“History is a symphony of echoes heard and unheard. It is a poem with events as verses.” – Charles Angoff

KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Lake County's Ely Stage Stop and Country Museum is located at 9921 Highway 281, also known as Soda Bay Road, and sits between Kelseyville and Lower Lake.

While the museum is run by the Lake County Historical Society, it belongs to the county of Lake.

This fine addition to our county's museum properties is only possible since it was saved from demolition, because of the generous donation – of both the building and the five acres that it is now situated upon – by Andy and Betty Beckstoffer of Beckstoffer Vineyards, along with a donation by the Kettenhofen Family Foundation.

According to the Lake County Historical Society, the Ely Stage Stop building was at a very convenient location, and was used throughout the past for many purposes. If this building's walls could talk!

Dated at around 1865, the building was once a stagecoach stop, post office, boy's school, pub and even a gas station.

The land upon which the historic building once stood was owned prior to the Ely family by James H. Jamison of Missouri, and utilized as ranch and stock lands in 1859, and later, as a pub and hotel.

In 1883 Benjamin Ely Sr.'s son, Benjamin Eli Jr. (it is not known why the spelling of his name differed from his familial name), garnered ownership of the tract of land.

Throughout the timespan of April 10, 1887, through March 8, 1889, our own Ely Stage Stop building was an operating post office/stagecoach relay station.

For a more detailed account of its history, visit the Ely Stage Stop Web site at http://elystagestop.com/ or better yet, visit it “in person.”

The Ely Stage Stop and Country Museum is open weekends from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The museum offers some great events, including First Sunday Fiddlers, Science Camp, Living History events and Picnic on the Porch.

Be sure to visit Santa and other festivities, such as Christmas Marketplace at the Museum on Saturday, Dec. 19, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is an educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She also writes for NASA and JPL as one of their “Solar System Ambassadors.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education.