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BARTLETT SPRINGS – This weekend, two local buildings with important connections to the county's past met very different fates.
On Sunday, the Ely Stage Stop began its move to a new museum location. A day earlier, the reconstructed Bartlett Springs Resort lodge was burned to the ground.
“It's completely gone,” said Zane Gray, the resort's caretaker since 1982, of the main lodge building.
The fire was reported Saturday afternoon, said Gray. On Sunday, he went to survey the damage, which included five acres of brush land and the building.
A US Forest Service investigator is working to determine the fire's cause, Gray said. The Mendocino National Forest office in Willows couldn't be reached over the weekend for comment.
However, Gray said he believes it was arson, saying that fire officials told him Sunday that the fire appears to have started in the lodge building.
“It couldn't have started by itself,” he maintained, explaining that the propane tanks were removed several years ago, and the electricity was turned off.
“Somebody had to match it, that's all,” he said.
The lodge building that burned Saturday was located at the site of the resort's original lodge, which burned down in 1934. It was rebuilt, with that incarnation of the lodge blowing down in a windstorm in 1988, said Gray.
“I had the building all totally rebuilt in 1989,” said Gray. “It cost the company $171,000 at that time to do the upgrade on it.”
The nearby gazebo, said Gray, was spared in Saturday's fire. “The fire burned right to it but never touched it.”
Gray said he rebuilt the gazebo in 1985, installing new timbers and lumber in an attempt to put it back the way it was at the turn of the 20th century.
The Bartlett Springs Resort's history stretches back to the 1870s, after a mineral spring was discovered there by Napa resident Greene Bartlett during a camping trip, according to The Bartlett Springs Area: Past & Present, written in 2005 by Upper Lake resident Michelle Wells.
Bartlett, who suffered from rheumatism, believed in the springs' healing abilities, Wells' history reports, so he filed a claim for the 160 acres around the spring.
A resort would later be built there, Wells wrote, that included three hotels, camping areas, two stores, mineral steam baths, a bottling facility, a concert hall, stores, a doctor's office and numerous recreational activities – swimming, golf, croquet, tennis, riding, bowling and more.
A Justice of the Peace and constable even were stationed at the resort, Wells wrote, explaining, “because it was so isolated it became more like its own little town as well.”
Known by friends and neighbors as “the mayor of Bartlett Springs,” Gray, who will be 80 in September, has cared for the 1,990-acre property for the last 25 years.
A self-described “pretty tough old man,” Gray is a World War II veteran who moved to Lake County in 1978 with his wife, Frances.
During the time Gray has acted as caretaker, the resort has changed hands a few times, purchased by the French water bottling company Vittel in 1984, who later sold the property to Nestle in 1993. The Vittel bottling plant was later sold separately, and is today the home of Tulip Hill Winery in Nice.
Gray has worked hard over the years to preserve and improve the remaining resort buildings.
The resort suffered damage in the 1996 Fork Fire, said Gray. The two-week Fork Fire reportedly burned 83,000 acres in the Mendocino National Forest and on private property, destroying 11 structures.
Of those structures destroyed, one was a small second house on Gray's 12-acre property near the resort.
A member of the Northshore Fire Protection District, Gray helped fight the Fork Fire and tried to protect the resort then as well.
“We were able to save the lodge at that time and all of the buildings, except for two of the old cabins that were from the 1890s era, and I had just restored them,” he said.
In recent years, despite his care, Gray has been fighting a losing battle against vandals intent on destroying the resort buildings.
Vandalism has been going on in Bartlett Springs “nearly forever,” he said, adding, “It's picked up in the last two years.”
He's found a lot of people on the property – mostly young people, he added – and despite chasing them off the problems have continued.
A visit this reporter made to the lodge in May – granted access by Gray – revealed windows, walls bashed in, bullet holes, kicked in doors and evidence of parties, including trash and beer bottles.
There have also been bouts of arson in the area, said Gray, with a “firebug” around caught there a few years ago after setting some fires.
Gray said he notified Nestle of the building's destruction, and hasn't received word what the company might do. He said he doesn't think that they will rebuild the lodge.
Editor's note: Zane Gray is the great-uncle of Lake County News Editor Elizabeth Larson.
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NICE – Firefighters continued their work Sunday mopping up at the scene of a 128-acre fire that was contained Saturday night.
Cal Fire reported that the fire broke out behind Robinson Rancheria Saturday afternoon, quickly climbing up the hill and into steep terrain. Firefighters from Cal Fire, and Northshore and Lakeport Fire Protection Districts fought the blaze.
At the scene Sunday, the trail of the fire was clearly visible, making its way from behind Robinson Rancheria Bingo & Casino, traveling over the hill and back toward more steep terrain near Pyle Road.
Firefighters cut trees and dealt with remaining hot spots around the area of the fire, which left a huge blackened footprint.
Rachelle Trimmer of the Cal Fire Incident Command Center reported that 80 firefighters were on duty Sunday, including a five-engine strike team and supervisors, and a water tender.
Trimmer said one engine with four firefighters would remain at the scene overnight.
Northshore Fire District Chief Jim Robbins said the fire was the largest his agency has fought so far this fire season.
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LAKE COUNTY – Last week Lake County Sheriff's Office (LCSO) deputies and members of a recently formed task force conducted an operation to make sure convicted sex offenders are following registration requirements.
A report from LCSO Det. Mike Curran of the said that on July 23 and July 24, a sex registrant compliance and enforcement sweep was conducted by the Region II Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement (SAFE) Task Force in the City of Clearlake and south Lake County.
The Region II SAFE Task Force is funded through a grant from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services and covers 12 counties along the North Coast from Monterey County to Del Norte County.
Approximately 130 registrants were contacted to ensure that they are in compliance with their sex registrant requirements, in particular that the registrants are residing at the address given during registration, Curran reported.
Registrants with parole and/or probation search terms were also subject to search conducted at the time of contact. Several arrests were made and additional investigations were initiated as a result of alleged registration violations.
Staffing shortages at the sheriff’s office have created a real challenge for the patrol and investigations divisions to perform brief quarterly compliance checks, reported Curran, as well as initiating investigations on registrants known to be out of compliance with their sex registration responsibilities. Periodic compliance/enforcement operations such as the one just completed will take place on both ends of Lake County.
Agents assigned to the task force coordinate with agencies within their respective counties for operations such as the one just completed in Lake County, and also assist agents within the region with operations in their own respective county, according to Curran's report.
SAFE Task Force Agents from Santa Clara County, Humboldt County, Del Norte County and Napa County participated in the operation, Curran reported.
Additional agencies involved in the operation were the Lake County Sheriff’s Department, Clearlake Police Department, Lake County Probation Department, Lake County District Attorney’s Office, Lakeport Police Department and State Parole. Curran, a Lake County SAFE Task Force agent, coordinated the operation.
Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith submitted the grant for the task force, which was approved and funded by the Governor’s Office of Emergency Service, Curran reported.
Smith’s desire to pursue a regional task force has added a seriously needed tool for law enforcement not only for her county, but for every county, especially the smaller ones covered within the grant boundaries that allows funding and staffing for sex registrant compliance/enforcement operations, according to Curran's report.
Thanks to Smith's innovative efforts, LCSO – which might otherwise not have been able to carry out such an operation due to a lack of available funding – is able to participate in this most-needed aspect of protecting the public, Curran reported.
Sheriff Rod Mitchell expressed his gratitude to Smith for including Lake County in the grant funding, and said he applauded her for her initiative and innovation.
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NICE – Northshore firefighters took on their largest wildland fire of the season so far, battling a Saturday afternoon blaze that burned 128 acres near Robinson Rancheria.
Suzie Blankenship, a Cal Fire fire prevention specialist, said the fire was reported at 3:45 p.m. It broke out in steep, rugged terrain behind the rancheria's playground, which is located behind the main area of the rancheria.
Witnesses at the scene said the fire then burned up into the hills toward Nice.
Northshore Fire Protection District, Cal Fire and Lakeport Fire Protection District responded to the scene, said Northshore Chief Jim Robbins. The Lake County Sheriff's Office also was at the scene to control traffic.
Blankenship said Cal Fire sent seven engines, four dozers, three fire handcrews, one air attack, five air tankers and three helicopters, along with two officers on the ground helping an incident commander organize the effort.
Another five engines from Northshore Fire responded, said Robbins, along with two four-wheel drive attack units, he and a battalion chief. Lakeport Fire also sent an engine.
Blankenship said firefighters had difficulty fighting the fire because of high-tension power lines in the area, which limited the use of air crews.
The fire was contained at 7:15 p.m., said Blankenship.
However, the fire was far from out at that point, said Robbins.
“There's still a lot of hot spots,” he said from the scene.
Because of the need to monitor the area, Robbins said crews were being ordered in overnight.
No single family dwellings were threatened, said Robbins, although a few small sheds that were buried in the remote area's brush were destroyed.
There were no injuries to area residents or firefighters, said Robbins.
Robbins said it was the biggest blaze that Northshore Fire has had to fight so far this season.
The wind helped the fire spread rapidly, said Robbins.
“We went from 20 acres to about 60, 70 acres in less than 20 minutes, it had such a good westerly wind on it,” he said.
The cause of the fire is under investigation, said Robbins. A Cal Fire official was at the fire scene Saturday evening in an effort to determine the source.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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