Big Meadows and Lake Almanor

by Marilyn Morris Quadrio

Overview

Few among the thousands of vacationers who recreate on and around Lake Almanor each summer realize that beneath its waters lie the remains of a vanished way of life. This tiny Atlantis, Big Meadows, was a microcosm of the cultural forces and conflicts that racked the West in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Rich in natural resources, the Meadows sustained the lives of the native Maidu and the hundreds of encroaching whites who followed on the heels of the Lassen Trail immigrant parties. White men came seeking to exploit those precious resources for gold mining, stock raising, dairying, tourism, timber, and later, hydroelectric power. In the tumult of cultural and industrial change, a pastoral way of life was lost and a native culture vanquished.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781467132299
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	09/22/2014
Series:	Images of America Series
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 6.40(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Historian and writer Marilyn Morris Quadrio is part of the third generation of a family born and raised in the mountains of Tehama, Plumas, and Lassen Counties. Quadrio majored and did postgraduate studies in history. She and friend Joan Sayre have built the small Chester—Lake Almanor Museum to house a growing collection of photographs and artifacts given by descendants of pioneers.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 6

Introduction 7

1 First People Meet the Incoming Tide 9

2 Butt Valley 17

3 The East Side 23

4 Humbug Valley 39

5 Bidwells 47

6 Prattville 63

7 Butterfields, Bunnells, and Lees 83

8 Westside Ranchers and Early Chester 101

9 Great Western Power Company Builds a Dam 119