Locke Prior Residents, Descendants and Ascendants (LockePRDA) announced in August that it has completed the purchase of the historic Star Theater in Locke.

The purchase clears the way to preserve one of the Delta's important surviving landmarks of Chinese American community life.

The theater was built in 1918 as a venue for Cantonese Chinese Opera and other travelling live entertainers. The Main Street level of the building was operated continuously as a gambling house until the 1950s, when gambling became illegal.

The upper level of the theater was later used to showcase black and white movies. As demand increased for housing in the neighborhood, the structure morphed into a boarding house, and eventually into a brothel.

LockePRDA is now assessing how best to stabilize and rehabilitate the long-vacant theater, with the goal of returning it to community use. The group’s vision is to transform the building into a multipurpose center focused on arts, culture, history and education.

Capitol State Historic Park Featured

Benicia Capitol State Historic Park has been featured in a World Atlas piece titled “12 Most Hospitable Towns in California.”

In 1852, notes the article, the town had completed a new city hall “when the state legislature, unhoused and unhappy, needed somewhere to sit.” Lawmakers were invited to meet in the building from 1853 to 1854, making Benicia the third official state capital of California.

The interior pillars of the building - carved from the masts of ships abandoned in the bay during the gold rush – are highlighted in the piece, which mentions that “the town furnished its guests out of whatever the harbor had left behind.”

City's Downtown Praised

The San Francisco Chronicle recently published an upbeat article on Benicia by the paper’s culture critic Peter Hartlaub. “Once dubbed the ‘Athens of the West,’ he writes, “this Bay Area city blends history with small-town charm.”

Hartlaub maintains that downtown Benicia “has long punched above its weight, for both history and small-town charm,” featuring art galleries, appealing lunch spots and dive bars.

The downtown’s “main drag” terminates on the Carquinez Strait at a pier and lawn, he adds, “perfect for fishing, kite-flying or pulling three or four grandchildren in a wagon.”

Fun fact: There is a colony of Northwestern Pond Turtles in the wetlands near Clifton Court Forebay! The species is native to California and is under consideration for listing as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

Herpetologist Veronica Wunderlich and her team are surveying the turtles to better learn how they are doing in the wild.

They have fashioned what they call a “turtle concierge” monitoring station at the site, consisting of a “shaded patch of ground with padding and throw pillows designed to provide comfort to the scientists and turtles alike.” This cozy setup helps the team examine and record the turtles before they are returned to the water. 

So far, the results of the survey are encouraging. “The turtles here seem to be doing really well,” says environmental scientist Bayan Ahmed. “We're finding juveniles every year, which tells us they're reproducing successfully, and we're capturing more turtles during each survey, suggesting the population is growing. It's exciting to track their progress.”

To learn more about what the team is discovering, check out this blog from the California Department of Water Resources.

If you like to nerd out about all things nature, we have a resource for you! Check out Yolo Basin Foundation’s Nature Notes, a monthly series on wildlife, biodiversity, and biology, featuring plants, animals, and fungi that can be found in our local wetlands.

Written by Mike Davis, Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Plant Pathology, UC Davis, Nature Notes offers an in-depth look at a variety of organisms from a scientific perspective.

Some of our favorite articles include “The Yin and Yang of Bats” (did you know there is a colony of about 250,000 Mexican free-tailed bats under the Yolo causeway?), “Do Birds Sleep While Flying?” (some rest with one eye open!) and “Beavers” (surprising: their orange teeth grow continuously).

Maria Denney, the Poet Laureate of Brentwood, is offering a class in September called “Writing Your Life Through Poetry” at Los Medanos College’s Brentwood Center.

Denney says the class is a “friendly, relaxed place to discover that poetry doesn’t have to be complicated.”

Students will learn about poetic devices, which are techniques that poets use to shape language.  These involve “deliberate choices about sound, structure, rhythm, and imagery,” says Denney, “that shape how a poem sounds and conveys meaning.”

The three-part series is offered on September 16, 23 and 30, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. 1351 Pioneer Square, Brentwood.

The Jean Harvie Community Center, built in 1926 as the Walnut Grove School, celebrates its 100th anniversary on Sept. 24.

The event, held 1-4 p.m. at 14273 River Road in Walnut Grove, includes historical displays and photographs, community stories and memories, light refreshments, and a chance to reconnect with friends, neighbors, former students, and generations of community members.

Participants are invited to bring old photographs, memorabilia, and stories about the center.

People interested in helping with the event should contact Amber Veselka at (916) 870-4317 or veselkaa@saccounty.gov.

Who doesn’t love a sweet, juicy, Delta-grown pear?

The first pear trees arrived in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta with early settlers and prospectors during the California Gold Rush in 1849.

The fruit has been grown in the region ever since. Many Delta farm families who grow pears today can trace their roots back to those 1850s pioneers.

The Locke Foundation shared a Facebook post entitled “Bartlett Pears, the Sacramento Delta and China” that discusses the lesser-known Chinese immigrant contribution to pear farming in its early days.

“While waves of Chinese from the Toishan District came to California for gold, it was the Chinese from Heungshan District who entered agriculture,” notes the post. These enterprising immigrants, “who had thousands of years of experience in growing fruits,” primarily focused on Bartlett pears in the Delta.

Islands online travel magazine is letting its readers know just how special Oakley is!

In its article entitled “Between Sacramento and San Francisco Is California's Affordable City with River Views and Great Weather,” the publication extols Oakley's “reasonably priced hotel and local restaurants that won't break the bank,” free community events, and its easy access to the San Joaquin River.

Big Break Regional Shoreline is called out as Oakley’s top-rated attraction, and the city’s “long, hot, clear summers and short winters” are highlighted as making the community a great destination for those who enjoy spending time outdoors.

The Clarksburg Schoolhouse is featuring a new exhibit.

"Roots and Resilience: The Japanese Farm Families of Clarksburg” shares the journeys of families who left post-feudal Japan to build new lives along the Sacramento River.

Their stories are told through photos and memorabilia resourced from local family collections and archives.

The Schoolhouse is open every Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m.–3 p.m. The exhibit will run through December 2026.

On September 12 and 13, visitors to the Western Railway Museum will have an opportunity to engage with a new interactive display.

The BART Legacy exhibit showcases three legacy BART cars, and invites visitors to learn about the technology, design and history of the BART system.

When BART opened in 1972, its original fleet represented some of the most advanced rapid-transit technology in the world. The museum’s preserved three-car BART train details 50 years of this transportation history.

Exhibit hours are 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. both days.

Purchase tickets at https://westernrailwaymuseum.simpletix.com.