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1948 Clary Pictorial Map of the Sierra Nevadas, near Fresno, California
FresnosBackyard-clary-1948$225.00
Title
91 Minutes to the World's Greatest Mountain Wonderland in Fresno's Backyard.
1948 (undated) 17 x 19 in (43.18 x 48.26 cm)
1948 (undated) 17 x 19 in (43.18 x 48.26 cm)
Description
This is a 1948 Aaron Clary pictorial tourist map of the Sierra Nevada Mountains near Fresno, California, issued for the Fresno County Chamber of Commerce. Pictorial vignettes highlight the sites and activities within '91 minutes' of Fresno Cartoon illustrations of fishermen, hikers, hunters, boaters, swimmers, and campers appear throughout. Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, Kings Canyon National Park, and Sequoia National Forest, and Sierra National Forest are all situated within the 'ninety minute' sphere. Famous destinations include Half Dome, Mirror Lake, Yosemite Valley, Merced Grove Big Trees in Stanislaus National Forest, the General Grant Grove, and General Sherman, the world's largest tree. Mt. Whitney, the highest point in the United States at the time, appears in the upper right corner.
Comic Vignettes
Many comic vignettes scattered throughout will bring a smile. Two enormous fish, one of which is riddled with arrows the other being carried by four burros, suggest that it's not only the trees that grow unusually large in this part of the world. A truck carrying a felled tree winds its way along a mountain road near Granite Ridge, with the lumber forming an 'S' along the way. Both Nellie and Florence Lakes, in Sierra National Forest, are personified by young women. Florence is a mermaid! In the foreground, activities in Fresno also take on an air of levity. A saxophone dances with a jukebox, a man screws in lightbulbs atop the theater, and another man dresses up as a bear. A ranger from the National Park Service sits in an easy chair atop Mt. Whitney with a telescope and a watering cam. keeping a sharp eye out for all too common forest fires.Publication History and Census
This map was drawn by Aaron Dana Clary in 1948 and published by the Fresno County Chamber of Commerce. We have seen at least two editions of this map. The other was distributed folded into pamphlet form while this one appears to have been distributed as a poster. Rare.Cartographer
Aaron Dana 'Red' Clary (April 11, 1917 - June 16, 2001) was an American artist and engineer. Born in Quincy, California, Clary spent his early childhood in the mountains of California and Oregon, where he father Merl E. Clary worked in the logging industry. His family moved to Los Angeles in the early 1920s where his father worked with family in the nascent movie industry. Clary graduated from high school in the mid-1930s and soon began taking art classes. Besides his considerable interest in and talent for art and drawing, Clary perhaps studied art because of his father's work in the movie industry. He worked in Kingsburg as a Recreation Leader in the summer of 1940, where he met his wife Orvilla, whom he married on October 25, 1941, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The couple moved to Los Angeles in 1942 where Clary found a job working for Lockheed. In 1945 the couple moved to Fresno and Clary took a job with the Pacific Gas and Electric Company and an electrical engineer and spent the next thirty four years working there. He retired in October 1981, and he and Orvilla moved to Willits, on the Pacific Coast. They lived there until Orvilla passed away on December 12, 1987. Following Orvilla's death, Clary moved back to Fresno to be closer to family and friends. Aaron and Orvilla had two sons, along with a third Orvilla had from a previous marriage. More by this mapmaker...
Condition
Good. Exhibits wear along original fold lines. Verso repair along transverse fold line. Three-quarter-inch (3/4) tear at center professionally repaired on verso. Bears old library collection stamp on verso.