|
Before all is said and done, one fact about CAVE SPRINGS stands out
above all others. It was built on the backs of the women associated
with it. This should come as no surprise since the lodging industry
from the biggest hotel chain down to the smallest bed and breakfast
house traditionally, and to this day, exclusively relies on women to
provide its most important products - a bed with clean, crisp sheets
and a sanitized bath- room! In thirty-seven years of close
association with motels and hotels, I have never seen a male maid.
This could change as the culture changes, but until then, the
female's traditional role of homemaker continues to provide the
training and mental conditioning which make a top-quality maid. When
a good homemaker decides to go into a family-run motel business, she
may not realize it, but she has just chosen a career as a
professional maid. Cave Springs was no exception to this rule. This
is not such a bad situation for a child of the depression and a war
bride to boot - like my mom.
Being
a professional maid with executive privileges right after World War
II was a dubious honor. Most of the time was spent cleaning toilets
and making beds and the fringe benefits were the abilities to
watch four kids all day at the same time and be a desk clerk half
the night. In fact, over 98% of the work was menial labor. When it
came to the two percent of executive decision, Mom would consult
with Dad, and they would make the decision together. Today, this
sounds a little less than idyllic. However, at the time, it was a
great way to make a living at what most other middle- class women
were doing for free. Further- more, when my mom and dad, Bob
and Lois Dewey, got into the motel business with their partners,
Johnny and Joalice Richards, they were going to make a small fortune
in a few years and then sellout. The average length of ownership of
a motel is right around five years. That was four decades ago, and
the second generation is now running the same motel. The
only difference is that this generation of women is college educated
and very much aware of the traditional division of labor.
That means, as you have probably guessed, that this man cleans
toilets and makes beds! But now I am way ahead of myself. Back when
the history of this motel began, division of labor was a term used
only by Henry Ford and the Marxists of the ghettos and coffee houses
in central and Eastern Europe. Automobiles were still a novelty and
the steam engine was pressing into every frontier.
Cave
Springs started out as Brown's Auto Camp, which was built by Clint
and Ida May Brown. They were both early immigrants to Dunsmuir. In
fact, Clint came to Dunsmuir when it was called Pusher and there was
only one house in the town. His parents, Manley and Lucetta Brown,
were frontier entrepreneurs who were born and raised in New York.
Manley was 26 and Lucetta was 23 when they married, and shortly
thereafter left to seek their fortunes across the Great Plains
in California. This was around 1866, and Manley embarked for the
Sandwich Islands for a time. It is not known if Lucetta went with
him, but in the years after he returned, they settled in French
Gulch and became miners, moved to Lewiston and operated a butcher
business, and traveled up the Pit River to where it crossed the
Oregon Trail to run the ferry there. Clint was born at that ferry
crossing in 1875.
The
family grew to five and left the Pit River to follow the railhead up
from Redding to Pusher. They operated a store and saloon at the
railhead, moving three times before arriving in town in 1885.
One can only imagine how strong and resilient Lucetta must have been
- raising three kids in conditions which can only be compared to
camping today. Constantly migrating from home to home and
living with a man whose reputation preceded him. In fact, before
Manley arrived in Pusher, he seemed to be prone to carousing; and
some said this was why he had not made his fortune already.
Apparently, Clint and his brother had to fetch their dad from
the bawdy houses of Redding more than once. Somewhere between Pit
River and Pusher, Manley lost that reputation. It may have been a
natural change in his life cycle or the fact that his family needed
a place to grow up. It is highly likely that Lucetta told him that
this was it, "No more moving!"
They
settled for good in Pusher and soon after the town changed its name
to Dunsmuir. Manley had a reputation in town of caring more for his
family than anything else. He was upright and honorable
and maintained a quiet disposition. His three children graduated
from Dunsmuir Gram- mar School. They better have, because he built
the school A:>r the town at his own expense. He and a partner, Frank
Marincovich, also built the town's first hotel, The Dunsmuir. Before
he died in 190 I, he acquired or built several other houses
and buildings. That he loved his family a great deal cannot be in
doubt. In the dedication page to the Brown family is a picture of
him with his family. His daughter, Ella, has her baby girl on her
lap and her son stands behind her. Both children are
illegitimate and living in grandpa and grandma's house. After Clint
graduated from grammar school, he worked for the McCloud
River Lumber Company. His standard policy was to quit work for deer
season and head into the woods. He loved to fish, and especially if
he could talk a pretty little girl named Ida May Beaton into going
with him. Even after they were married, hunting and fishing remained
his passions and often provided a supplement to their income. He
became locally well-known for his abilities, and many stories were
told of him and by him. He loved to bet that he could catch
his limit of fifty fish in an hour or two. Now days, that seems like
a ridiculous feat. But at the turn of the century, it was
not impossible. First-hand reports claim that the fish were, in
general, much smaller then, but much more plentiful. One of
Clint's "secret" techniques was to open one of the little cans of
salmon eggs (salmon eggs were packed in small tin cans then instead
of the glass jars used today). He would then scatter the eggs across
a riffle in the river and sit on a rock and smoke his pipe.
The length of time it took to smoke one pipe full of tobacco was
just exactly how long it took the fish to work up to what Clint
referred to as a "frenzy." He could then hook two or three fish with
every cast. There can be little doubt about the effectiveness of
that "secret" technique. It is called chumming and is very illegal
now!
One
time, when Clint was working at the store in Shasta Retreat, a
fisherman came up to him, disgusted because the fish just weren't
biting. Fishing was lousy. Clint tried to tell the gentleman that
the fishing had never been better. When the man refused to be
convinced, Clint offered to prove it -- for a small wager. He came
back an hour later with his limit and the disgruntled fisherman paid
off the bet and packed up his bags and left. Marrying Ida May seems
to be the turning point in Clint's life. He certainly did not give
up his sportsman's life, but he did curtail it by following his
father's footsteps into business; or maybe they followed Ida May's
father's footsteps. Her father and mother, John and Lina Beaton, had
also operated a hotel. I n fact, her parents had many of the same
experiences that Clint's parents did. John Beaton was born and
raised in Quebec, Canada. He just barely escaped from that country
when he was forced to leave for what he claimed were
"political reasons." He traveled down the east coast by boat,
crossed the Isthmus of Panama by pack animal, sailed up the west
coast, and stopped in California at a little town in Placer County,
called Iowa Hill. If you think he became another gold miner, you are
absolutely correct! He formed a partnership in a mine with his uncle
and at age 23 courted and married Lina Frischgeselle. She was 16.
Lina
was as strong a woman as Lucetta was. Being a miner's wife was no
easy matter. Like Manley, John had a drinking problem. It is safe to
say that a move toward domestication was just as much a reason as
any other for John to sellout his interest in the mine and purchase
the Iowa Hill Hotel. There, they raised six kids until a fire burned
them out in the late 1890's. John and Lina packed up the kids
and moved to Sacramento, where John got a job with the Southern
Pacific.
The
S. P. relocated them in Dunsmuir at the turn of the century. Ida May
worked in the public library and, in addition to being a real
cutie, was the new girl in town. Clint never had a chance. It took
them two years to make it official, and they were married in
1903. Clint secured a loan from the Bank of Dunsmuir and lit off for
San Francisco to business college. After two years, he returned to
Dunsmuir and bought land from the Shasta Retreat Company. They built
a store and several summer cottages for the fishermen, and they won
the post office contract. This was pre-highway America and most of
the travel was done by train. It could be a three- or four-day
drive to Redding by wagon or horseless carriage. In the winter, the
trip was just not possible. Only essential traffic moved by rail,
and that was susceptible to killer snowstorms. All of the summer
resorts along the tracks just boarded up the windows and closed down
till the spring thaw, usually some time in April. So Clint and Ida
May spent their winters in Sacramento, where Clint worked in a
grocery store. When the Shasta Retreat Company failed, Clint took
over the balance of the property as receiver. They had two children,
Ken and Aileen, and bought their first car, a Cross-Country Rambler.
Clint did not learn how to drive it till the end of summer when they
headed out for the winter. In the meantime, he let Charlie (Pete)
Masson drive it all summer. Charlie ran the Upper Soda Springs
Resort and used the car to take guests on tours of the area. At that
time, the road was the old California-Oregon trail and express
route. It ran right by Upper Soda Springs, which was in the flat
land under the existing highway bridge, went uphill along what
is now Old Stage Road, continued north over the hill and alongside
what is now the tennis courts, and entered Cave Springs. It
passed through Cave Springs down the existing road and out the
present entrance. It is still possible to see some of the old road;
but most of it has disappeared.
The
Browns had a reputation for knock-down, drag-out arguments, but in
1914 they had a real doosier. It went on for days and weeks. Clint
wanted to buy Castle Crags Resort. It had been the Crocker
family mansion and was now being operated unsuccessfully as a
resort. Clint thought he could make it a profitable business.
Ida May didn't agree, but she didn't exactly win the argument
either. Late that year, they leased the store and cabins to a
newly revived Shasta Retreat Company and lived on the proceeds for a
year. In 1916, they took over the management of Castle Crags Resort.
Ida May had at least convinced Clint not to buy the place outright.
This proved to be a small stroke of genius or some very good luck.
At
that time, almost all resorts or hotels were along the railroad
tracks or in towns. The rest were destination places like
dude ranches. There were many little resorts in the Sacramento River
canyon, and the train would stop at all of them. It would also
stop at scenic spots like Mossbrae Falls, and there were water stops
and fuel stops and stops in every little town for mail pick-up.
It was common for fishermen to ride the train from Shasta Retreat up
the river to Cantara Loop. It cost them a dime and they could fish
all the way home. Everyone rode the train. And then came the
AUTOMOBILE.
Clint
was convinced that people were going to start traveling more by car
and that they would need a place to stay where they could drive to
easily and have plenty of room to park. Automobile travelers
were camping for lack of a place to stay, and campgrounds that
catered to them were springing up all around the county. Tent sites
or tent platforms and single-walled cabins offered water, wood, and
cots or beds. You had to bring your own linen and leave a deposit,
which was returned if you left your place clean. Charlie Masson's
place at Upper Soda Springs reflected these changes as it
was bypassed when the highway bridge was completed in 1916. In need
of some money, he offered to sell Clint the half of a quarter of a
quarter of a section of land where the old express route leveled out
above the swampy meadow and joined the highway. It was actually
Elda Masson's property. Clint was in need of a change because
his duties at Castle Crags had become too difficult for him to
handle. While on the way out of the doctor's office, he slipped and
fell down some stairs, breaking his arm near the shoulder. It was
very painful and complications from the injury bothered him for the
rest of his life. Another big fight dominated the Browns' domestic
scene for awhile, and Ida May lost again. They bought the property
for around $2500 in 1922. It was already being used as an occasional
campground by travelers. The only building on it was an old
Indian shack that was located near what is now cabin #8.
The Indians
called the place Cave Springs because there was a soda water springs
near the large mouth of a very short cave by the river. Clint's
sister and her husband operated the property as a camp- ground with
showers and toilets until the Browns could move there three years
later. In 1925, the first six cabins and some tent platforms were
built along the river. A store and a home were built next to the
highway where the pool is now.
The next year, the tent platforms
were converted to double cabins and some small cabins without
bath- rooms were added at the top of the hill along the old road.
The community bath- room, showers, and laundry were right next to
the vista point and across the road was an old donkey boiler that
had to be stoked with wood every morning to have any hot water. The
construction was pretty simple. The water main passed right in front
of their property. Wood was readily available for heating and
cooking, although they did put an oil-burning heater in the house.
There were even some wood stoves in the camping area. All but the
row of cabins that were built along the side of the highway
where the Chevron service station is now, were of California
Box-type construction. They have no studs and, therefore, no room
for insulation. The outside boards are nailed to the floor plate and
ceiling plate, and the ceiling joists keep the walls from
falling outward. The walls were only one board thick with occasional
glimpses of light through the cracks until the late thirties, when
the inside plywood paneling was added. The foundations were even
simpler - several large rocks and an
occasional, conveniently-located tree stump. The roofs were cedar
shake shingles. They have all been well-maintained and most of
the original structures, including some of the original roofs are
still in use today.
Natural soda water was much more popular than it
is today. People drank it because they thought it cured a
myriad number of ills. They drank it because it was unique or
because they liked it or because they didn't like it. Clint felt
that the steep path to the spring at the river was too far for
people to have to go for a drink of water. He installed a pump at
the river in 1926 to pump soda water at about a gallon a minute up
the cliff to the front of his place. He tried several pumps before
finding one that would do the job and be reliable. Since then, every
kind of pump imaginable has been tried to replace that antique
Montgomery Ward reciprocating pump. None of them have been up to
the task and the original pump many times restored is still doing
the job every summer.
In 1929, the Browns granted some land to the
state to expand the highway in front of their place. They now had
thirty units and a campground. It was called Brown's Auto Camp,
later changed to Brown's Auto Park, and still later changed to
Brown's Modern Motor Lodge. Clint's hunting and fishing were
curtailed because of his injured arm, but he still managed to bring
home some trout. Ida May established a reputation around town as
being always friendly. Brown's Auto Park struggled through
the depression by becoming a campground again. Travelers could get a
hot shower and wood for their fires for $.50 a night. This was much
less than the prevailing price of $1.00 for a single cabin or $1.50
for a double cabin. In the thirties, natural gas came to Dunsmuir
and the existing gas heaters and gas stoves were installed.
In 1936,
Clint, the robust outdoorsman,
his body racked with a constant pain from his arm and shoulder,
rigged a shotgun in the fork of the tree where I built my first tree
house, and blew his brains out. Ida May's sister, Maude Lina, came
up from Sacramento to help run the lodge. They let a hired couple
manage the place for awhile after Clint's death, but had to
fire them because of loafing. They then ran the place by themselves,
hiring only maids and night clerks. They would do all of the
book- keeping and purchasing and daytime office work. Ida May's
cheerful disposition was put to good use here. Weary travelers
are often not in the best mood when they arrive at a motel. It is as
important to be pleasant and accommodating as it is to provide
them with a comfortable room.
Most of the business
in the 1930s was
overnight stays, but there were a growing number of regulars who
stayed a week or more. Those are the people who became Ida May's
and Maude's friends and who looked forward to their annual visit
with the sisters as much as they anticipated their stay in the cool
of the mountains. The cool of the mountains was the main reason for
vacations and trips into this country. Fishing, scenery, soda
water, good friends, mountain walks, etc., were each important to
the magic of the area, but in an era without air conditioning,
escaping the constant heat of the Sacramento Valley was the biggest
attraction Dunsmuir had.
In 1942, 1943, and 1944, everyone decided
to stay in the heat and fight the war. Gas rationing and the war
effort caused the resort to stay closed. The sisters never returned
to open the resort again. Ida May died of a stroke in 1944. The Ida
Brown estate sold the place to August and Irma Turner. They
were farmers from Tulelake who needed a tax write-off, but neither
of them were in good health. In one summer they tried to run
the business; the most notable accomplishment was the installation
of an oil-burning water heater which is still lying around
here somewhere along with what is left 01 the original donkey
boiler. Gas rationing was still in effect and the effort of running
the motel proved too much for them. They sold out the next year.
Two
young couples, fresh from fighting the war in Europe and on the
home-front, saw an advertisement for the sale of Brown's Modern
Motor Lodge. They left from their homes in Walnut Creek that night
and got as far as Redding before they just had to rest. It was the
end of the month, and like most young people, they were low on cash
till the first, so they spent the night in the car and finished the
trip the next morning. They spent two days in cabins #10 and # II,
returned home to sell their houses, formed a partnership, and bought
Brown's Modern Motor Lodge for $42,000. That was in April, 1946. The
couples were my mom and dad, and "Aunt" Joalice and "Uncle"
Johnny.
They had several years of small business background between
them. Dad's mother had operated several restaurants, and he had
owned a service station before the war when he was only 20. Mom's
father ran a bakery in San Francisco, homesteaded in Oregon, and
returned to the Bay area to open his last bakery in Walnut Creek.
On one of his early trips to Oregon, he had even stayed in Brown's
Auto Park. Joalice's father was a Columbia River fisherman, who
drowned when she was seven. Her mother became a minister in the
Unity Church and they moved to Walnut Creek, where Joalice and Mom
became close friends in high school. Johnny's father was a naval
officer and Johnny held several jobs after high school before he
started work for the Bell phone company. Like most people who have
never operated a motel before, they did not realize how much work it
would be.
They actually arrived here in June and set right to
work. There were repairs to make, and there were cabins for the
girls to clean. But when that was done, there was lots of time to
fish and swim and explore the country. It did not take long to
figure out that all of the work wasn't getting done. Every year
there was less fishing and more working. There was also less money
than anticipated and more people to feed, as first Joalice and then
Lois got pregnant. The two families decided to take turns between
running the motel and working an outside job. Whoever ran the motel
lived in the house and the other family lived in a cabin or in a
rented house, wherever the work was. I remember one wonderful winter
when my brother and I went to the beach every day because Dad was
using the G.I. Bill to go to carpenter's school in Newport
Beach. The baby boom was on and both families were trying to have
kids together. They came pretty close.
The girls both got pregnant
again within two years of their first ones, and now there were four
little ones running around. Old-time customers still talk of how
these young girls worked so hard cleaning cabins and pushing
the wooden, bicycle-wheeled maid's cart around while they took care
of their cute children. One of them was me, of course. Mom was only
24 years old then, and yes, the cart is still in use. Dad and Johnny
were no longer gone fishing. In 1950, they began changing the shape
of Brown's Modern Motor Lodge to what it is today. They tore down
the old showers and built the existing "modern" shower and laundry
building. That was the same year that Lisa and Clark Green came to
town to run the little restaurant across the driveway from our
office. No one can tell me when the place was built, and
few remember that the sign in front actually said, "Koffie Kup."
Everyone knew it as Ma Green's. Ma Green was a legend in her own
time. When people thought of Ma Green's, they may not have
remembered Cave Springs, but it was impossible to think of
Cave Springs without thinking of Ma Green's. It had six counter
stools, two four-person booths, the soda water fountain in
front, and two outside benches. They were very important because
every summer night they were full of people waiting to get
in. Hungry patrons would watch the bench till it emptied slightly
and then they would fill it up. Her homemade pies,
sour-dough pancakes, hamburgers, chicken-fried steak, and
hospitality were famous from Canada to Mexico. She loved to get out
in the mountains and her walls were covered with arrowheads she had
collected. Some of them came from right here. When Mr. Green died,
Ma Green lost the thrill of living. She tried to carryon by herself
and running the restaurant was not a problem. She just did not enjoy
living without her husband. She willed herself sick and then refused
to eat until she died in 1965. She was one very fine lady, and in a
sense, her legacy lives on. We still have pancakes every Saturday
morning made from her sour-dough starter.
In 1952, the name was
changed to Cave Springs after' a loose translation of the Indian
name for this location. In 1954, eleven trailer spaces replaced the
old kitchenless "fisherman" cabins up on the hill, and the property
next to Ma Green's was sold to build Mac's Market, now
called Wiley's Market. The, freeway was being built and it felt like
everything was under construction. Half the town was in a state of
transition as the state bought up and tore down houses to build the
highway. The cabins along the road were falling apart, and people no
longer wanted to stay right on the highway. When those cabins were
built, all freight moved by rail. By 1950, trucks were taking over
what had been the railroad's exclusive domain, and trucks are not
pleasant to sleep next to. The demand for trailer ~paces was high
because many of the freeway construction workers lived in trailers.
The cabins were moved up the hill to be used as storage sheds and
large trailer spaces were built next to the ball park to accommodate
the latest development, the ten-foot-wide trailer. The name Mobile
Home was not in use yet. Standard Oil built the existing service
station and, in 1955, Uncle Johnny and Aunt Joalice decided to quit
trying to do two jobs. Johnny was working for the phone company
again, and was offered a big promotion; but they had to move to
Redding, so they sold out to my folks. The rest of the Eisenhower
years were spent catching up with all of the changes and getting
kids through elementary school. Every year, reservations for the
summer grew and I would look forward to seeing old friends again. In
spite of being sandwiched between the railroad and the highway,
people love to be in Clint Brown's old cabins. Granted, they were
right on the river, but a large part of why people keep coming back
is because the cabins are well maintained and, above all,
clean. Clean was not an easy state to attain in the steam era.
The
romantic notion of giant noisy locomotives belching smoke under
a full head of steam as they labored up the canyon has a few
drawbacks in reality. When the new owners went to cut a Christmas
tree from their very own property, they discovered it was black with
soot! It took days to wash all the walls, ceilings, floors, chairs,
furniture, windows, etc., every spring. This was one task that
was shared. The men really got in and helped out the women. In fact,
in fairness to my father, who is an extremely fair person, I must
admit that he helped my mother clean every Sunday, before and after
church, which we never missed; and, also, whenever everyone checked
out all at once. However, the daily work was left to the women,
and the throbbing O'Malley engines puffing by kept the ladies busy
straightening out the mirrors and pictures on the walls.
It took ten
years for the final phase of construction to begin. First, the R V
spaces behind Mac's Market had to be leveled and hooked up to
utilities. Then the culmination of a once in a lifetime dream
was completed. Mom and Dad built themselves a new house! They also
had to build ten new rooms to justify the expense, but there is no
doubt in my mind that the real motivation for the expansion was to
have a brand new custom home. The pool was considered essential by
my father because of the changing expectations of the traveling
public. Summer vacations mean swimming. Nothing could be simpler.
With one exception, Cave Springs was now complete. It was 1967. One
outstanding feature of this place took several years to develop and
is in a constant state of change. For the most part, God is the
person in charge, but he had some wonderful help. Leo and
Ethel Mellon decided to adopt the garden and landscape Bob and
Lois's motel. This was strictly a labor of joy and love, and what a
beautiful labor it turned out to be! Landscape architects with
masters' degrees in horticulture and design marvel at the way the
garden is planned. It blooms spring, summer, and fall, and has a
different look for every season. What Leo and Ethel gave to our
family cannot be quantified. It can only be sincerely
appreciated.
Cave Springs feels complete now, and Mom and Dad are
retired to pasture with the thousands of other retirees who ply
the north forty of this continent in their recreational vehicles.
Belinda and I are in charge now and striving just to keep up the
high standards my parents set. We may even make some changes, but
more than likely the changes will be forced on us by the changing
nature of the business. Already, we have had to add cable TV, a
movie channel, and remote controls to what started out as an
industry standard black and white television. Mountain- motels
in the near future will be expected to have a Jacuzzi and business
motels will have computers in the rooms. Whoever thought disposable
shower caps, razors, individual shampoos and shaving creams,
deodorants, phones, and VCR's would be common features in a motel
room? This is a far cry from bringing your own linen and cleaning
your own room.
Just as Dunsmuir has gone through many changes in its
short hundred-year life, so too has the motel industry. We are
now in the midst of what amounts to a revolution in the business.
Forgive the lapse into business jargon, but in the last couple
of years the change in the motel industry is tantamount to the
change in the railroad that occurred with the introduction of
the diesel engine. The industry is centralizing and stratifying. In
1970 the economy sector alone contained some 10 chains,
250 properties, i.e., motels, and less than 20,000 rooms. Today, it
encompasses over 60 chains, 2,400 properties and 240,000 rooms. This
year, 12 major hotel companies changed hands, one giant folded,
and several have the wolves at the door. The end result is enhanced
competition and a new professionalism.
Economies of scale and the
best young talent in the business combine with a large equity base
and increased cash flow to offer better appointed rooms for less
money, expanding development, and elaborate marketing programs.
Pictures of sailboats sell Holiday Inn and a standard cheap price
sells Motel 6. Small family-owned and operated motels will continue
to exist, but most, if not all new construction, is already
monopolized by corporations. In a sense, the changes that have
occurred in Dunsmuir in the last thirty years are happening to the
motels of Dunsmuir now. The well being of the motels in town is
dependent on traffic passing by and has been independent of
the town. Ironically, for the first time in our history, the futures
of both will be inter- dependent on each other. Railroading and
logging are declining industries in our town. Relative real
estate value has dropped to the point where it is increasingly
feasible to survive on an income that is seasonal. Seasonal income
is nothing new to the area. We have all been doing it for years now.
The principal difference will be the source of the seasonal income -
tourists. Tourism is not new, it is just more important than ever
before, and for the first time there is widespread acceptance of
this fact. Dunsmuir has a big advantage over many newer tourist
areas.
After a hundred years, most of it is still here. In a land
where most people live in suburbs and new shopping centers replace
old buildings, Dunsmuir hasn't changed. Tourists travel for
three reasons: scenery, history, and man-made attractions. We may
not have Disneyland, but we sure do have scenery and history!
A little maintenance and restoration is in order and already begun.
There is already a demand for and a college class to train
tour guides. Cottage industry is developing local products to trade
to tourists. Most importantly, Dunsmuir is working with the
other towns and communities in the area to promote tourism in the
entire region. The history of Cave Springs is just one story of many
that could have been written about the people and buildings in our
town. It is a nice thumbnail sketch of some of the early pioneers
here. I feel fortunate to be able to write it because the research
would never have been done otherwise. We would most certainly forget
about Clint Brown, Ma Green, and even Lois Dewey if they weren't
immortalized in a book. Most of all, I feel blessed because a short
history of Cave Springs was fun to do!
Dunsmuir History
About Dunsmuir (today):
- Population: 2,080
- Elevation: 2,289
feet
- Location: 300 miles
north of San Francisco on Interstate 5
Historic Dunsmuir
- Established in late
1880's when a rail line was built through the Upper Sacramento
River canyon.
- Originally centered
about a mile south of the current town and named Pusher because in
this location extra engines were needed to push the train up the
steep canyon.
- Name was changed to
Dunsmuir in 1886 when Canada's Alexander Dunsmuir fell in love
with the town and promised the town a water fountain if they named
the town after his family. The fountain is now at the city park.
- In early 1950's
Dunsmuir was largest town in all of Siskiyou County, then the
diesel trains started to be used and the rail workforce was cut by
50%. Dunsmuir's population dropped down from approximately 5,000
to about what it is today (2,080).
- The rail and healing
waters attracted visitors to the local resorts, the Shasta Springs
and Shasta Retreat at the turn of the century. Both resorts are
gone.
For a more complete,
accurate look at the early history of Dunsmuir, click here to visit
Larry Cook's web site. Read local historian Steve Cutting's
account on the establishment and naming of our town.
Mysteries:
- Castle Crags Gold.
After a stage robbery a great fortune in gold was hidden in the
Crags and to this day it has not been found.
- In 1935 a "criminal"
was in town. The sheriff went to catch him and was found dead. The
criminal was caught and put in jail up in Yreka awaiting trial. A
group of vigilantes from Dunsmuir went up to Yreka, broke the
prisoner out of jail and lynched him right there. To this day no
one knows the identity of those vigilantes - or at least they are
not talking.
Dunsmuir: A Survivor
"The town should have
been called "Phoenix" because many times it has risen from the ashes
of destruction, only to be better than ever." Reva Coon
- 1902 A crushing
avalanche came through the town and left one big boulder still
seen today.
- 1903 Most of the
town burned to the ground
- 1921 Big Travelers
Hotel Fire
- 1924 Big fire on
Sacramento Street burnt two churches and everything else in its
way.
- 1944 The Weed or
"Upside Down" Hotel burned
- 1974 The Big Flood
floated houses away
- 1991 The Cantara
railroad spill dumped 19,000 gallons of a herbicide, Metam Sodium,
into the river killing fish, plant, and animal life for 45 miles
downstream.
Celebrities:
Came in on the rail to
the Dunsmuir California Theater (still in use):
- President John F.
Kennedy, when running for office, stopped and talked from the back
of the train.
- Clark Gable was on a
private train car of the Hearst Family and stopped to talk with
the townspeople on the way to the Hearst McCloud estate. (Late
20's)
- Claudet Colbert came
to town and presented herself at the California Theater.
- Herbert Hoover
stayed at the Traveler's Hotel in what is now downtown Dunsmuir in
1933.
Dunsmuir information from
www.dunsmuir.com |
