SANGER — The Sanger Historical Society Depot Museum will open its doors for a morning of hometown shopping and history at the upcoming All Aboard Vendor Fair.
Happening on Oct 3. from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., the fair will feature vendors including Vicky’s Western Ware, Mixed Messages Art and Gifts — which expanded in Sanger earlier this year — Mia Bella The Label and The Grounds Coffee, among others.
Local organizations such as the Sanger Women’s Club and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) will also have tables at the event. Attendees will have the chance to win one of 125 possible prizes by spinning the $5 prize wheel. Prizes include gift baskets, gift cards to local restaurants and jewelry valued at $200.
Museum officials said they are hoping to encourage the community to engage with Sanger’s rich history.
The museum first opened in December 1977 after the building was bought and then gifted to the Sanger Historical Society by Jack Tanney and his brother. The building was formerly Sanger’s Railroad Depot, and served as the central hub of the town’s economic growth. Built in 1887 and widely considered to be the oldest building in Sanger, the depot helped transfer cargo ranging from grains, citrus and lumber through the mountains.
Since opening, the museum has expanded its displays to highlight other important pieces of Sanger’s history. Sanger Depot Museum docent and Historical Society member Susan Mora pointed to a display on the 1993 discovery of a Columbian mammoth tusk at the Fairmead Landfill in Madera County near Highway 99.
Mora said the Sanger community played a role in preserving some of the discoveries, with local connections helping bring fossils from the excavation to the Sanger Depot Museum. The Fairmead site is considered one of the largest Middle Pleistocene fossil excavation sites in North America, according to paleontologists who worked on the project.
“We’re trying to build interest in the museum, and since we’re a nonprofit, we’re also trying to raise money and maintain it,” Mora said. “There’s a lot of history here so we want to share that with the community.”
The fair is sponsored by Adco Manufacturing and Tony’s Pool Services.
