Mark your calendar and plan to attend the 1st annual Southern Tuolumne County Historical Society (STCHS) Labor Day Country BBQ on Sunday, September 6, 2009.  The barbecue will be held at the Pine Mountain Lake Stables starting at 1:00 PM.  Barbecued tri-tip and chicken will be served and a variety of activities for adults and kids are planned throughout the afternoon.  Beginning at 3:00PM the Mountain Fever Band with Keith Keenom will provide music for listening and dancing.  Don’t miss the opportunity to view a display of vintage cars, bid on silent and live auction items, and to purchase delicious homemade baked goods.  A cash prize of $500 will go to the winner of the raffle, with $250 for second and $100 for third.  Raffle tickets can be purchased now from STCHS volunteers or on the day of the event.  Admission to the day’s festivities is free, with food tickets selling for $12 per adult and $7 for children under 12 years of age.
      For the first time STCHS will be displaying a diorama that was recently acquired from the State Museum in Sacramento.  The diorama contains a depiction of California life during the Gold Rush era.  In addition to the diorama, an exhibit of historic photographs from southern Tuolumne County will be presented.
      Proceeds from this event support the programs sponsored by STCHS, including the Yosemite Gateway Museum, restoration of the Wells Fargo Building in Big Oak Flat, and other projects aimed toward preserving the historical assets and heritage of the area.  For more information about the barbecue or if you are interested in volunteering to help please contact Claudia Day at 209-770-2881.

Priscilla Riefkohl Guzmán
U. S. Forest Service

Bower Cave and Historical Areas

7:30 PM
Friday, September 18
Groveland Community Hall

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Richard Potashin and
Nancy Hadlock
Park Rangers
Manzanar Historic Site

Documenting Voices of the Past

7:30 PM
Saturday, October 17
Groveland Community Hall

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Susan Maxwell Skinner

Princess Diana

7:30 PM
Saturday, November 21
Groveland Community Hall

Docentship
A Two-Way Street

by Kathy Brown, Museum Operations

      “Every study of travel motivations has shown that an interest in the achievements of the past is among the three major reasons why people travel.  The other two are rest or recreation and the desire to see great natural sites.”--Arthur Frommer  It looks as though our area has it all and visitation at our museum is reflecting this.  We have had a very busy summer so far.  The latest tally shows that since June 1 our docents have had the pleasure of meeting and greeting an amazing diversity of people.  We have had visitors from 32 different states plus Washington DC and 16 different nations.  The actual number is probably even higher since some people neglect to write where they are from when they sign our guest book.  Sometimes language is a barrier. Travelers often relate “back home” stories to us, making our job very interesting and helping us grow in our knowledge of other places and peoples.
      It has been wonderful having so many locals drop in, sharing their knowledge of area history.
      So, we find docentship to be a two-way street—both giving and receiving information and friendship.  If you would like to discover why “some of the richest people in the world are not millionaires but volunteers” please call Kathy Brown, Museum Affairs Coordinator, 962-0325.

Living History Day

by Dodie Harte

      Come out for a day of fun, entertainment, food, visiting with friends and experiencing first hand the skills of early America.  On Saturday, October 3, from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM the Southern Tuolumne County Historical Society (STCHS) will present the 3rd annual Living History Day.  The event will take place in the courtyard of the Groveland Yosemite Gateway Museum in downtown Groveland.  This is an interactive living history day.  Attendees may participate and try their hand at gold panning, candle dipping, weaving, spinning, quilting, rope making, washing clothes on a washboard, pine needle basketry and butter churning.  Other activities being demonstrated are soap making, knitting, felting, braiding rugs and early American hooking.  Children can play games from the 1800s and make corn husk dolls.  The local genealogy group will be there to tell you about their group and the village herbalist will have herbs for all that ails you.  Early American crafts will be available for sale by some of the participants.  If you like working with your hands, you might want to take this opportunity to meet with the people involved in the many guilds and craft clubs represented here.
      At 11:30 AM and 1:00 PM Hardluck Lin, the legendary woman in man’s attire from the Gold Rush days who spun her tales around the old campsites of Jamestown and Mokelumne, will tell stories of those heroic and adventurous people of the gold mining towns.  Strolling the street will be Luke the Drifter singing and playing his guitar.  So come and sit a spell and visit with old friends and new while you enjoy the day.
      Don’t miss out on Mrs. Anita’s award winning carrot cake.  Also on the fire will be that famous chili that won first place at the ‘49er Festival made by Victor at the Hotel Charlotte.
      If we can catch the burro, she’ll be there pulling the grinding rock around the arastra to crush the rock for gold panning.  Seriously, if you know of a burro or mule that could help out please give us a call at 962-7425.
      Miners did their cookin’ in cast iron Dutch ovens so folks will be making some tasty stuff with hot coals from the fire pit.  You can try grinding grain with a hand grain mill too.
      Wina’s Wild Women have made and donated a beautiful quilt to be raffled off during the event.  Tickets will be on sale beforehand at the museum and Yosemite Bank and at the event.  Help support STCHS by purchasing tickets for a chance to win this beautiful quilt.  The museum will be open on Living History Day.  If you have not been there before or have not seen the newest exhibits, plan to spend a while.  You’re invited to become a member of STCHS while you’re there.
      If you would like to help and be a part of Living History Day by demonstrating an early American art, craft or skill please call Dodie at 962-7425.  Hope to see you there.

Gold Rush Dioramas

By Marc Fossum

       I shared the exciting news of STCHS recent acquisition of the California Gold Rush dioramas from the State Museum Warehouses in our previous newsletter.  We have been opening the packing crates, inspecting, taking inventory and cataloging the components of the dioramas.  We have found the components to be in very good condition and are excited to soon begin displaying them for public enjoyment and appreciation.  Our first planned “coming-out” will be at the Labor Day BBQ held on Sunday, September 6 at the Pine Mountain Lake Equestrian Center from 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM.  We will again assemble a display of the dioramas at the STCHS Living History Day event held at the museum on Saturday, October 3.

Longfellow Stamp Mill Update

By Marc Fossum

      In the summer of 2008 the historic Longfellow Stamp Mill in Big Oak Flat, CA was destroyed by a fire of suspicious origin.
      In 1945, following nearly 100 years of successful gold mining activity, the mine and stamp mill were abandoned and became the property of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  The property and stamp mill thereafter succumbed to the effects of Mother Nature.
      In recent years the Southern Tuolumne County Historical Society (STCHS) has been in contact with the Bureau of Land Management in an effort to protect and preserve the stamp mill.  The fire last summer destroyed all wooden components of the stamp mill but left the iron and metal inner workings relatively unharmed.  The burning of the stamp mill initially appears to be a terrible loss.
      However, on a positive note the fire brought the hazardous nature of the abandoned gold mine and stamp mill to the attention of the local community and the property’s owner, the BLM.  In early 2009 word circulated that the BLM was due to receive a substantial amount of the Federal Government’s “Stimulus” money, a portion of which was to be dedicated to the cleanup of toxic mine sites.  Members of STCHS and other community members immediately began to formulate a campaign to lobby the BLM to allocate funds to address the Longfellow Stamp Mill site.  After many calls to state and federal representatives seeking advice on how to most effectively approach the BLM on this issue it was decided that a letter writing campaign to all government representatives was necessary.
       In the midst of the letter writing campaign the organizers of the campaign were contacted by the BLM and informed that “substantial” funding was being allocated specifically to the Longfellow Stamp Mill site cleanup.  This is great news as the toxic chemicals remaining from the gold extraction process (mercury, arsenic and cyanide) ultimately leach into Lake Don Pedro, a significant water supply for Central California.  The cleanup plan and the timing of its implementation are not known at this time.  We want to thank all of you who took action and responded to our request to write letters in the last issue of the STCHS newsletter.  We will keep you apprised of the cleanup progress in future issues of the STCHS and LIBRARY NEWS.

From the Museum

by Jane Dees

     Did you know that our Museum is run by a committee of volunteers whom, by working together, serve as your “Museum Director?”  We are very proud of how this has worked for the past few years.  I thought it might be nice if you knew who these committee members are in case you want to thank them for the great job they have done and are doing.  Members of the Museum Operations Committee are:  Rich Hathaway, Displays & Exhibits; Cheryl Hernandez, Museum Store Manager; Gordon Norris, Curator; Miguel Maldonado, Video Production & Technical Support; John Hancock, Webmaster; Rolene Kiesling, History Resource Center; Kathy Brown, Museum Operations Coordinator; Harold Wesley, STCHS Treasurer; Karen Davis, Office Manager; Jane Dees, Museum Operations Manager and Committee Chair; and Marc Fossum, STCHS President.
      Ina Rathert, who served as Coordinator of our Museum Operations since the fall of 2006, has resigned.  I think she heard the “Golf Course” calling her name!  We want to thank Ina for the many, many hours she spent in keeping everything running smoothly.  She was always there with her positive attitude and warm, friendly smile.  Ina will continue volunteering as a docent and filling in where and when needed.  Being Ina, of course, she chose and trained a wonderful replacement, Kathy Brown.  Ina, we wish you many happy hours on the golf course and plenty of pars and birdies to mark on your scorecard.
      Kathy has been a docent as well as becoming our new Docent Coordinator.  We welcome her as a member of the Operations Committee and are looking forward to working with her.  She will be a great asset.
      Be sure to plan on attending the Living History Day which will, once again, be held at the Museum this year on October 3.  Dodie Harte is chairing this event and has many wonderful things planned.  This is a hands-on event for the entire family including food and fun!  See you there.

Remembering Dr. Clair Weast (1913-2009)

"Doc"

by Denise Henderson

        Clair Weast was born in Modesto, California on October 13, 1913, the son of Benjamin and Anna (Banfield) Weast.
        In 1922 his family moved to Big Oak Flat.  By 1923 Clair, his sisters, Ina and Berta, and their parents were living in the Wells Fargo Building where his parents operated a meat market.  After his father passed away in 1925 Clair moved with his mother and sisters to the “Carey place,” a house that once stood where Suburban Propane is now located on the corner of Highway 120 and Wards Ferry Road.
        During the summer of 1928 at the age of 15 Clair worked in Moccasin as a “water boy” during construction of the Dam there.  His job was to carry two canvas bags full of water around to the workers all day long.  And it paid a whopping 25 cents an hour!
        In 1929 he and his family moved to his Uncle Joe’s homestead on Black Road in Big Oak Flat.  Joe (Clair’s mother’s brother) had worked on the Priest Dam/Reservoir project.  After completion of the Dam the workers were allowed to dismantle the worker housing units and take the lumber as long as they left the area in “proper condition.”  Clair and his uncle took advantage of the offer and, consequently, the house Clair and his family lived in on the homestead was built using recycled materials from Hetch Hetchy worker housing units.
        Clair attended Big Oak Flat Grammar School.  His 8th grade graduating class in 1927 consisted of 3 students.  For the next four years he rode the school bus up and down New Priest Grade every day to Sonora High School.  The bus, a Fageol put into service in 1925, had a four cylinder Hall-Scott engine designed to power aircraft.  The bus driver was often one of the students.  During his senior year Clair even got to be the bus driver on a few occasions.  During the 1930-31 school year Clair served as the Vice-President of the Sonora High School Boy’s Service Club, where he shared his idea of building a monument to mark the spot where the Big Oak of Big Oak Flat once stood.
        Clair graduated from Sonora High School in 1931 and spent that summer working for his brother-in-law, Orrin Ferretti, who owned and operated the Standard Station & Garage in Groveland.  Clair’s job was to drive a 2000-gallon gasoline tanker from Antioch to Tuolumne Meadows and back to Groveland.  The highway as we know it today did not exist and the roads were a lot more harrowing than they are now!
        In the fall of 1931 he moved to Manteca and began attending classes at Modesto Junior College.  Also that fall Mr. Reed, the Latin teacher at Sonora High School and advisor to the Boy’s Service Club, worked weekends with several students and built the Big Oak Monument which still stands today on Highway 120 across from the Big Oak Odd Fellows Lodge.
        While attending Modesto Junior College Clair met Elsie Orr whom he married in 1940.  Clair went on to earn a doctorate at UC Berkeley and had a long and distinguished career in food science and technology.  Among his many achievements “Doc” (as he was known to family and friends) and his wife Elsie designed 75 low-calorie foods and used them to create the first and only 1200-calorie diet ever to be approved by the American Diabetes Association.
        Although he moved away in 1931 he continued to visit Southern Tuolumne County as much as possible and remained proud of his childhood hometown of Big Oak Flat.  In the 1990s he served on the Southern Tuolumne County Historical Society Board of Directors and also became one of the first to donate artifacts relative to Southern Tuolumne County to the Groveland Yosemite Gateway Museum.  Some of those objects have been on display since the museum first opened in May 2001.
        In 1992 he was honored to be the Commencement Speaker at the Tioga High School Graduation Ceremony.  He shared with all 6 graduating seniors that year his pride in his small school background.  He attributed his later academic achievements to the fundamentals he learned in the one-room schoolhouse in Big Oak Flat.  He urged the graduates not to think of their small school education as a detriment but as an advantage and gave each one a strand from his doctorate tassel as a symbol of their future successes.
        Doc was a prolific writer and contributed many articles about growing up in Big Oak Flat to the STCHS newsletter, Chispa, the Yosemite Highway Herald and the Yosemite Gazette.  He was also an avid researcher and provided STCHS History and Resource Center with substantiated reports on various local subjects of historical interest.
        Friends and family agree that Doc never hid the fact that he “much preferred his way of doing things to your way of NOT doing them.”  When he set his mind to doing something, he let nothing deter him from reaching his goal.  In 2007, at the age of 94, while researching the origins of obsidian in Tuolumne County he hiked from Greeley Hill Road all the way up to Bowers Cave, proving that no matter what you set out to do by simply taking it one step at a time you will get there.
        Doc passed away in Manteca on April 27, 2009 at the age of 95.  He was preceded in death by his wife Elsie and daughter Edith.  He is survived by his daughter Kathy Miller, a niece Marian Moore, and numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great, great-grandchildren.
        He was the last known surviving person to have once lived in the historic Wells Fargo Building.  STCHS has lost a great friend, advisor and supporter.
        Remembrances may be made to STCHS, P. O. Box 1849, Big Oak Flat, CA  95305.