The Star-News offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
For more than five decades, Bonitafest has brought Bonita residents together to celebrate the community, its history and its rural roots. Now, the Bonita Museum & Cultural Center is putting that history on display.
The exhibit, running through Sept.26, offers a look at 54 years of Bonitafest through photographs, posters, T-shirts, buttons, artifacts and promotional materials from the museum’s collection.
Sarah Lewis, archivist and collections manager for the Bonita Museum and Cultural Center, curated the exhibit.
“As an archivist for the Bonita Museum, my collection focus is material that has a connection to Bonita. This means that we have quite a sizable Bonitafest collection,” Lewis said.
Lewis said she wanted residents to see the collection while gaining a better understanding of what Bonitafest has meant to the community.
“Bonitafest is such a unique Bonita experience, I wanted to showcase how our little town has come together for decades to build community and celebrate what it means to live in Bonita,” she said. “And the material is really fun!”
Among the most unusual pieces in the exhibit are four Orange Crate Derby cars.
Lewis said Steve and Laura Cox contacted her several months ago because they were moving and had four Orange Crate Derby cars in their garage they could no longer keep. She accepted the donation and recorded an oral history interview with them about their experiences with the derby.
The Coxes then connected Lewis with Bob and Debbie Lechner, who provided additional photographs and information and recorded another oral history interview. Lewis also borrowed the starting ramp and light pole to include the four cars.
“I’m excited to have this fun Bonitafest tradition so well represented in the exhibit, and the cars are really incredible,” Lewis said.
The exhibit also looks at how Bonitafest has honored the history and pioneers of the Sweetwater Valley.
“The Bonitafest tradition reveals how citizens want to honor local history and pioneers of the Sweetwater Valley,” Lewis said. “This comes out in the Melodrama, honoring a local pioneer and historian annually, and in ‘Old Timers’ lunches and parade viewing sections they have had in the past.”
Lewis said one of her favorite discoveries while preparing the exhibit was learning more about the Bonitafest Melodrama.
It began in a tent on Bonita Road in 1978, when Max Branscomb wrote a melodrama based on conversations with local pioneers. The production, Thin Skins and Hayseeds, was produced 10 times over the years, along with other productions written by Branscomb with help from co-writers.
“This year the Melodrama continues with Bonita by Two,” Lewis said.
“I think it’s such an amazing tradition for community members of different abilities to come together to practice, rehearse, and produce a story written by a local author and about Bonita,” she said. “And to keep it going every year since 1979! What an amazing way to bring a community, young and old, together.”
With more than five decades of material available, Lewis said deciding what to include was difficult.
“There was so much to choose from! I couldn’t tell all the stories that I wanted to,” she said. “I didn’t have space to really honor the annual VIPS. There were so many posters and newspaper articles, I had to just choose a representative sample.”
For longtime residents, Lewis hopes the exhibit offers a reminder that Bonitafest remains a community tradition worth supporting.
“I hope they will see Bonitafest differently – as a tradition worth engaging in,” she said. “It has changed over the years, and not everyone remembers its beginnings.”
The exhibit runs through Sept. 26 at the Bonita Museum & Cultural Center.
