If you read the early history of Fresno County, one name just keeps popping up: Frank Dusy. A true renaissance man, Dusy left his mark on the region, from the valley floor to the High Sierra. His story, today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots.
Dusy was born in Canada in the 1830s and came to California in search of gold in the 1850s. He moved to Fresno County in 1864 and eventually began farming near Fowler. He built one of the first canals in Fowler and invented a key part of the design of the Fresno Scraper.
Dusy made the first discovery of oil near Coalinga, in 1864 with the San Joaquin Petroleum Company. He also ran one of Fresno County’s first photographic portrait studios. In Fowler, Dusy became farmer, growing corn, fruit and alfalfa, and stockman, raising a flock of 13,000 sheep with many treks into the High Sierra.
Unlike other stockmen though, Dusy was also interested in the natural beauty of the High Sierra, specifically the Kings River watershed. He was the first non-Native American to set foot in the Tehipite Valley. See, Dusy was also a photographer, and took his massive studio camera into the backcountry to take pioneering landscape photos of the Sierra.
Dusy is also well known for giving Dinkey Creek its name, in memory of his beloved dog who saved his life during a bear attack. Beyond that, Dusy was also one of the initial investors in the Fresno Republican newspaper, and was a Fresno County deputy sheriff.
