As part of the 2021 Sacramento Archives Crawl, and in partnership with the Yolo County Archives, Floyd Shimomura presented on his research into the Japanese American community of Winters, California. He was joined by Emily Masuda who discussed her efforts to preserve this history as a teacher and creative writer. Their presentation explored findings from archives, museums, and online databases to reveal information about the Winters Japanese School, genealogy, wonderful treasures from family collections, and the redress movement. The presentation was facilitated and moderated by Yolo County Archives Coordinator Heather Lanctot. It was recorded on Friday, October 8th.

The panel was moderated by local legend, filmmaker, and historian Matías Bombal, and archivist participants included:

• Heather Lanctot, Archives & Records Center coordinator, Yolo County Library

• Sue Tyson, head of the California History Section, California State Library

• Sebastian Nelson, archivist, California State Archives

• Julie Thomas, instruction and electronic records archivist, Sacramento State University Library

• William Villano, archivist, Center for Sacramento History

• Kevin Miller, head of special collections and university archivist, UC Davis Shields Library

• James Scott, archivist, Special Collections of the Sacramento Public Library

Lon Springer is a Yolo County Native with roots in the Zamora area and more recently in Woodland. His family connections and personal experience have enhanced several research projects as his knowledge has helped form connections across time, space, and families that others could not have found. His deep interest in the local area’s history led him to volunteer with the Friends of Yolo County Archives for nearly two decades.

Over this time, he has served as a board member and then in different officer positions of the organization. Most recently he served as Vice President of the Friends of Yolo County Archives, a position he held for nearly a decade.

Today, 150 years after Woodland became a City, there are few vacant lots and homes are expensive. But the historic city of Woodland covered about 700 acres and had only 2000 people. Most of the land was held in parcels of 5 to 40 acres, with individual wells, large gardens, cows and horses, and barns on each parcel. As population increased, land owners subdivided their parcels into residential lots, which they sold to individuals, and deeded land to the city for streets. In order to do so, they created plat maps of their property and made “additions” to the City of Woodland, which were recorded and became legal documents

In the process, these additions became neighborhoods. The timing of the additions and subsequent building of houses helps to explain why Victorians may be found on one side of a street, and bungalows are found on the other side. This talk reviews the creation of additions to the original City of Woodland, from before Woodland became a self-governing city in 1871 through the 1920s. It does not showcase every addition—there isn’t time for that—but explains how Woodland was divided up and introduces how additions help explain neighborhoods and architecture.

Jim Lapsley's talk is available on the Yolo County Library's YouTube page: https://youtu.be/6nr1aPlVAfE.