A Message from the President
President’s Message
With each event, the Historical Society grows larger and more rewarding. Indeed, it’s becoming harder and harder to shoehorn our members and guests into places large enough to meet in Lake County.
Our June picnic was a smashing success; we used it to inaugurate the new club house in Nice. As usual, the Historical Society barbecued the hamburgers and hot dogs while the members provided everything else. Delicious! Our speaker was Phil Smoley and the topic was Kit Carson and his brothers. That was pure serendipity; when we acquired the clubhouse at the end of Carson Street in Nice we had no idea we were settling in next to Carsonia (later Aurora), the great restaurant started by a Carson brother.
The Kelseyville Senior Center graciously allowed us to hold our October meeting there. The beginning of that meeting was a terrifying sight for the President. At the appointed time for beginning the meeting, the hall was full, all chairs were taken and participants were still streaming down the street toward us. Unfortunately, we had advertized two different beginning times for the meeting: 1PM and 2PM. That permitted an extended social hour and caused a hectic search around town for more chairs. In the end it all worked well and John Parker’s talk on 20,000 years of Lake County Prehistory was spellbinding.
Doctor John Parker is our representative to the Lake County Heritage Commission and I have appointed him as Lake County Historical Society Archaeologist. Questions regarding forensic unearthing matters should be directed to him.
Our next meeting will be our Thanksgiving dinner which we will hold at the Lucerne Senior Center. A turkey dinner with all he trimmings will be entirely catered by the Senior Center. Dinner will commence at 1 PM on Sunday, November 22 and the cost will be $10 per person. Nominations and elections of officers will be taken at this time. Back by popular demand, the great Phil Smoley will complete his talk on the history of the area.
This dinner will be the last chance to purchase raffle tickets on Daisy Gawelleck’s beautiful hand-stitched quilt “Card Trick”. The drawing will be held at the end of the meeting. So far, we have made about $400 to go toward the Ely Stage Stop & Country Museum project.
The Ely project, itself, is coming along nicely: The County of Lake has completed the wrap-around porch this summer. PG&E has installed electricity to the meter and the County will hook up the building and water well. The County is preparing the building for painting. The Ely Project will receive up to $4,500 from the Lake County Wine Auction’s benefit to aid the Lake County Historical Society to begin constructing display barns for the Society’s artifacts. The Ely Stage Stop Committee will meet October 15, 2009 to discuss construction of the first barn on the property. Construction of the barn(s) will have to be engineered and the building will need to be A.D.A. compliant. Greg Dills, Chairman of the Ely Stage Stop Committee, worked closely with the Pear Pavilion Committee to display several items of the LCHS’s artifacts and antique farm equipment at this year’s Kelseyville Pear Festival.
On September 26, a large group from the historical organization E Clampsus Vitus gathered at the Brassfield Winery in High Valley to erect a monument. Our Janeane Bogner, who lives nearby, spoke for the Historical Society at the event. The building, birthplace of our Roland Shaul, is reputed to be the oldest milled-lumber building erected in Lake County. That puts it in competition with our Ely Stage Stop for that honor.
It would be impossible to adequately thank all our members and volunteers for the remarkable work they have done. This year we have manned booths where we sold books and recruited new members at Wild West Days in Upper Lake, the Clearlake Festival, the County Fair in Lakeport, the Bluegrass Festival in Lower Lake, our picnic, the Pear Festival in Kelseyville and several meetings. Our greatest needs now include safe, secure places to store our Ely destined artifacts, and materials and labor to continue restoring and upgrading our Nice Clubhouse.
Someone left a note at the Historical Society booth at the County Fair requesting the origin of the name of Bell Hill on the Northwest end of Kelseyville. Well, here’s how I got it. The old toll road from Cloverdale came out of the mountains and crossed into (more or less) flat country near the point where Kelsey Creek Drive becomes Adobe Creek Road. From there it headed straight toward Hill Creek and the meadow in Plunkett Canyon, where a couple resided for the purpose of adding or subtracting horses, depending on which direction the freight wagon was headed –uphill or downhill. The Kelseyville–bound wagons, with their freight, followed Plunkett Canyon and Hill Creek for a time and then veered toward Kelsey Creek where they rounded a huge knob-like hill just as they came into Kelseyville. Rounding that hill allowed the citizens of Kelseyville for the first time to hear the bells of the horses, which alerted them that they were about to get a wagon-load of supplies. Hence…”Bell Hill”.
Now that’s how I got it but, Lake County history being what it is, I’m sure that, lurking out there somewhere is some old fellow who will button-hole me and declare, “That ain’t the way I heerd it, Bud.” There is another interesting story involving Bell Hill about Kelsey and Stone’s roving bones but that’s for another time.
Enjoy the conclusion of Baird Anton’s interesting, sometimes astonishing, life and career. I am confident you have enjoyed Baird’s story.
Randy Ridgel, PresidentLake County Historical Society 279-4062 or 490-8279 randy@ridgel.com
