Vivian Krug with the South County Historical Society sent this information. If you like old local photos this looks like a great exhibit.

Carpenter on tower in Oceano.

Photos by Virgil Hodges, Courtesy of the Bennett-Loomis Archives

You may never have heard about Virgil Hodges, but you’ve probably seen his photographs. You may have old postcards with his photos of women wearing bathing suits in 1905 Oceano Beach. His images are in history books, seven warships running aground at Point Honda in 1923, the Santa Rosa breaking apart near the Point Arguello lighthouse in 1911, or Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet visiting Avila in 1908. Magazines and newspapers featured many of his photographs throughout the years – images of people, of floods and fires, and of everyday life on the Central Coast.

Photo archivist Gordon Bennett will present a talk on Hodges at the South County Historical Society IOOF’s Hall in Arroyo Grande Saturday Nov. 22, 2008 at 2 PM. Bennett remembers the stories behind the photographs from his close friendship with the photographer which lasted until Hodge’s death in the early 1990s.

Born near on a farm near Arroyo Grande in 1879, Virgil Ulysses Hodges was the son of a Union Civil War veteran who named his son after Ulysses S. Grant. His sister Rose provided the necessary spark for Virgil’s life-long interest in photography. Rose had large box camera that she passed on to Virgil when she married. Virgil developed his skills quickly not only in taking pictures but in also developing and printing photographs.

Virgil Hodges moved to Lompoc after graduating from Arroyo Grande High School. He married Fae Elnora Winn and worked for the Lompoc Streets Department for thirty years, retiring in 1944. After his wife’s death in 1958, he moved to a cottage on Whiteley Street in Arroyo Grande.

“Get a good camera, learn how to use it and be there when things happen,” Hodges said. He followed that rule and visitors can see more than twenty of his enlarged photographs at the IOOF Hall, 128 Bridge Street in Arroyo Grande through December 14, 2008.
Other photographs on display include two Oceano Dunes Photo exhibits, one by Santa Barbara Photographer Robert Werling and the other by Pismo physician Billy Mounts. Museum hours are Fridays and Saturdays 1 – 5 PM, or by appointment in groups of four or more. For more information, please call 489-8282.

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Pismo Beach hosts the Clam Festival is this weekend, and Atascadero has Colony Days.

Clamming used to be a major event over 40 years ago, but at some point the clammers and resurgent otters began to outnumber the clams. The Chumash and the dunites could live off the clams on the beach but that era was coming to a close.

Extra low tides in January and June brought out clam hunters out in droves. This is from a front-page story from June 11, 1964:

OCEANO – C’mon in! The water’s cold and the clamming is great!
That seems to be the word today along the South County coast where more than 10,000 men, women and children braved the water along the 10 miles from Pismo Pier to the Oso Flaco area below Oceano.
Raymond W. Westberg, Pismo Beach State Park superintendent, said that a car count of persons was made at the three entrances to the beach at Pismo Beach, Grand Avenue and the Oceano ramp.
Bill Lovern, bait shop operator at the Oceano ramp, said there were 2,000 to 2,5000 clammers in his area at sun-up.
“They really slaughtered the clams,” he said.

A year-and-a-half later the Focus section ran a story under the headline “How long can clam population last?” on January 8, 1966.

Extra state fish and game wardens were brought in from other parts of the state to handle the huge crowds combing the area’s beaches for clams. Last January, when more than 150,000 persons swarmed to the county’s beaches, only five wardens were available for duty.

So many clammers invaded county beaches last January that the area supply of fishing licenses was depleted and wardens were unable to enforce licensing laws.
But this isn’t the case this week, and the public is reminded that all licenses expired last week.
Pacific Telephone Co. has added extra operators to handle the many calls from this county. Last year the local office was swamped with calls and had difficulty handling them all. Extra pay telephones have been set up near the beaches to ease some of the load.
The effect on the clam population itself is devastating. Fish and Game officials last year said that more than a million clams were taken from the county’s beaches and that clamming would “probably never fully recover” from the onslaught.

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