by Library Docent Volunteer Andy Ludlum
At first glance, the picture is nothing special. It’s a group of 31 men, posed in front of the Ventura Mill & Lumber Company. They are all dressed in their best clothing, suits and hats, most wearing ties. What makes the picture historic is that it was taken on Easter Sunday, the morning of April 8, 1917, two days after the United States had declared war on Germany. The young Ventura men had all volunteered to serve their country as members of a state naval militia. Newspaperman, author, and curator of what would become the Museum of Ventura County, E. M. Sheridan wrote that the photograph finally told the “little sleepy mission town” that “there really was a war and their own land was into it.”
Read the story: Museum of Ventura County