In days of yore, nearly a century before Herlong Junction came into existence the region was first settled by Captain John Byrd. For years the region was known as Bird Flat, and there were was even the Bird Flat School District.

Prior to Herlong Junction there was no need for road going to the east, because there was no there, there. Even when the railroads came existence, attempts were made to make something as in 1892’s proposed Honey Lake City. In 1912, there was a short lived town of Cromwell. There was a proposed Cromwell-Milford Road, that would require a bridge across Honey Lake, thus far north of  present day Herlong Junction.

Not much would happen in the region until 1942 when the Sierra Army Depot was established and created the town of Herlong. To get to the depot two access roads were built from Highway 395. It was the northern access road that would became known as Herlong Junction. It should be noted the ranchers in that district was against the depot. When the construction crews arrive they things got worse.

There was one Bird Flat resident that saw an opportunity, Zoe Clayburg. When her husband, Tom, died in 1917 from tuberculosis, , she inherited a forty-acre parcel that would became known as Herlong Junction. On February 6, 1948 she sold a small parcel to  Ray and Connie Langley. The Langleys had a restaurant at Milford, and they moved their building to the Clayburg property.  In time that establishment evolved to the present day The Mark. From time to time, Zoe would sell off parcels. She passed away in 1970, and is buried in the Milford Cemetery beside her husband Tom.

Tim

“I, Hiram W. Johnson, governor of California, do hereby designate Saturday, 24 day of October [1914] as Pioneer Mother’s Day,  to be observed as a tribute to the women of the days of ’49, and in furtherance of the work of building a monument which shall grace the Panama Pacific International Exposition and remain an enduring testimonial to honor a grateful state pays their memory.

“It is proposed to raise a fund of $25,000 for the very worthy project, and I wish to join in asking a generous response from all California, in order that the sum may on that day be adequate.”

To fulfill Johnson’s goal, the Pioneer Mother Monument Association was organized. That association delegated the Native Daughters of Golden West to raise the money. It should be noted that the monument, a bronze statue, had been in a planning stages for some time. Prior Johnson’s proclamation, Charles Grafly had been commissioned to do the bronze statute. Graftly proposal met with controversy. You can read more about it here.

The statue located near the Palace of Fine Arts did not garner that much attention. After the exposition it was neglected. In the  1930s, it was restored and relocated to Golden State Park.

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Notes of Note: 1. Governor Johnson asked the women of California to pay for the monument in their honor. 2. In 1914,  President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the the 2nd Sunday in May as Mother’s Day.

In 1929, a scrappy ten-year-old boy by the name of Ed Allison arrived at Secret Valley. Ed, in a sense, was an accidental visitor. He was originally living with his family in Sacramento. The family doctor thought he might have rheumatic fever and suggested Ed should live in a higher and drier climate. A family friend was Gilbert Menichetti who worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad at Karlo. It seemed an ideal location for Ed and off he went. Upon his arrival the first order of business was to rent Ed a horse for him to attend the Secret Valley school several miles away. Of course this allowed him to explore the surroundings of his new home. For some reason, old time Secret Valley resident, Pete Biscar, took Ed under his tutelage.

For a brief time, Ed attended school in Susanville, and one of his classmates was Francis Riddell. After time, Allison moved back to Sacramento. Lo and behold, Riddell’s family moved to Sacramento, and Ed and Francis attended school once again and became life long friends. Riddell would become a noted archaeologist. It was Allison who informed Riddell of a major prehistoric site known as Karlo. On July 13, 1996 at Susanville Riddell tape recorded an interview with Ed about his recollections of his time spent at Secret Valley. The following is an excerpt about an underground river and petroglyphs.

Riddell asked Ed about Pete Biscar.

Allison recalled, “Pete Biscar showed me different things of the whole Karlo area. What they were and everything. I told you about the time we, for instance, one of the rides we went on, we came back up on the northern part, up from the railroad, it was on the east side of the railroad, where we were riding back and my horse got skittish and I could not figure out why. Walked stiff legged you know and all this. I go something is wrong, I looked for a scent or something. I told Pete there is something wrong. He said yes, get off your horse and you will find out. He said go over there to that cone, a lava cone, a pile of rocks and put your ear down to it. I could hear this roar of noise. It’s an underground river under there. That’s why your horse felt it and that’s why it was skittish This was the type of things that Pete and I did.

Riddell then asked what about the petroglyphs?

Allison replied: “That was above his [Biscar] reservoir. There was a split in the canyon up there. I don’t remember whether it is a right or. left turn that we would take at that “Y” in the canyon floor, but then he stopped and showed me those petroglyphs. Of course, that was first time I ever experienced anything like that. They were still real legible, I thought. His comment was that those people were here . long before us. And that’s the types of rides that we do and how I became acquainted with old Pete.”

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