Ralph L. Milliken

Born in 1880, Ralph Leroy Milliken studied at Stanford and came to the Westside in 1910. He started out as an accountant under Miller & Lux. He quickly discovered, that accounting wasn't his real passion. His true passion was documenting the history around him, the pioneers, the first settlers in the area, the native americans, the farms, the railroad, everything that made the 1910s Westside what it was. 

He changed careers to become a local courier, using the chance to talk to everyone in the area and learn their past. By the 1920s he began taking handwritten notes from these talks and then typing them up at home. By the time he died, he left behind over 2,500 type written pages on local history.

He married and settled down with local teacher Lucy Beth Wilson. He himself became a small rancher. All the while he continued to expand his collection, interviews, artifacts, paintings, posters, and more. Milliken helped found the museum as 'The Los Banos Museum' in 1954 thanks to a partnership with the city and county. In 1968 he oversaw it's expansion and in 1970 he passed. In his legacy, the Museum was named after him. 

In the words of Executive Director Dan Nelson, "It is a rare luxury for a community to have such quality documentation and preservation of its history, and we owe that legacy to Ralph Milliken.  Such a legacy enables us to tell the fascinating story of Los Banos and the Greater Westside.  Thank you, Mr. Milliken." His collection is the bedrock of the museum's archives. 

If you want to learn more about Milliken, his legacy, search through his writings, or more, come by the museum today!