Some local communities start out as one thing, and then end up as something entirely different. The story of one Valley community that started out as a bombing range, today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots.
Located east of the City of Madera and west of Highway 41, Bonadelle Ranchos is a rural residential development like many across our region. Think five acre lots, ranch homes, horse barns – you get the picture. Fresno builder John Bonadelle Sr. developed this unincorporated community starting in the mid 1960s. That’s when he bought 24,000 acres from the Smith family, who operated the nearby Adobe Ranch, the oldest farm in Madera County.
But the land had another life during World War II. In August 1941, the Smith Family signed a lease with Army Air Corps, which established a bombing range on the site. Pilots and crews training at Fresno’s Hammer Field used the land to practice skip and dive bombing as well as target and rocket practice.
The Army laid out a mock pier and a mock city, as well as a radar station. Targets were outlined in a white powder known as lime. At least 15,000 practice bomb shells were dropped on the property. Some were sand-filled practice bombs, and didn’t contain explosives, only pyrotechnic charges. The government reportedly removed any surface remains after their lease ended. But over the years, a number of Bonadelle Ranchos residents have reported finding mortars, projectiles and bullet debris buried on their land.
