Every May Kings County celebrates Homecoming.  The Homecoming tradition derives from the annual memorial service for those who died at Mussel Slough--the individuals known at the time as "The Mussel Slough Martyrs." Originally the memorial was held every May 11th--on the date of the original occurrence of the shooting.  At first the memorial services were attended by nearly everyone in the Mussel Slough/Hanford area.  These early services usually featured a speaker and the laying of wreaths on the graves of the Six settlers killed as a result of the gun battle (Walter Crow and Mills Hartt were not included because they represented the railroad and were on the "wrong side of the tracks" so to speak).  The memorials became less and less attended as individuals with first person connections with the tragedy died of moved away.  While there are no records suggesting a complete cessation of commemorative events, there is little record of any such events after the first five or six. 

On May 6, 1927, Kings County held its first Pioneer Day to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the city of Hanford.  The next year a second Pioneer Day Celebration was held to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the formation of Kings County. Those first Pioneer Day Celebrations became the current Homecoming Celebration which is still held every May. 

According to Martha Bentley Homecoming ". . .  was started to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Kings County in May of 1893. The publicity mentions this fact often. On page 164 of the 1940 History of Kings County written by Robert R. Brown, Editor of the Hanford Morning Journal, you will find the following information:

         'Some fourteen years ago a group of interested Hanford citizens met at the civic auditorium to discuss a plan that had been advanced in an editorial written for the Hanford Daily Sentinel by the author, suggesting that a homecoming celebration be held to commemorate the birth of Kings county . . .[sic]'

This is the version of the story I have always heard and I think it must be correct as the author was the one who originally came up with the idea."

Martha also reports that The Hanford Journal for Friday, May 6, 1927 reads:

"While we are primarily observing Hanford's fiftieth anniversary, the month further marks the anniversaries of three outstanding events in the history of the county; the forty-seventh anniversary of  the Mussel Slough Tragedy of May 11, 1880; the birth of the county of Kings on May 23, 1893, and the voting of the first bonds of $600,000 for the first 100 miles of the splendid improved highway system of the county, May 6, 1915."

In 1948, 1949, 1950 Kings County joined the entire state of California in celebrating the California State Centennials: The discovery of Gold in 1948, the Gold Rush in 1949 and Statehood in 1950.  The major event in that three-year long celebration was the dedication of three official California State Historical Sites--the Mussel Slough Tragedy site among them.

In May 2005 Kings County will celebrate the 125th Anniversary of the Mussel Slough Tragedy. Held in conjunction with the annual Homecoming, the celebration is not yet finalized, and details cannot be revealed as of the date of this writing, but it promises to be a bit more exciting than usual.