| Cabin Tours 2003
Padilla AKA The Cow Camp
Adams, The Little Cabin
The Warner Cabin
Camp LaSalle/Huntington Lake Camp for Girls
Padilla AKA The Cow Camp
As you look at this grouping of cabins, you can smell the cook rustling up some "good eats". The Padilla encampment has a long history, starting about 1909, with it's first permit being a commercial use permit, permitted to a B.W. Kiseby, then Blanch M. Swigart and George H. Swigart. The commercial use permit was entended in 1930 to an Albert G. Wilson. SCE used the camp as a support camp to keep their draft livestock in the meadow between Upper Line Creek and Lower Line Creek Tract. Men, mules and horses were the initial "horse power" that moved earth, rock and timber during the building of the Edison hydro project and the building of the dam. The Qualls family were packers for Edison, delivering supplies in the early 20's to the upper camps working on the Ward Tunnel from Florence Lake, packing out of the Padilla Camp. The camp also serviced the Huntington Lake Camp for Girls, from the mid-1920's, providing stock animals to the camp for trips up into the High Country. The men building the dams worked up hearty appetities. Because of the layout of the camp and the main structure having a heave axle located under the cabin, it would lead one to believe that it was part of a "chuck Wagon" and because of the width of the kitchen, arms outstretched can touch the experior walls, which is also about the width of a wagon, it has earned the nickname "The Cow Camp". The building's roofing materials are from the wooden boxes that held the dynamite used in the building of the dams. A "rock quarry/crusher" was located down at the botton of Line Creek and that rock was delivered to the site of the three dams at Huntington Lake on a railroad trestle on the lake floor...parts of which still remain today. In 1935 the permit was issued to Sarah Raynor continuing as a commercial permit. The different permitted pack stations in the Huntington Lake Basin in 1925 had 2764 heads of stock which worked the area. In 1938, Sarah requested the permit be changed to a residential permit. Matt and Esther Delaney had the cabin for about 30 years thereafter, with the Padilla family purchasing the camp in 1971. Visiting friends often called the main cabin the "fun house, because it tilts" as it sits between two large trees that have grown up on each side of it. The smell of cooking continues at the Camp, as the Padilla family continues the tradition of "rustling up good eats" on the grill when they are at Huntington.
Return to Top
Adams, The Little Cabin
As told by Don Adams in a letter to a friend in 1973, "My father, E.G. Adams and I built it originally in the spring of 1925. I had left the Edison Company at the "break through" in the east heading of the Florence Lake tunnel on February 18, I believe it was. The celebration at Camp 61 was a dilly! Of course, I'm digressing, but the one memory always calls up another, don't it. Anyway, the little cabin was built mostly out of "rough" lumber from Harry Allen's mill that then operated where the Home Creek store now, or did stand later, at the end of the Home Creek log bridge. With no disrespect to Harry Allen, for his outfit was very primitive, the 2 x 4's came out 2 inches at one end and often 3 inches at the other. It was though, good clear fir or pine and by a bit of some doing, we fashioned it into the cabin that stands there now. The bedroom, or addition, was added several years later, when the little girl who I married that first year, presented us with an enlargement of the family that necessitated additional room. It was a five day chore, built on a time of slack work laying rock for old man Johnson for his granite rock home which is now, I believe, the Blue-Jay camp down on Lower Line Creek... We roofed the cabin with "shakes" made out of the big pine whose stump may still stand by the cabin. This roof was subsequently replaced in 1935 by a cedar shingled roof from a small mill that used to stand at the bottom of the Toll House Grade. The slab (bark) nailed onto the outside was from that mill, the slab usually burned, so it came cheap. Under the front porch was a "meat" rack consisting of a sturdy beam with iron meat hooks placed on it. This being for hanging out winter supply of meat when the snows were too deep to get outside (down the hill to Cascada) for supplies. Oh yes, we did have to snow shoe out on some occasions during winter time, but mostly we put in our supply of staples along in November before the snow came. At the first harbinger of the first snow, we put in our supply of deer meat, there under the porch. It was our right. We lived there, nothing was wasted...So the years rolled along, and there have been wonderful years...As my family grew up, my sons have taken over the repair of the cabins. Always there is repair, for the winters take toll in stress and strain. Always the frost gets into the cracks of the rock and part it. My heart will not take it, but I assure you that my spirit too, is there, and my memories of Huntington Lake are indeed precious things. In the interim let us, and our people get what enjoyment afforded us up there in "God's Country", and remember always that there is that responsibility we owe to those who come after. Perhaps that is the most important thing"... Sincerely, Don Adams, Oakland, CA. July 31, 1973
Return to Top
Warner
This early cabin was built about 1912, and along with the Padilla's cabin was used as part of the gravel quarry operation on Line Creek during the construction of the Dams. At that time just to the west of LaSalle Road was an open meadow used to pasture the livestock involved in the production of gravel. The cabins at this lot are believed to have been a tack room and quarters for the stable hands. Five years later, in 1917, these structures were given a USFS recreational lease. It was shortly after this time our family started spending summers on the lake, first staying in Dowville and later building a cabin in Bear Creek Extension. Building that cabin made a strong impression on Jon as a child. In 1976 Jon acquired these old cabins, which were in a very neglected and rundown state. At that time (#67) consisted of three separate structures in the classic style of summer residences at the turn of the last century. Between the two lower cabins and the upper barn/washroom cabin is a distinctive Johnny Vistak stone wall/patio with an outdoor fire-pit integrated into 10 foot high boulders. After the big snow of '83, extensive restoration was started. During this work the USFS required that two of the cabins be connected, not by the open "dog trot" between the cabins which had existed for 70 years, but by a roofed and walled-in connection. So, in 1984, (#67) went from being the traditional three small cabins to the one large cabin and the barn/ bath you see today. As the years went by the trees lifted one side of the cabin so high that the joke was, if you dropped a marble on the floor at the tree side of the cabin it would pick up enough speed as it rolled across the floor to dent the base board on the opposite wall. Restoration of the cabins involved preserving hardware, fixtures and the 90-year old dimension rip sawn wood, in particular the exterior siding board and their bats. Judging from the size of the arc on these boards the saw used must have had a diameter of 4 to 5 feet. Working in the attic it was found that the kitchen had expanded from a small 4'x 6' room attached to the side of the living cabin to a slightly larger room, with a screened, crawl-space- to-attic cooler for keeping food, to the existing larger kitchen you see today. Evidence for these expansions include notes written on the framing and a receipt found in the attic from Yancy's Lumber Company dated 1924 suggesting that most of the expansion was carried out during the prosperous period prior to the depression. Interestingly, according to what appears to be a painted record written on the interior barn wall, the cabins were painted green on the day the stock market crashed in 1929. Most of the items currently found here are things that have outlived their usefulness at home and have fallen into that category of "oughta be taken to the cabin." This was generally the nature of Huntington Lake cabin furnishings over the last century. For example, the kitchen still uses a stove and Hoosier, probably dating from the late 1800's, appliances from the 20's and 30's, a refrigerator from the 50's and a microwave from 2000. Make a point to visit the wash room in the barn and see the 1912 Easy Washer which is still used each summer--it cleans better than new washers! These things represent a fascinating evolution of design, technology and human life styles over a span of more than 100 years.
Return to Top
Camp LaSalle/Huntington Lake Camp for Girls
Huntington Lake Camp for Girls had been established in 1923 by Ruth Heyneman, better known as "Lady Huntington", to provide opportunities for girls to know and love the mountains as she did. Mrs. Edwin Walter had been an Assistant Director at the camp since it's founding, and became it's co-owner and Director after Lady Huntington's untimely death in 1932. For the final ten years before the camp's sale to the Christian Brothers, Mrs. Walter was in sole command. Camp Huntington was considered a rather exclusive camp with carefully selected clientele. In 1953 it totaled 89 girls and 21 counselors, with additional help for chores, such as managing horses; some of the help were students from Stanford and Berkeley. The fee for six full weeks at that time was $450, and the camp offered swimming, boating, pottery, crafts, nature study, archery and horsemanship, as well as pack trips and camping excursions into the Sierra. By 1953, Mrs. Walter was anxious to sell after operating the camp for so many years, and she and her husband wished the place to get into the hands of a "respectable party", one that was financially responsible and with experience in the manner of running a camp. Mr. Walter's connections with the Christian Brothers through Saint Mary's College in Moraga, sparked the notion of a sale to the Brothers. The asking price for the camp was $75,000, and included all the buildings, tents, beds, dishes, appliances, water system, canoes, rowboats, and much more. The Brothers viewed the camp as a "blessing of a major order" that would provide needed respite for the Brothers during the summer. Conversion of the property from a girls' camp to one more suited to the Brothers was completed by the long-time camp caretaker, Mr. Tom Barry, and many of the Brothers working long hours to ready the camp for it's opening August 1, 1954. Among the renovations were the addition of a sports area and the "Thoughtery," created from an existing camp building, as a place for the brothers to read and write in comparative solitude. Sunday Mass for local summer residents at the lake was celebrated at the camp as well, a tradition that continues today. In the mid-1960's, the Brothers opened the camp to their faculties during part of the summer, and subsequently, the invitation was extended to the Brothers' colleagues and their families. Two weeks in August are exclusively for the Brothers' use, but the camp is available for the employees who work in the Brothers' schools on the West Coast, as a small way of saying "thank you" for their dedication. The Brothers' annual backpacking trip still takes place at the beginning of August. It's a Tradition.
Return to Top
|
