The Central Valley has its fair share of odd roadside attractions. Take the shoe repair shop in Bakersfield that looks like a shoe. Or the World War II-era fighter plane that sits nose down on top of a gas station canopy in Caruthers. But few can top – (literally) the obelisk that greets travelers on Highway 140 east of Merced. Today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots, the story of this unusual monument.
About four miles west of Merced sits a granite obelisk, perched on a pedestal. It sits night to the railroad tracks along Highway 140 at Arboleda Road, on the way to Yosemite. At 68 feet tall, it’s a monument to wheat grower George Hicks Fancher. He reportedly was the richest man in Merced County when he passed away in 1900.
He left $25,000 in his estate to build a monument to his legacy. And that’s where the controversy started. According to the Stockton Evening Mail, the estate's executors wanted to use the money to build a free library in Merced as a memorial to George. But Fancher’s brother, Jonathan Fancher Jr. disagreed, saying that wasn’t consistent with George Fancher’s wishes. The case went all the way to the California Supreme Court, which ultimately sided with Jonathan Fancher Jr.
The monument was built in 1911, and George Fancher’s remains were exhumed and buried beneath the giant stone structure, which still towers above the landscape, more than a century later.
