Category archive

History - page 5

Turlock’s history, historic places, institutions and the people who shaped the region.

The Collins Family: How Turlock Invented MedicAlert

A medical identification bracelet with engraved health information, photographed in 2017.
A medical identification bracelet, photographed in September 2017. Photo: RexxS / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0. Prepared for the social image.

One of Turlock’s most widely recognized inventions fits on a wrist. MedicAlert began with Marion and Chrissie Collins trying to protect their daughter Linda after a frightening allergic reaction. Its lasting contribution was larger than the metal bracelet: a way to connect a stranger treating an emergency with information that only a patient or family might otherwise know. MedicAlert marked its seventieth anniversary in 2026. It began in the Collins family’s Turlock living room, with… Keep Reading

The History of Turlock: People & Turning Points

Historic aerial photograph of downtown Turlock, with the railway, streets, buildings and surrounding fields in 1936.
Turlock in 1936, from a San Francisco Examiner advertising folio. San Francisco Examiner folio / Wikimedia Commons · Public domain. Cropped.

Before Turlock had a college campus or a county fair, it had a grain warehouse and a railroad stop. Irrigation changed the fields; immigration changed the town. Its story includes melon carnivals, a community-built library, an invention that helped save lives—and the forced confinement of Japanese Americans at the fairgrounds. Read the people and family profiles for individual biographies. Follow the town’s changes in Turlock Through the Decades, explore the mayors behind City Hall and… Keep Reading

1 … 3 4 5
Go to Top