Granite Sculpture by Richard Deutsch

The abstract sculptures in front of the San Benito County Administration Building on the corner of Fourth and West Streets were created by award-winning Davenport sculptor Richard Deutsch.

Deutsch designed the pieces as a two-part sculpture out of five tons of granite from Graniterock's quarry in Aromas, according to Santa Cruz Sentinel (December 3, 1993 issue). Graniterock donated the material for the public art piece.

Relay for Life

Downtown Hollister is swimming in purple to support Relay for Life that's taking place this weekend at the San Benito High School football field. This local annual event is a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society.

Participants form teams and each member takes turns walking around the track for 24 hours from Friday evening (July 31). According to the Hollister Relay for Life web page, 27 teams and 198 participants have raised nearly $56,000 so far. For more information about this event, click here.

Today I'm participating in Our World Tuesday. If you'd like to join or check out posts by other participants, click here.

Fremont Memorial Tunnel

A long time ago, a tunnel was built beneath Fourth Street so that schoolchildren could safely cross the busy street to go to and from Fremont School, which used to be where the present-day courthouse stands.



Recently, a mural honoring the memory of Fremont School and the schoolchildren was painted on the Fourth Street underpass. It's an amazing mural, full of life and brilliant colors.

The designer, Arturo Rosette, the Fine Arts Chair at Gavilan College, based the mural on photos he found in the San Benito County Historical Society's archives. The silhouettes are of children who went to Fremont School, including the mural's painter, Roy Darr II.

For more about the mural, check out this story by John Chadwell at BenitoLink.com. And, to check out another Downtown Hollister mural designed by Arturo Rosette, click here.

Today is the Monday Mural meme, hosted by Oakland Daily Photo. Click here to check out other murals from around the world.

Walnuts of San Benito County

Walnuts have been produced in San Benito County for many, many years. Although there are fewer acreage of walnut orchards, walnuts ranked third in the fruit and nut crops category in 2014 in terms of their value. Last year, the walnut crop was worth over $5.5 million, according to the San Benito County 2014 Annual Crop Report.

See Da Tree?

Isn't this very, very tall and huge cedar tree on Fifth Street gorgeous? Just think of all the Hollister history it has lived through so far.