Calpine was built as company owned sawmill town for the Davies-Johnson Lumber Company and its 500 workers. The lodge was constructed in 1919 and it is now close to a hundred years old. It was built as a recreation hall for the once-thriving mill town and later on it has become the place for social gatherings. Today the historic buildings serve lodging, dining and a full bar...

"Calpine Lodge 1945" - Courtesy of the Eastman's Original Collection, Dept of Special Collections , UC-Davies.

 

A small taste of the ancient history of the Sierra Nevada

The Sierra Nevada is a four hundred and thirty mile-long colossus, a giant piece of the earth`s crust between fifty and eighty miles wide, soaring to a almost fifteen thousand feet. It is a piece of nature covering many themes and prompting superlatives than only carlifornians can comfortably fit into their everyday vernacular.
The Sierra Nevadas has the largest trees, the deepest canyons, the most snow, the highest waterfalls, the highest mountain peek in the lower forty-eight, the oldest national park and the richest gold fines.

The Sierra Nevada visible today is about five million years old, though the evolution can be traced back to about five hundred million years. The most significant occurence in creating the Sierrra Nevada came when the Pacific Plate pushed under the North American Plate. This was to hundred and fifty million years ago. A more recent earthquake in 1872, increased the height of the Sierra Nevada by about twenty feet and also bumped it sideways by about forty.
This earthquake decimated the town of Lone Pine, killing several dozen people.

The «Maidu» and «Washoe» indians are the first known residents of the Sierra Nevada. In the summers, they came into the mountains to hunt and fish. During the fall and winter, they returned to the foothills and the valey below. Timber harvesting has played an important role in the county’s thousand-plus years of history. the Mountain Maidu used timber (which was considered communal
property) to construct their subterranean shelters, including sweathouses!

When gold was discovered, emigration from around the world brought a new cultural era to the region. The Sierra Nevada was then named by a Spaniard in 1776, when he described it as «una gran sierra nevada» or «Snowy range». But it was not until 1844 that a party of fifty people set out from Council Bluffs, Idaho, to seek a better life in California. They succeeded in scaling the Sierra Nevada with the help of a chief of the Paiute Indian Nation. The immigrants mistakenly thought his name was Truckee, since he often answered questions with a word that sounded like that.
In fact, «truk-eee» is a Paiute word meaning «all right»!

The most famous man of the Sierra Nevada was John Muir, - also called the «Father of Our National Park System». He wa s borned in Scotland in 1838 and came to America at the age of eleven. His family settled in Wisconsin and in 1868 he would see the Sierra Nevada for the first time. It was love at first sight! He settled in Yosemite for four years and started his career as a writer. He would eventually write about 300 articles, publish 10 books, - and along with his like-minded supporters, he founded the Sierra Club in 1892. Their moto was «Do something for wilderness and make the mountains glad». A new enviromentall movement was a fact.

 

 

History - The new owners

After more than six months of painstaking remodeling and repairs, the Sierra Valley Lodge has officially reopened!

The new owners of the lodge include two brothers, Charles and Roy Gundeid as well as Steffen Gundeid, Charles’ oldest son. Charles and Steffen own and operate the Restaurante Pizzeria Capri in Sonoma, Ca. Roy Gundeid has been a Master Diamond cutter and jeweler for more than 30 years with two jewelry stores in Norway as well as an on-line diamond marketing business. Roy’s son, Oliver, is a Grapic Designer and is responsible for the IT and web design for the Lodge.

Charles and Roy were both born in the United States but moved back to Norway when Charles was only seven years old and Roy was six. Charles moved back with his family to the US in 1991 and became a contractor before opening the resturant in Sonoma.
Roy remained in Norway but made frequent trips to the US with his familiy to visit Charles and his family.

The Sierra Valley Lodge has given the two families the chance to re-unite with a common purpose and bring the two families together here in the beautiful Sierra Valley.

Charles, Steffen, Roy and their families are exited to have this oportunity and look forward to seeing you!