Long before there were such things as state historical parks and the like, in the 1880s Native Sons kicked off fund-raising campaigns to save the disintegrating buildings that were icons of early California history;
- Sutter’s Fort (the refuge for early pioneers).
- The Franciscan Missions (anchors of Spanish settlement in the 1700s).
- The Monterey Custom House (the oldest government building in California)
We Native Sons also began placing historical markers and partnered with the state to encourage it to do the same (most notably starting with the monument at the gold discovery site at Coloma). Today, Native Sons are still very active:
- Monthly Group (we call a parlor) Meetings.
- Our Charitable Foudation -provides funds to hospitals caring for children born with cleft palate
- Participating in local parades
- Historical preservation
- Dedications – including buildings or sites of historical importance
- Sponsor history essay contents for school children,
- Scholarship awards to high school students, co-sponsor conferences and lectures and work with other historical organizations.
We also get involved in many other non-history related civic activities and charities. And we have our social side too. In this day and age, when it gets tiresome staring into the screen of a TV or computer monitor, we offer an alternative: The chance to look into real human faces at a multitude of dinners, family picnics, barbecues and other just-plain-fun events.