full of Black history — stories of strength and community that stretch from coast to coast and...
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Olympic memories
Sonora High School alumnus Marilyn Scheller, 80, played clarinet with the Sonora Union High School Concert Band at the opening ceremonies for the VIII Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley in February 1960 — a day to remember in more ways than one. The...
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A beauty for the ages
Eva Melissa Kelley was born in 1919, which some historians have called a “world-shaking” year. She’s currently living at Golden Sonora Care Center off Greenley Road in Sonora and will turn 107 years old this Monday. Kelley is one of the very few...
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‘Gold & Grit’
Black pioneers of the Mother Lode, including G.H. Ashe, Tom Simpson, Uriah Smith, and Harriet Wright Russell, are featured in an exhibit titled “Gold and Grit: African American Histories in Gold Rush Tuolumne County” at Columbia State Historic Park...
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Bye bye Bird House?
AClovis-based developer with family ties to Sonora is exploring options to relocate a beloved building on Mono Way, known as the Bird House, as he moves forward with plans to build a new Dutch Bros Coffee and Take 5 Oil Change on the property. Michael...
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Heart Fest
Hundreds of students from Tuolumne County schools, including Mother Lode Adventist Junior Academy, Summerville Elementary, and Curtis Creek Elementary, took part in the Adventist Health Sonora 2026 Heart Fest inside the Me-wuk Tribes of Tuolumne...
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Winter in waiting
Winter rangers based at the Tuolumne Meadows Ski Hut in Yosemite National Park since Christmas Eve have compared the start of February with most of January — “dry and warm” for what’s supposed to be the wet, cold season. That could begin to change in...
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Paving prep
Caltrans workers were busy this week working next to eastbound Highway 108 between Rawhide Road and Fifth Avenue in Jamestown, with geotechnical engineers overseeing core sampling work in preparation for a future pavement rehabilitation project between...
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Can’t stop Cashman
While many young adults in America are either going back to school, making a career change or settling down and getting married, Tuolumne County native Keely Cashman is continuing to fulfill her childhood dreams of skiing on the world’s biggest...
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Timely lifeline
The Amador Tuolumne Community Action Agency Food Bank southwest of downtown Jamestown will receive $150,000 in temporary grant funding secured by the Tuolumne County Public Works Department through Calrecycle, supporting a state requirement to recover...
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Serving support
Afundraising dinner featuring celebrity waiters from the Sonora Area Foundation board of directors and retired San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Junior Bryant generated more than $300,000 last week to help replace aging gymnasium bleachers at...
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District in turmoil
Sonora Elementary School Superintendent Cheryl Griffiths was placed on administrative leave Sunday night, two days after the Tuolumne County District Attorney’s Office filed a misdemeanor charge accusing her of failing to report suspected child abuse...
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Back on track
A century-old, 60-ton steam locomotive that used to haul fresh-cut timber for West Side Lumber Co. in Tuolumne is returning to the Sierra Nevada and its new owners plan to put it back to work on a historic narrow-gauge railroad based south of Yosemite...
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Trail talk
District staff and recreation specialists with the Stanislaus National Forest plan to host an off-highway vehicle open house event next Thursday in Sonora to discuss new grant proposals to fund ground operations, law enforcement and restoration. The...
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Lost Jacksonville
Most ’49ers in Gold Rush Jacksonville came to mine the Tuolumne River’s golden gravel beds and establish trading posts, saloons and other establishments where the necessities of life could be obtained. William S. Smart, subject of the accompanying...
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A brief reprieve
The Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to extend the Jan. 31 deadline by 60 days for removal of recreational vehicles and trailers from the sanctioned Camp Justice site for homeless individuals, as well as to set up 15...
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First impression
Visitors and residents to Tuolumne are now greeted by a new “Welcome” sign that was erected last week. The result of a two-year effort spearheaded by the Tuolumne Memorial Museum, the striking sign was designed by local graphic artist Judy Stoltenberg...
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New beginning
A referral to Resiliency Village in Tuolumne County nearly one year ago became a turning point for Journey Hobson, a 29-year-old single mother of three, who’s now one of the program’s few residents to move from homelessness to homeownership. Earlier...
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Symbol scrutinized
They say word travels fast in a small town, and the ageold cliche was as true as ever when residents of Tuolumne County caught wind that Columbia College was potentially considering moving away from its current mascot, the Claim Jumpers. On the...
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Mini makers
ASonora resident who started her own graphic design and marketing business 10 years ago has launched a new venture in Tuolumne County to showcase young entrepreneurs and their wares, and she hopes to connect with young business owners and their parents...
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Polar Plunge is on!
Organizers with Special Olympics Northern California have secured permission to stage the 2026 Tuolumne County Polar Plunge fundraiser at the South Shore Tulloch Reservoir concession venue on Feb. 21, but the concession itself and public access to the...
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Sonora honors King
People celebrating the legacy of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. at Sonora High School on Saturday evoked President Donald J. Trump and his administration’s focus on immigration since his second term began a year ago. The roughly...
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Meet ROSA
Dr. Chris Krpan, an orthopedic surgeon at Adventist Health Sonora, estimates he has done thousands of knee replacement surgeries in 21 years in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties. In the past three years, he’s been using robotic surgical assistant...
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