Nature and Nurture: Mineral King Cabins at 100

Written by Sarah Barton Elliott

Has a place ever been so imprinted on your psyche that you are there even when you aren’t there? For me, this place is Mineral King. I can smell it, hear it, see it, feel it no matter where I am. At times, the pull is so strong, I feel broken-hearted that I’m not there. The way one feels when a loved one is snatched away. When I leave Mineral King, I am out of balance, almost sick, for hours or days, a period that is proportional to the time I spent in this endearing alpine valley.

I am not the first Barton to have these strong emotions for this magical valley. In 1905, my great-great-uncle Orlando Barton (1847-1917) wrote in a letter to his friend Judge W.B. Wallace:

When I try to recall through the long vistas of my memory the scenes of Mineral King 30 years ago, there arises in my breast vague longings and sweetly sorrowful, half-sleeping visions of old happiness, of old times long dead. There seems to come to me voices from secret places of friends I shall never see again… I will put this manuscript in an envelope and send it off before I get in a sloppy condition and spoil the paper with an overflow of tears.

The Bartons

I am the fifth generation of Bartons who felt the pull of Mineral King. There were a couple generations of prospectors who hoped the colorful rocky slopes would produce wealth (James, his sons Enos and Orlando, and his brother Stephen). Enos and Orlando were also on the New England Tunnel and Smelting Company payroll. Their much-younger brother, my great-grandfather (Jason), and, later, my grandfather (Bob) were Three Rivers ranchers who relocated their cattle and their families to the Mineral King environs each summer for the natural feed that was abundant up high when the foothills grasses turned to parched dust. My dad, Jim, spent every childhood summer with his parents at their Mineral King cabin and in his teen years drove a truck for Ray Buckman, resort and pack station operator, to deliver supplies and people to Mineral King.

It has been determined that the Bartons built the first cabin in Mineral King; that was my great-great-grandfather, James (in the Wollenman cabin vicinity). Then my great-grandparents, Jason and Mary, built a cabin a few hundred yards down river (adjacent to where the Savage cabin now stands). These cabins are no longer extant, and I never knew these ancestors though I share the deep bond of Mineral King with them.

It’s something deeper than thought, some feeling in the core, a connection that says ‘This is my heart’s home.’ —Kim Stanley Robinson, The High Sierra: A Love Story (May 2022)

In 1924, my grandfather continued the family legacy by constructing a cabin for his growing family. In August 1921, he and the former Muriel May were married at his parents’ cabin. They were now expecting their first child (my dad). This lucky number 13 is the cabin in West Mineral King that today shelters me when I can leave my Three Rivers home for some Sierra-style summer respite. As of this writing in August 2022, the Barton cabin is a mere 98 years old although I am counting down to the ball drop in 2024 when I will celebrate this then-century-old cabin concurrently with — I hope, I hope — my father’s 100th birthday.

So, I am not chiming in today to discuss my youngster of a cabin as there are others that are older, wiser, and worthy of distinction and celebration for reaching an incredible milestone.

The community

As long as I live I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I’ll interpret the rocks, learn the language of the flood, storm, and the avalanche. I’ll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens. And get as near the heart of the world as I can. —John Muir

The Mineral King cabins have been through so much and have many stories to tell. From the harsh conditions of existing above 7,000 feet (2,134 meters) elevation to continual threats of destruction by organizations and governmental agencies that seem so innocuous on the surface. One wouldn’t think Mickey Mouse or Smokey Bear or Yogi and Boo Boo could harm a leopard lily but, oh, how they all have been a threat to this historic community over the years.

How did these cabins survive multiple menaces and Mother Nature’s chaos? The answer is in the first paragraph as I am not the first or only one to have a love affair with Mineral King. Never underestimate this commitment. There are heroes — many no longer with us — who fought relentlessly to protect these enduring, rough-hewn, simple structures. And they won, making history protecting history. The Mineral King community and its landmark access road today make up the Mineral King Road Cultural Landscape District.

In this decade (2020-2029), more of the Mineral King cabins (30, basically half of those that today make up the community) will tap the century mark than in any other decade. By my count, there are 59 cabins in Mineral King; 23 cabins in East Mineral King (near the end of the road) and 36 cabins in West Mineral King (from the cattle guard to the Tar Gap parking lot). It is important to note that of these cabins, 13 are already over 100 years old. In subsequent posts, I would like to recognize these elder Mineral King cabins. But for now, we’ll celebrate 1922 and the three cabins that were built that year.

Life in 1922

The beginning of the era known as the Roaring Twenties is remembered for its jazz bands, flappers, and bootleggers. World War I had recently ended with millions dead. A global pandemic was waning, with millions more casualties. In the U.S., Prohibition was in full swing, and folks were gathering around the radio to consume this news, as well as weather, music, baseball, and Amos ’n’ Andy and other popular shows. Warren G. Harding, an Ohio Republican, was president (and would die of a heart attack while in office the next year). Insulin to treat “juvenile” diabetes was the year’s medical breakthrough.

Wonder, delight, freedom, adventure, excitement, are as much a part of the mountains as peaks and forests. Realism is for tamer landscapes; the mountains are inescapably romantic. —Wallace Stegner

Automobiles were becoming more affordable, and Americans were leaving their horses and wagons at home to take motoring vacations in the reliable comfort of their black Ford Model T horseless carriages. But to get to Mineral King, one really had to want to be there. The main mode of transportation to the valley was still, literally, horse power.

Centenarians

Here are the cabins that were built in 1922 and after 100 years continue to offer refuge from hot Central Valley summers and a hectic modern life.

We are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are eternally anchored. One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things. —Henry Miller

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EMK 7— The Davis Cabin is adjacent to the trailhead in the Sawtooth parking lot. It is located on a historic milling site claimed by the prolific miner John Franklin Crabtree in 1873. By the early 1920s, the site was occupied by the Davis family, who were famous for packing in the Sierra. Phillip Davis Jr., a citrus rancher from Woodlake and one in a long line of owners of the Mineral King pack station, built the cabin for his family, and his descendants continue to make use of it. The cabin has its original metal roof, which is stamped with its birth year. Existing for a century in the High Sierra is quite a selling point for metal roofs.

EMK 16— The Jonathan Early Pogue Cabin was constructed on a five-acre mill site claimed by Franklin Houston in 1874. By the end of 1875, the fraudulent New England Tunnel and Smelting Company owned the mill site along with a log cabin, which was the only structure on the site at that time. Jonathan Early Pogue of Lemon Cove purchased a mining cabin on the site in 1910. Pogue was the son of one of Mineral King’s earliest miners and spent his formative summers in Mineral King. Pogue demolished the mining cabin in 1922 to make room for the “new” Pogue Cabin on what had become known as Pogue Row. In 1975, Jeff Davis and Jock and Ora Kay Peterson purchased the cabin. Ora Kay was instrumental in the founding of the Mineral King Preservation Society in 1986. The cabin continues to be used by Jock and Ora Kay’s descendants.

WMK 25— The Brown Cabin was built by Minnie and Warren Brown two years after their marriage. It was a one-room cabin with a sleeping loft that they constructed with unfinished lumber from Atwell Mill. Minnie had deep associations with Mineral King, for which she may have been named. Her paternal grandfather, John Carter McKee, was one of the earliest Mineral King miners. Her paternal grandmother, Nancy Pogue, was a sibling of the Mineral King Pogues. Her maternal grandfather, Emmanuel Thomas Ragle, was another early Mineral King miner. Ruth and Clifford Buckman purchased the cabin in 1952 and enlarged it. As a result, the room addition wraps around the original fireplace chimney. Cliff was the cousin of Ray Buckman, who was at that time the owner of the Mineral King Resort. Ruth’s son, Art Martin, along with his wife Martha and their two children continued to use the cabin. It was purchased by Dan Voelz for his family’s use about five years ago.

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Thank you to Laile Di Silvestro (Crowley cabin, historical archaeologist, Three Rivers resident, and indispensable to me in regards to all things historic) for providing the historical context for the centennial cabins (and others coming soon). These descriptions will also soon be available at the Three Rivers Historical Museum as part of the Mineral King Room’s upcoming virtual cabin tour exhibit.