Swallows Day Parade was in San Juan Capistrano on Saturday, March 12th 2022 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Jane Barnes, Jared Mathis, and Scott Barnes led our group in a stagecoach with our banner below!
Moulton Museum to Participate in the 2022 Swallows Day Parade in San Juan Capistrano on March 12 to Celebrate History and Build Community
Jared Mathis, Museum President, Drives a Stagecoach Sixty Years After Great Grandmother, Nellie Gail Moulton, Last Participates in Parade
March 4, 2022 (San Juan Capistrano, CA) – Moulton Museum, an Orange County-based museum that works to keep the history of the region by archiving, restoring and preserving historical artifacts, will participate in the 62nd Annual Swallows Day Parade on March 12, 2022 in San Juan Capistrano. The Parade takes place throughout downtown San Juan Capistrano and culminates with a very popular “Mercado” or street fair. It is one of the nation’s largest non-motorized parades and is organized and presented by the San Juan Capistrano Fiesta Association, an all-volunteer organization that produces events year-round and that lead up to the Swallow’s Day Parade. According to the Association, “the Parade and Mercado is a full day of family fun, celebrating the Old West and the return of the swallows from their winter home in Argentina.”
Jared Mathis, President of Moulton Museum, CEO of Moulton Company and great-grandson of Nellie Gail Moulton, will be driving a stagecoach and leading the Moulton Museum team down the same Swallows Day Parade route that the matriarch of the Moulton family last rode in 60 years ago. Nellie Gail was the wife of Lewis F. Moulton, who arrived in Orange County in 1874 as a twenty-year old Bostonian. Within ten years, Moulton had leased and purchased 21,723 acres which became the Moulton Ranch and present-day Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Aliso Viejo, and parts of Dana Point and Laguna Beach.
Moulton Museum is proud to support the parade and its strong ties to the history of the area. Mathis said, “Like many local residents, the Moulton family participated in the early beginnings of the Swallows Day Parade. This year, we are thrilled to have an entry in the parade and the opportunity to reconnect with old friends. At Moulton Museum, opening this July in Laguna Hills, we love building community and celebrating the history of our region and, to us, that’s what Swallows Day Parade is all about. We are excited to roll down the parade route in our stagecoach on March 12!”. Both the Parade and the soon-to-be open Moulton Museum aim to keep the pioneering spirit and history alive through demonstrations, artifacts, historical reenactments, and artwork.
Prior to Saturday’s parade, the weekend’s festivities will include a frog jumping contest as well as Hoos’Gow Day, which is a San Juan Capistrano tradition, both of which are happening on Friday, March 11. Mathis will also provide an update on the grand opening of the Moulton Museum, which is slated to open in Laguna Hills on July 1, 2022.
About Moulton Museum
Moulton Museum, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, works to keep the history of Orange County and its ranching era alive. Starting in 1874, twenty-year old Bostonian, Lewis Moulton, learned to run a ranching operation by working at Rancho San Joaquin. Over the course of the next ten years Moulton leased and purchased 21,723 acres which became the Moulton Ranch. Today, the land comprises much of Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Laguna Hills, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, and Aliso Viejo. Moulton Museum is committed to heritage, community, and philanthropy. Its core values are reflected in its archives, exhibits, educational programs, and partnerships. For more information, or to support by becoming a donor and/or a volunteer docent, visit
www.moultonmuseum.org.
Moulton Museum reflects on the historic Swallows Day Parade held in San Juan Capistrano every March. Sixty years ago, Nellie Gail Moulton and Carrie Drews, her sister participated in the 1962 Swallows Day Parade in the historic, red fringed buggy. Enjoy our historic images from our collection.
Louise on horseback at Swallows Day parade in San Juan Capistrano, 1962.
Nellie Gail Moulton and Carrie Drews, her sister at the 1962 Swallows Day Parade.
