WALKING TOUR OF LA PORTE
WELCOME TO HISTORIC RABBIT CREEK
It maybe hard to believe but you are standing on a street which once was crowded with miners, mules, horses and fortune seekers from all over the world and had 3 hotels, dozens of mercantile stores, 14 saloons. a theater, newspaper office and a bank.
You are about to take a walk through time, into the historic town of Rabbit Creek. You'll have to use your imagination a bit but the FRANK C. REILLY CHAPTER of the E CLAMPUS VITUS has made your tour easier by erecting monuments along your route.
The tour starts on the porch of the historic "BUNKHOUSE " on
the corner of Main Street and Pike Road. (For more information about the
"BUNKHOUSE " rooms and the cabins on CHINA ALLEY please call
530-675-0850). The BUNKHOUSE building's main floor is the home of RABBIT
CREEK ANTIQUES & GIFTS.
We sell antiques, collectibles, mountain crafts and books, specializing
in books about our area and more. The main office of LA PORTE CABIN RENTALS
is located inside the shop.
Fuller and Buell Monument
Between the La Porte General Store and the Frank C. Reilly Museum, Fuller and Buell built the "Alturas Block" (the first fireproof building in Sierra county). In one of La Porte's many devastating fires, the roof burned but the walls still stood.
The La Porte General Store burned in 1966 and was a great loss to the town and to its inhabitants. A new store was built on the site of the old one but it could never capture the feeling the "old store" gave you. The old La Porte Post Office was in the back of the store with its old fashioned iron bars and pigeon holes for the mail. The last postmaster of La Porte was Georgia Hillman O'Rourke. The store was owned by Truman and Helen Gould from 1949 to 1977. (See "La Porte Scrapbook" by Helen Weaver Gould for a wonderful introduction to La Porte. This book is available for sale in the Frank C. Reilly Museum) The Gould's motto was: "If Gould doesn't have it, you don't need it."
Frank C. Reilly, E CLAMPUS VITUS Musuem is your next stop.
The museum is open weekends from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
FRANK REILLY, his wife LUCILLE and her mother MARIE SANDBERG were La Porte to most people from the late 1930's to the middle 1960's. In the 30's they (along with Marie's first husband Lucien Amey) extended their warm hospitality to all comers, first at the La Porte Hotel and later at Reilly's Saloon and Cafe. Frank was born in Forbestown and before becoming an innkeeper he was the foreman of the Feather Fork Mine. Frank, Lucille and "Mom" were always ready to welcome you with hot food and drinks and good companionship.
Rabbit Creek House
Built in 1852 by Eli Lester, the Rabbit Creek house was the first permanent structure built in the town. Eli Lester became the first postmaster and was credited with introducing hydraulic mining in the area. The post mark at that time was Rabbit Town which may have paved the way to the name change in 1857 when Rabbit Creek was renamed "La Porte" to "honor" the home town of Frank Everts who was from La Porte, Indiana. Everts and Company was the dominant express office of the time and being on the good side of Frank was probably a good idea.
The CAYOTHOTEL is right across the street from you. The present building was built in 1906 on the site of three others that burned in La Porte's many fires. Josephine Cayot, along with her family, emigrated from France and the hotel which had its birth as Kitt's Hotel remained in the family until the late 1960's when it was bought by Harold Thrash and reopened. After Francis Cayot passed away, The hotel was operated by the Amey/Reilly family until WorldWar Two gas and rubber shortages forced its closure. In the early 70's it was remodeled and modernized by a couple from Miami. Today it is again open with rooms, dining and a bar.
Also on your left the Rabbit Creek Deli building has been built on the site of the old Bank Club and was originally a stage company office.
Retrace your steps down Main Street past the La Porte Sports Center and return to Pike Road. continue down Pike Road to China Alley to the next monument.
Chinese in La Porte
The Chinese came to Rabbit Creek to make their fortunes in the mines and along the creeks. By the 1870's there were over 250, mostly Chinese men. in La Porte. On this site there once stood a mercantile store, lodging houses, an opium den and a house of prostitution. To your left there was a Chinese hospital. The Chinese had their own cemetery but preferred to have their bones sent back to China whenever possible. ("Bury MY Bones in America" by Lani Ah Tye Farkas is an excellent history of the her family in La Porte and is available at the book department of Rabbit Creek Antiques and Gifts.)
Continue down China Alley . To your left are the 3 China Alley Cabins available for rental by LA PORTE CABIN RENTALS (530-675-0850}. The cabins were built in the early 1940's for loggers and were completely remodeled a few years ago. Each cabin has a kitchen, bathroom, queen size bed and they are fully equipped. The cabins as well as the BUNKHOUSE Rooms are open all year.
Continue down China Alley and turn left. To your right are two houses. One is very old and the other is a reproduction of a 19th century dwelling. Can you tell which one is authentic?
It's the second house and it still belongs to the Kingdon Family who's ancestor Richard Kingdon was superintendent of the Bellevue Mine at the turn of the last century. The house dates from the middle of the 1800's and is still used by the family.
To the left there are two houses up on the hill that were build by a Mr. Williams in the 1870's.
Continue down Church Street and you will come to the LA PORTE CEMETERY.
B.W. Barnes Monument
B.W. Barnes was a prominent member of the early La Porte community and was instrumental in bringing water to the town from a spring situated on Bald Mountain. The system has been updated and the old wooden pipes replaced by modern plastic but the water still flows over the same route as it did in 1868. Mr. Barnes was buried in the cemetery after a Masonic Funeral attended by friends from towns near La Porte. It was April and it was necessary to dig through 6 feet of snow and then the traditional 6 feet of earth to bury him. His body was removed by his family in the 20's and taken to Oregon (or so the story is told). We're not sure why! But many, many of La Porte's pioneers are buried here. As you enter the cemetery you will see a large Bustillous plot. The Bustillous family were teamsters in La Porte and both Mike and Joe were champion snowshoe racers. Maria Bustillous carried the mail on snowshoes to Strawberry Valley. Wander through the cemetery and you'll see many small unmarked graves of La Porte's children who died of the various epidemics that were so common in the 19th century. Some of the women died in childbirth or soon after. We have all tried to guess the identify of "OUR LITTLE WILLIE" but his name remains a mystery.
The famous snowshoe racer Frank Steward is buried here as well as Charles Hendel the well known surveyor and "dope maker" and womanizer. (Dope was what the miners called the racing wax that they put on the snowshoes (skis) and the dopemaker not the skier won the purse at the frequent races on Lexington Hill. (see "LOST SIERRA- GOLD GHOST AND SKIS" by Bill Berry available at RABBIT CREEK ANTIQUES AND GIFTS book department). There is a monument dedicated to the snowshoe racers of La Porte just off the road at the top of Lexington Hill.
For information about the cemetery please contact Carla at RABBIT CREEK ANTIQUES AND GIFTS (675-1512).
You can continue your walk through the cemetery and out on to School Street. The little red schoolhouse was in use until the end of the 1940's and was opened again in the 1980's only to be replaced by a more modern building erected by the Plumas Unified School District. The original La Porte School was in the church building that stood at the entrance of the cemetery.
Continue down School Street to the Corner of School and Main.
The Catholic Church was on your right below the present hotel building.
La Porte Monument:
Millions of dollars of gold was extracted from the area and there is thought to millions more buried just below the surface. The site of the Masonic Hall where Jefferson lodge #97 F&AM had its meetings. Just to the right of the monument on Rabbit Creek where today a private residence stands today (See the display in the Frank C. Reilly Museum)
The "Fill"
This is the site of the Rabbit Creek Bridge which was replaced in the early 50's by a culvert and "fill". There are some wonderful old pictures of the old metal bridge and other subjects in the museum.
Continue over Rabbit Creek to Circle Drive where you can walk along Rabbit Creek and around to the Firehouse and up Main Street to the parking lot of Gold Country-Post Office.
Lotta Crabtree Monument:
Lotta Crabtree was a very young girl when she came to Rabbit Creek with her mother. John Crabtree had come to California seeking gold and his family came by ship to join him from New York. He must have been bitten by the gold fever bug because he frequently disappeared and Mary Crabtree was left to manage by taking in boarders. Little Lotta learned to dance in Mart Taylor's Hall and the miners who were starved for anything that reminded them of their former life back home, showered her with gold. She and her mother left Rabbit Creek and toured the mining camps where Lotta became a sensation. She became the toast of San Francisco and New York. She and her mother returned in later years to Rabbit Creek for a short visit. Lotta's Fountain still stands in San Francisco reminding us of her fame. Lotta never married and left her considerable fortune to homeless animals. Her Mother's boarding house probably stood on the banks of Rabbit Creek down Bustillous Road.
The Bustillous Family's corrals and houses stood where the present day Gold Country building stands. The corrals were across the road and barns and out buildings on the corner opposite. The Bustillous teams of mules and horses were famous throughout the area.
Upper Dutch Diggin's
Now walk to the corner of Bustillous Road and Mooreville Road and continue down Bustillous Road. Off to the left before you get to Rabbit Creek was the La Porte Chinese Cemetery. According to Chinese custom their bones were sent back to China for burial so there are only a few actual graves there. The access to the cemetery is over private property today so it is not for public view.
Cross Rabbit Creek and you can follow the Snowmobile Trail over to Gold Street.
For the more adventurous turn left off the Snowmobile Trail just after you cross Rabbit Creek and continue to the waterfall at the end of the trail. You're walking through a whole area which was "hydrauliced : before the Anti-Debris Act of 1883 and this practice was halted. Irate farmers from the Sacramento Valley threatened to march on the miners (and did) and this destructive practice was halted. It's only in recent years that willows and alders as well as pines and firs have started to grow again since most of the topsoil was removed by the giant monitors which washed away tons of soil in the frantic hunt for riches.
Retrace your steps back to the Snowmobile Trail and you are in the area of "Dublin" where many of La Porte's Irish emigrants lived.
Straight ahead down the Snowmobile Trail will take you to the Quincy-La Porte Road and the La Porte Diggin's. Can you imagine what it must have looked before the hydraulic mining too its toll?
Turn right onto Gold Street and around to Aristocracy Drive where many houses of prominent residents once stood. Not many are left but one of the oldest houses sits way up on a hill on the sharp corner as you are headed back to Main Street. It was originally the home and office of Dr. Mussey. Dr. Mussey delivered many of La Porte's babies was well loved by all.
Main Street:
Here you are back at the Bunkhouse and Rabbit Creek Antiques and Gifts. We hope you enjoyed your little walk through history and your stay with us at La Porte Cabin Rentals.