THE MINERAL KING ROAD CORRIDOR
Historic Points of Interest
The
Mineral King Road Corridor is not just a road. It is a pathway
through history with many fascinating stories to tell. Some
of those tales reside in the memories of families that have
lived them. A few have been recorded on tape and on paper. Most
have been lost with the passing of the "old-timers" who created
them. What information has been retained of some of the major
points of interest along the road will be related in this series.
BRITTEN'S
For
most travelers of the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Mineral
King road began at Britten's Store and Post Office in Three
Rivers. There was no highway from Visalia. There was no Generals
Highway through the Park. By 1890, there were roads winding
up the lower reaches of each fork of the Kaweah River to different
ranches that had been settled. The road up the North Fork ran
farther than the rest, all the way into the forested regions
of the Kaweah Colony lumber mill. By 1903, that road had been
extended to the Giant Forest by the army.
There
was a shorter road, too, up the Middle Fork of the Kaweah. It
was built by the Mt. Whitney Power Company and was replaced
three years later with a bridge across the river to the Mt.
Whitney Power House No. 2. It continued up the canyon to the
No. 2 dam, ending two or three miles above Hospital Rock. But
it didn't reach the high country.
It
wasn't until 1926, after the Mt. Whitney Power road had been
improved for autos, that a new two-lane Park road was completed
from Hospital Rock to Giant Forest. Until then, the Mineral
King road was the main access to the back country of Sequoia
National Park. Before the advent of the automobile, it was a
long ride from Exeter, Visalia, or other central valley communities
to Three Rivers. Britten's store was the staging place for the
long haul up the Mineral King road. From Visalia to Mineral
King, it could take three days.
Noel
Britten settled on the South Fork of the Kaweah River in 1888
to raise cattle and hogs. Realizing the need for a store in
Three Rivers, Noel and his brother, Ernest, built Britten Brother's
General Store. In 1909, Noel became the Three Rivers Postmaster
and relocated the 1879 franchised post office to their store.
He and his wife, Nellie, also operated the Three Rivers Hotel.
"The
active center of Three Rivers was Britten's Store and Post Office,"
recalled traveler Alice Crowley, a fifteen year old girl in
1909. The large country store was stocked with everything imaginable
in her young eyes.
"This
welcome merchandise was hauled in by heavy freight wagons, which
took a long, full day to make the trip from Visalia," she wrote
in later years. "Noel Britten was storekeeper and post master.
We children considered him the most important person in all
Three Rivers country.
"Near
Britten's store was the hotel, a blacksmith shop and a place
where the Giant Forest and Mineral King Stages stopped to change
horses, drivers, and to take on passengers, mail and baggage."
There
was a dining room in the hotel where stage riders could eat
a mid-day meal. Customers washed off the dust of the valley
ride on the pack porch of the dining room under the welcome
shade of some sycamore trees.
"A
pump was on the low parch, flanked by a long, water-worn bench
on which were the wash basins, tar soap, and a single gourd
drinking cup. A framed, bleary-surfaced glass mirror hung on
the wall of the porch. A roller towel, already much the worse
for use, was beside it. . . damp, musky, whiskey-odored, perspiration
impregnated.
"We
ate our mid-day meal in the dining room. It was served on a
long table running almost the length of the room. In the middle...
was a small, circular revolving table on which anything extra
for the meal was placed. Most of the diners were unacquainted-a
motley group of travelers, stage drivers, a rancher or two,
packers, cowboys. It was a strangely quiet meal except for a
request now and then to pass the this or that, thank ye, Ma-am!
Everyone seemed in a hurry to get the meal over and be about
his business."
By
the 1920s, automobiles had taken the place of horse-drawn stages.
The improved roads were making it possible to get to Mineral
King in one day. Tourists had less reason to stop in Three Rivers
but often they did because Britten's store still held everything
imaginable.
"The
definition of 'store' covered many things other than food stuffs,"
long-time Three Rivers resident Thelma Crain recalled. "There
were such things as coal oil, chicken feed, lanterns, coal oil
lamps, shoes, work clothes, etc. Some staples in larger amounts
were kept in the back room such as hair ribbons, lace and eyelet
for trimming by the yard, and perhaps some boxed candies to
be used as gifts, and sometimes an odd assortment of toys left
over from the previous Christmas season."
Noelie,
as Noel was affectionately called, moved more slowly as the
years passed, plucking requested purchases off the shelves at
a shuffling pace, frustrating some of the customers. In 1935,
Nellie succeeded him as post master, and his brother, Harry,
ran the store and hotel. In 1937, Richard Britten bought the
store and hotel. He and his wife lived in a small apartment
connected to it, until they built a new Three Rivers Market
that still stand today. The old hotel burned in 1948.
(CREDITS:
: "Heading for the Hills" by Alice Crowley Jackson; Buzzards
and Sunbeams, by Thelma Crain; Mary Bronzan papers on the
history of Three Rivers; "Three Rivers Historical Time Line",
Tulare County Historical Library; Papers and Diary from the
Britten family file, Three Rivers Historical Society. Compilation
by Louise Jackson. Webmaster, Jillaina Brown)
www.MineralKing.org: Last updated May 24, 2003
