Established in 1864 amid a silver boom, Alpine County anticipated a population surge that never materialized. Initial projections of 5,000 residents proved grossly over-optimistic. Instead, Alpine’s population dwindled to just 685 residents by 1870 and hovers around 1,100 today. The county struggles economically due to high federal land ownership (96%) and limited tax revenues, leading to one of the highest per-capita government costs in the U.S., and relying heavily on state and federal subsidies.
Hilariously High Hopes for Alpine in 1864
Hilariously High Hopes for Alpine County in 1864 We don’t know exactly who “Forty-Niner” was. But on February 10, 1864, someone penned a letter to the Sacramento Daily Union under that pseudonym. What we do know is that he was a resident of Silver Mountain City. And he was a little ticked off. […]
A Forgotten Bit of Silver Mountain history . . . .
A Forgotten Bit of Silver Mountain history It felt like a minor miracle when this slim legal document turned up on eBay. If the handwriting looked familiar, it should have; this was penned by none other than Lewis Chalmers – sometime hero, part-time villain, and all-time star of Alpine County’s early mining dramas. […]
A Long-Lost Woodfords Mill
Thomas Knott Really Should Be Famous He hung out with Snowshoe Thompson. Built a sawmill in Carson Canyon way back in 1853, before it became Woodfords. Got stiffed by John Reese for a whopping $2 grand after building two more mills in Genoa. And left behind one of the most important (and most overlooked) historical accounts chronicling his life in early Carson Valley. […]
The Slough House Cemetery: From Walking the Plank to Finding Gold
It started with a near-murder. . . The Slough House Pioneer cemetery is a tiny gem in Cosumnes Valley, just over an acre and a half in size. Dating back to 1850, it’s one of the oldest pioneer cemeteries in Northern California. So how did this little cemetery come to be? […]
The Dizzying, Dangerous, Delightful Ridge Route
1,200 Twisting Turns in 20 Miles – Oh My! Aficionados still talk about the Ridge Route, the iconic byway linking Los Angeles with Bakersfield. The earliest version of this memorable road – Ridge Route 1.0, if you will – was simply dirt, graded and oiled. That made it a huge improvement over the rough carreta […]
A Short History of Lebec, CA
A Short History of Lebec (Part 1): Peter Lebec may have lost his battle with a grizzly bear almost 200 years ago. But Lebec’s name still graces the California valley where he died in 1837. Today, the small town of Lebec, California – named after the […]
The Story of the Ridge Route (Part 4)
The Ridge Route’s Later Years (And Efforts To Preserve It): The early Ridge Route didn’t stay un-tinkered-with for long. Less than a decade after the 1919 concrete cap dried, ideas began percolating about expanding its two paved lanes to three. (For the Ridge Route’s earlier history, check out Parts 1, 2, and 3!) Work on […]
The Story of the Ridge Route: Part 3
With its fresh concrete cap finally in place, the new, upgraded Ridge Route was ready to welcome travelers again in 1919. (If you missed the beginning of this story, here are Part 1 and Part 2!) The journey from L.A. to Bakersfield still wasn’t for […]
The Story of the Ridge Route (Part 2):
Paving the Ridge Route: As you’ll remember from Part 1 of this story, the original Ridge Route between L.A. and Bakersfield was just a simple oil-coated dirt track. When grading was completed in 1915, that first early version cost a mere $450,000 – roughly $11 million today.* Not bad for a 30-mile stretch […]
Discovering Hidden Graves at Al Tahoe Cemetery
We’re the luckiest of the lucky: this past summer, we got to watch as experts searched for long-forgotten graves at Tahoe, using ground-penetrating radar! I’ll confess we knew almost nothing about the historic Al Tahoe Pioneer Cemetery before our visit. Turns out this small cemetery near the shore of Lake Tahoe […]
Three Bullets, Two Julias: What Happened Next? (Part 3)
For Nelson Savier, Hamilton, Nevada probably seemed like the perfect place to hide. No doubt he was hoping that the sordid tale of his mistress’s murder wouldn’t follow him to a remote mining town. And best of all, he’d left his murderous wife Julia back in California. But as […]