Menifee residents visited the Historical Association Open House on Saturday. (Photo by Katja Zimmer)
By Ashley Beebe, Correspondent
Stories of Menifee’s earliest families, homes, schools, and businesses came to life Saturday, Nov. 15 at the Antelope Menifee Rural Center in a local history program.
The Menifee Valley Historical Association hosted the Pioneer Day Open House to promote the city’s heritage and commemorate Menifee History Museum’s 10th anniversary. Bill Zimmerman, president of the Association’s board and former Menifee mayor, expressed his excitement for the event.
“I think it’s a treasure,” he said. “We became a city in 2008 and since then, 100,000 people have moved here and they think it’s a brand-new place, but we actually have been here since the 1800s.”
He said many roads and schools in the city are named after early pioneers, including the Newport, Haun, Bouris, McCall, Evans, Murrieta, and Christensen families and many more.
“The founders were all the people you’re reading about here,” Zimmerman said. “Those were our originals, and they all raised their families here.”
The event included display boards with pictures, news articles, and other information about Menifee’s early settlers. There were also tables featuring local artifacts, fossils, and coins.
(Photo by Katja Zimmer)
Jacob Burnard, a Menifee resident and historian, built a display for a coin found in Menifee dated 1739, which predates the history of Menifee settlers. Greg Vittoria, a metal detectorist and coin enthusiast, found the Spanish American coin through metal detection near Garbani Road.
“Vittoria entrusted me with the old Spanish American coin to further study and to create a display for the coin to be presented,” Burnard said.
Additional coins from the 1700s and 1800s were on display for attendees to examine, hold and learn about.
(Photo by Katja Zimmer)
Bob O’Donnell, a retired Sun City postmaster, MUSD governing board member, and Menifee History Museum docent, had a table for post office memorabilia. He shared his experience working for the USPS, where he started as a carrier in 1971.
“My family was in the post office. My dad worked for the post office for 36 years, his father worked for the post office, and my brother worked for the post office,” he said.
Throughout his years as a postmaster, O’Donnell collected commemorative stamps featuring Elvis Presley, baseball players, and other mint stamp sets. He said he enjoys visiting local schools to share his career path and the area’s history with the next generation.
O’Donnell also helped the Menifee History Museum secure a classroom at Menifee Elementary School to showcase Menifee’s past. The Museum is open to the public every Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. for free.
Zimmerman said the association has collected pictures, stories, and articles from descendants, which make up the exhibits at the Menifee History Museum.
“We’re very fortunate that a lot of our board members over the last 15 years are actual descendants of pioneers that were here during the 1800s and early 1900s,” Zimmerman said. “They’ve been on the board, providing us with a lot of personal information. Some of our board members have lived here since the 1950s.”
The Menifee Valley Historical Association is a non-profit, all-volunteer organization that works to promote and preserve the area’s history. The Association collects monetary contributions and applies for grants through the County of Riverside to help with the upkeep of the Antelope Menifee Rural Center, which is used for community and club gatherings.
Display boards told the story of local families. (Photo by Katja Zimmer)
Many fossils and artifacts were on display. (Photo by Katja Zimmer)
Items on display are always available to see at the Menifee History Museum. (Photo by Katja Zimmer)
