THE ROAD TO NATIONAL REGISTER LISTING

It all started with a dream, a conviction that a 113-year old mountain cabin community eventually would be recognized as an important historic resource.

In the summer of 1986, Ora Kay Peterson invited a few interested people to a gathering at her small cabin in east Mineral King to discuss the preservation of the valley’s cabin community. From that meeting the Mineral King Preservation Society was born, a non-profit public benefit corporation dedicated to the preservation of the natural and historical values of the Mineral King area.

The key focus of the Preservation Society was to list the area’s cultural resources on the National Register of Historic Places. John Elliott, a cultural resource specialist, was hired to collect data on the community, research and write a history of the valley, and prepare the National Register papers.

1987: The Society began work in earnest. Historic sites were mapped, surveyed and recorded. An application for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places was begun. A display of mining history was set up in the Mineral King Ranger Station. A repository for historic data was set up. A hike down the old toll road’s River Hill Grade drew a crowd. The first annual “Picnic in the Park” was initiated.

1988-1989: The big preservation project in the next two years was restoration of the resort era Honeymoon or Point Cabin that lies on Disney property. Work on the application for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places continued. In 1989, the first draft of the Mineral King Historic District Contextual History and Description was completed.

1990: The of Sequoia National Park’s centennial was celebrated with a program at the 4th annual Picnic in the Park. A draft nomination to the National Register was reviewed by California’s State Historic Preservation Office and by the National Park Service at its Sequoia headquarters and the regional offices in San Francisco.

1991: A critical year. The first cancellation of a cabin permit under the 1978 law occurred. However, Sequoia National Park committed to a policy that precluded removal of any “potentially significant” structures in the valley. The State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) in consultation with the National Park Service, suggested the Society’s application to the National Register be expanded to a “multiple properties” nomination to include mining resources, the Mineral King road, hydroelectric properties, and archaeological sites. This required more extensive documentation. Drafts of cabin histories, physical descriptions and integrity statements were compiled and reviewed. SHPO staff members toured the proposed historic district.

1992: An application for nomination of the Mineral King Historic District to the National Register was submitted. This document included information on mining sites, early trails, the Mineral King road and the cabins.

1993: In July, the Mineral King Historic District Contextual History and Description was distributed. In October, in cooperation with Sequoia National Park, the Preservation Society submitted a “request for a determination of eligibility” for National Register listing to National Park Service officials in Washington, San Francisco and Denver.

1994: The Preservation Society placed historical signs of original owners and construction dates on the cabins in the district. A revised multiple properties application which included trails, mining properties, the Mineral King road and valley cabin community, was in process. Mining properties, archaeological ruins and trails were mapped and sketched, and research continued on the family history project. Cherilyn Widell, California’s chief Preservation Officer, visited Mineral King for two days and approved the determination of eligibility, thus furthering the nomination process. The Preservation Society board of directors agreed to “strive to see that all cabins are maintained consistent with an eligible historic property in a National Register district.”

1995: During this year, the multiple properties nomination process languished. Compilation of family histories was continued to complete the nomination. Several reviews were made of the application’s documentation. In the meantime, a move to legislate preservation of the Mineral King community became a major project of the Mineral King District Association.

1996: The first work on general management and wilderness plans for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks was initiated. A “Strategic Plan” for the parks was issued and a “scoping” phase for the General Management Plan (GMP) was begun. In late 1996, Chris Brewer took over the job of Historian for the Preservation Society and a new application for nomination of a “Mineral King Cabin District” was submitted to SHPO.

1997: In January, SHPO received a “go-ahead” from the National Park Service to proceed with the National Register nomination process. The multiple properties nomination was dropped and the proposed district was narrowed to encompass only the valley’s two main cabin areas as the most significant extant cultural resources in the area. With the approval of SHPO, the nomination application was sent to the Federal Preservation Officer of the National Park Service in Washington D.C. without input from Sequoia National Park. Meanwhile, Susan Spain, the GMP team captain in Denver, recommended to the National Park Service that it proceed with a Determination of Eligibility of its own to determine if the Mineral King Cabin District and “lands nearby” would qualify as a historic landscape.

1998-1999: Public input into the GMP process involved several “scoping” sessions conducted by the park. A committee of Park Service employees, Preservation Society representatives, and a private consultant met monthly to develop National Register approved repair and maintenance guidelines for the district’s cabins. Two cultural landscape experts from the Park Service and U.C. Davis assessed the Mineral King area’s cultural resources. After review by SHPO, National Park Service historians, the Mineral King Preservation Society and the National Parks and Conservation Association, a Determination of Eligibility was issued in February of 1999. It concluded that the entire Mineral King road corridor was eligible for listing in the National Register. Later, the description was revised to include only the portions within park boundaries. These included the cabin communities at Cabin Cove and West and East Mineral King.

2000-2002: These were fairly quiet years on the preservation scene. Work on the park’s General Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement continued. Nomination of the Mineral King Road Cultural Landscape District to the National Register awaited signatures of consent or denial from privately owned properties in the district. Work continued on the cabin maintenance guidelines. A Memorandum of Understanding was developed in 2001 and 2002 as an agreement between Sequoia National Park and the Mineral King Preservation Society to work cooperatively in the areas of historic preservation, education, information sharing, research efforts, and volunteer activities. Work began on cooperative interpretive activities. Dialogue continued between the Keeper of the National Register , the National Park Service, and SHPO to clarify what constitutes “contributing” or “non-contributing” cabin status.

2003: After seeming endless delays and the snail-paced movement of bureaucracy, 2003 has been a banner year. The cabin repair guidelines were printed and distributed. The Memorandum of Understanding between the National Park Service and the Preservation Society was signed. Comprehensive plans were initiated for a greater role of the community in the interpretive and volunteer programs.

In August, the California State Historical Resources Commission opened the final door to listing with its approval of the district’s nomination to the National Register. In a last minute bid for clarity, SHPO requested the cumbersome title of “Mineral King Road Cultural Landscape District” be changed . On Friday, October 24, 2003, it became official. The Mineral King Historic District is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

And what does it mean? While listing in the National Register does not insure permanent retention of the 66 cabins in the district, it does require heavy consideration of the Historic District’s cultural resources and their maintenance in any of Sequoia National Park’s plans for the future.

One dream fought for long and hard has come true. The importance of a now 130-year-old, unique, historic community has been recognized. Now a continuing dream to keep the preservation of its cabins and all the area’s cultural and natural resources intact can prevail.

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