COULTERVILLE NOTES-CALIFORNIA

main page with site search engine mariposaresearch.net

TIDBITS FROM THE  HISTORY OF COULTERVILLE, California
April  4, 1936, Modesto Bee
Mrs. Harry Greeley, Mrs. Nell Gazola and B. C. Greeley motored to Mariposa Saturday
. Lowell Dexter visited at the Fiske home Friday night.
Mrs. Everett Milani spent Sunday at the B C Greeley ranch
 H P Struble, district ranger, was in town one day last week.
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Rauscher and Fred Carlson were in Mariiposa Monday.
Francis Honey of Soulsbyville returned to his home Monday after spending a week at the W S Fiske home.
Mr. and Mrs. George Cuneo of Snelling were in Coulterville Monday.
 Herbert H. McCarthy of Greeley Hill spent several days last week visiting in town.
Miss Betty Fiske called at the C C Caldwell home Sunday afternoon.
Frank Hart of Merced visited his sister, Mrs. Fred  Rausche, Sunday.
Mrs. Joe Ferretti is vising relatives in San Francisco.
John L Dexter of Mariposa and daughter, Katharine, accompanied by friends spent Saturday with Lowell Dexter on Greeley Hill.
Sheriff J J Castagnetto of Mariposa was a business visitor in town recently.
Lawrence and Harry Greeley of Camp Bootjack spent the week-end at their homes here.
===================================================
APRIL  17- 1937, Modesto Bee
Mr. and Mrs. Walter F. Hoope, son Jack and Ernest Johnson went to the Marble Springs Mine Friday.
Claude C Caldwell was in Sonora two days last week
Mrs. R. S. Hudgson and Mr. and Mrs. John McGuire went to Modesto last Thursday.
Mr. and Mrs. George Mentzer have gone to El Portal to live, as Mentzer will be employed in Yosemite.
Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Hudson, Will Greeley, Mrs. Minnie Jeffery, John Mentzer and Stanley Fiske motored to Modesto Tuesday night.
Mr. and Mrs. James DePauli of Oakland were in town for the weekend.
Mr. and Mrs. A. M. Guerra of Snelling visited relatives in town Sunday and Monday.
Lyman Converse of Yosemite spent the week-end at his home on Greeley Hill.
Mr,. and Mrs. Ed Johnson of Track visited in town over the week-end.
Cyril Harvey of Camp Greeley spent Sunday at the W.S. Kiske (as written) home.
Mr. and Mrs. McMailane of Stent visited their daughters, Mrs. Allan Haigh and Mrs. Harold Herbeck recently.
Elizabeth and Jean Fiske visited at the L L Dexter home Sunday afternoon.
Miss Lavona Bradbury of Tuolumne spent this week-end in Coulterville.
Mr. and Mrs. Ed Deffenbaugh of Greeley Hill left Monday to work at a mine near Coulterville.
Sheriff J J Castagnetto of Mariposa was a business visitor in town Sunday.
Mrs. Frank Notterman and children have gone to San Bernardino to be with her mother who is ill.
Glen Schuldt and C C Caldwell went to Granite Springs Monday to build fence
================================================================

JULY 1941 Modesto Bee,  (specific date unreadable)

Mr. and Mrs. Frank Barrett and four daughters recently returned from a trip to San Francisco.
Mrs. Jerome Martin of Modesto recently visited relatives in the Garbarino home.
Mrs. W. S. Fiske and sons, Robert and Russell, went to Mariposa Monday night to visit in the Stanley Fike home.
Mrs. Lyle D. Converse left Monday for Oakland, where she will visit relative for two weeks.
Mr. and Mrs. Walter D. McLean and family of Greeley Hill were Coulterville visitors Monday.
Mrs. B. Hannah and daughter, Dr. E. P. Hannanh of Palo Alto,passed through Coulterville on their way home from Yosemite Valley.
Mrs. W. S. Fiske and children, Russell and Jean, and Mrs. W. E. Maxwell and granddaughters, Jean and Phyllis Maxwell, spent Tuesday in the Yosemite Valley.
Charles S. Stewart drove to Modesto Monday and returned Tuesday night.
John Vigna and James Shimer drove to Jamestown and Sonora Thursday.
Mr. and Mrs. Marcus N. Maxwell of Pine Ridge spent the weekend in the W. E. Maxwell home.
Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Jensen of Oakdale were in Coulterville and on Greeley Hill Saturday night.
Lon L. Dexter motored to Sonora Friday.
Mr. and Mrs. Charles Ernst recently attended a family reunion in Manteca.
Claude C. Caldwell made a business trip to Oakdale Monday.
Mr. and Mrs. L. C. Greeley of Snelling spent the weekend on Greeley Hill with relatives.
Alda Converse and Bart Thorsen of Sonora and Tuolumne spent the weekend in the J. L. Converse home.
Bob Buckley of Oakland spent the weekend in the Buckley home.
Russell Fiske left for Yosemite Valley Friday where he is employed by the Curry Company.
Douglas Brice of Berkeley is spending a month in the Ralph Sturtevant home near Granite Springs.
Mrs. J. B .Hudson has moved to Sonora for the Summer, as Hudson is employed there by the forest service.

=================================================================
Beaver County Times- Dec 9, 1981
THE CANS OUTCLASS THE BREW
Coulterville, Calif- At first glance it looks like a beer supermarket.
But there are no refrigerators, and there is no beer.
Just empty beer cans- 3,000 of them.
"We have a helluva time when the wind blows and the front door is open," says Lee Dunlap, 60, who owns and operates a beer can store with his wife, Thelma.
"The merchandise starts flying off the shelves,".
The Dunlaps run one of the few beer can stores in the U.S. here in this remote mountain hamlet, population 115, in the High Sierra.
They cater to been can collectors and anyone else who might wanner in willing to pay from 50 cents to $250  for an empty beer can that strikes his fancy.   Beer cans go back to 1935, says Dunlap.
What's a beer can store doing in the mountains of Mariposa county miles from the nearest town of any size?
"We operate out of our home and we live on the top of a mountain, that's why," explains Dunlap.  "our chief sources of supply are abandoned mining and logging camp dumps and there are a lot of them nearby.
"Most of our business is by mail order," Dunlap said.
The Dunlaps' merchandise is stacked on shelves from floor to ceiling in the adobe store built when COULTERVILLE was booming during the GOld Rush of 1853.
Many of the empty beer cans are rusted and grimy.
"There are beer can collectors who  want cans in shiny mint condition.   Then there are others who don't care what the condition of the can is so long as they don't already have one like it in their collection," says Dunlap.
The couple ws filling an order for 200 empty beer cans to be shipped to a customer to New Zealand.
"We ship all over the world," says Thelma Dunlap.  "Recently we've had orders from as far away as Holland, germany and Australia and from all over the United States and Canada.
"They find out about us from ads we run in beer can collectors magazine.  "they write and we send them a list of what he have available, a description of the condition, and the price."

No one doubts its growth potential
Modesto Bee, Emmett Corrigan, Bee Staff writer
May 15, 1982

 What does this town need most?
"A fence surrounding it, with a lock on the gate," according to Joan Tune, a member of the advisory board which was organized by the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors to address the needs of Coulterville.
"More signs showing people how to get here so they won't get lost,' answered Frank Romeo, president of the Coulterville Chamber of Commerce.
Both residents, staunch supporters of this historic Mariposa County town 55 miles east of Modesto, think differently about the community's needs but there isn't any doubt in their minds about it s potential.
Romeo, who owns Yosemite Sam's pizza parlor here, sees Coulterville as a "potential time-bomb, which could explode (with more tourists, residents and businesses) in a day, 10 years, 12 years."  He hopes it will happen and the sooner the better.
Tune envisions Coulterville "as a nice rural life style, which I would not like to see drastically changed."
There is no doubt about the present rural look to the town.
On Thursday, only a half dozen people of the total population of about 125 appeared to be moving about.
The shortage of residents even surprised Earl Miashar, retired, who called out to a friend in a a passing pickup truck:  "Hey, where is everybody?  There's nobody around."
Actually, there were people around.  The Taliabues were in there Mavis Jewel shop making sales to tourists.
Jim Prescher was stacking beer cases on the bar of the Magnolia Saloon in the  historic 130-year old Jeffery Hotel.  Frank Romeo was supervising, if not sampling, the pizza at yosemite Sam's.
Fireman Neal Sherlock, owner of Sherlock's American antique shop, was collaring a newspaper reported to ask him to plug the Coulterville Volunteer Fire Department's annual Deep Pit Barbecue, at noon on July 3 at the Coulterville Park. "come Early, stay late, you won't go home hungry," he said.
Out-of-towners were unloading cameras from their campers in advance of their quiet assault on the town and the sweet, fresh air of Coulterville was filled with the whirling of barn swallow heading for the eaves of Jeffery Hotel to build their nests.
The swallows (sea swallows, not barn swallows) may know their way to Capistrano each year, said Romeo, but would they know their way to Coulterville?
Romeo said there aren't enough "Coulterville " signs on Highway 132, which joins Highway 580 on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, goes through Modesto and swings through some lovely hill country on its way up to Coulterville where it joins Highway 49.
Romeo feels the more signs motorists see about Coulterville, the sooner they will see a community rich in history.  "A mecca for hundreds of people each week-end, picnicking, haunting the numerous rock, antique and hobby shops," as a county chamber brochure puts it.  Tourists can see the old iron steam engine "Whistling Bill," the picturesque 130- year old Jeffery Hotel, now being remodeled, and chat with the community's most  valuable treasure- its people.
And, important, too, said Romeo, if travelers knew the way to Coulterville, they would also learn of one scenic route- J-20 - to Yosemite National Park.
"When all the traffic is routed through the other communities, we're left standing in the middle," he said, "and it  doesn't help us at all.  It's been a problem."
Lane Sevy, district traffic engineer for the California Department of Transportation in Stockton, said there seem to be enough signs already set up for Coulterville.  His lists show nine signs on Highway 132 between Modesto and the town.  And on the outskirts of Coulterville itself a sign reads, "Coulterville, pop. 115, elevation 1,740."
Sevy admits there aren't any Coulterville signs west of Modesto.  But Caltrans will be happy to put up more signs for any community which can show motorists are taking the wrong roads getting to it, he said.
Romeo said the opening of the Quail Mine could open up new growth for the community.
Bartender Prescher said reopening of the Jeffery Hotel and a regular schedule for its bar could draw upon a market of 4,000 to 5,000 people in Tuolumne and Mariposa counties and stir new interest in the area.
"This bar could revert back to the gathering place it was when Ed Sackett owned it 20 years ago, " said Prescher.
Mavis Taliabue said the hotel opening means the whole town will become alive again.
"When the community had a moratorium on building because of its sewer  and water problems, we were locked in .  Oh, Lord, we couldn't do anything.  We couldn't build, couldn't remodel.  No bathrooms.  A lot of our wells were condemned then a nd some of the older buildings didn't have bathroom in them and couldn't put them in."
Federal and state funds totaling $1.6 million to build a new water and sewer system were approved in 1978, allowing the town to eliminate its septic tanks which had been polluting individual wells. 
In typical mountain style, the townsfolk  celebrated with a "Great Rescue Celebration: to show their gratitude for the funds and the end of their 18-year struggle to get help.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Modesto Bee, Dec 21 1984
NORTH MARIPOSA
by Martha Freeman, Bee staff writer
MARIPOSA- Northern Mariposa county will keep its locally-based ambulance service at least through Feb.8
John C. Fremont Hospital operates four ambulances, one of them based in the north county town of Coulterville.
Hospital directors voted Thursday to keep their countywide service intact while they seek a county subsidy to cover ambulance operating losses that could reach $80,000 this fiscal year.
In order to continue providing service through Feb. 8, administrator David Goger told directors he would have to immediately reduce the number of crew members per ambulance from three to two and lower standby wages from $1.75 to $1.00 per hour.
"We are losing money by the month.  We have no money left." said newly-elected hospital board chairman Carol Davis.
The directors also asked Goger to further investigate three proposals received from other  other potential providers.
A November ballot measure that would have taxed land owners to fund ambulance and emergency room service failed  to garner the needed two-thirds majority.
After the election, the hospital administration said it would get out ot the ambulance business in January and requested proposals from other providers.
Hospital directors entertained four proposals to replace the current service.  While two would have provided adequate service to the central portion of the county, around Mariposa itself, none would have maintained near current levels of service north of the Merced River, according to Joan Tune.
Tune is one of the crew members of the Coulterville ambulance and a member of the hospital's ambulance committee.
Hospital directors sought a subsidy for the ambulance service last June and were turned down by supervisors, said Davis.
Director Dan Wice make a motion to again request a subsidy.  He stipulated that financial documentation long requested by supervisors should be included.
Supervisor Gene Dalton of Coulterville has accused the hospital board of stonewalling and has complained about poor management at the hospital.
The threat of reduced ambulance service has seemed to deepen a rift between northern and southern portions of Mariposa County.
Divided by the Merced River canyon from four-fifths of county residents, some in the Coulterville-Greely Hill -Don Pedro area say they feel like their illegitimate children of the county.
"We aren't so much  angry or frightened by the threat______the ambulance," said antique store owner Neal Sherlock, We're more irritated and disgusted.
The property tax measure ____ambulance service dic  receive a simple majority on the northside.
Eunice Haines, who edits a newspaper called Northside, said local residents were "tired of being taxed for that hospital" because most of her neighbors go to Sonora or Modesto for medical care.
Haines and other residents interviewed in  downtown Coulterville also pointed out that the hospital receives a portion of county property taxes.
We pay 20 percent of those taxes, but we don't receive 20 percent of the service,: said Haines' husband, Bert, who is president of the Chamber of Commerce in Coulterville.
Goger said property tax revenues would amount to about $158, 000 of the hospital's approximately $2 million budget this year.
North county residents may not use the hospital for its other services, but they do rely on the ambulance.
Losing it would be disastrous,  said Haines.
He and other residents pointed out that there area a number of older people living in remote areas outside COULTERVILLE and Greeley Hill.  Boating enthusiasts and dirt bikers flock to the area during the summer.
For their part, hospital board member did not take kindly to the defeat of the property tax measure or to the accusations of mismanagement.
"It's easy to criticize," chairwoman Davis said before the directors meeting. "There was a supervisor from that area, Harry Hurlburt, who once told them they could have anything they wanted if they were willing to pay for it.."
She said the moral to that story is obvious.
Haines, a licensed vocational nurse, said the controversy could have a bright side if it unites north county residents.
-------------------------------------
The Modesto Bee, Jan 5, 1985
By Bob White, Bee staff writer
State Grant Rescues Mariposa County Ambulance Service
COULTERVILLE- It is too early to write the obituary for northern Mariposa County's ambulance service.
Since the defeat of a November tax measure that would have kept the ambulance rolling, local residents have feared their ambulance service was ll but dead, bled dry by a $30,000 annual operating deficit.
But the state has provided the ambulance service with a $19, 000 transfusion, enough to keep the ambulance's life support systems in operation another six months.
"It isn't a cure-all," said Eugene Dalton, county supervisor for the north county.  'But it will give us time to come up with a solution to our problem."
The county wide John C. Fremont Hospital District operates ambulance services in Coulterville-Greeley Hill, Mariposa and El Portal.
Last year, the ambulance operations lost some $30,000, and they face a projected loss of $80,000 this fiscal years, according to David Goger, hospital  administrator.
With the district unable to continue absorbing such losses, hospital directors asked voters in the November election to approve a $30-per-parcel property tax increase to subsidize the ambulance services and the hospital emergency room.
The proposal was defeated.
Dalton said the non-profit Sierra Ambulance of Oakhurst in Madera County submitted a proposal to operate ambulances in Mariposa and Coulterville. But the proposal called for relying heavily on volunteers to man the Coulterville ambulance, according to Dalton.
He said  north county residents are reluctant to take that route because it would be difficult to find paramedics and emergency medical technicians to volunteer their time.  In  he hope of buying time to come up with a better solution, county Planning Director Robert Borchard and Helen Fowler, coordinator of the county Emergency Medical  Committee, applied for state funds to keep the north county ambulance operating.
"They really burned the midnight oil" to meet the applicatroin deadline for special needs and priority grants, Dalton said.
He said the application sought enough money to keep the ambulance operating for a year.  But state Department of Health Services officials reduce the funding to six months.
"Their reasoning was that they didn't  want us to become complacent," Dalton said.  "They want us to start working out a solution now."
------------------------------------
Merced Sun Star, Sept. 11, 1989
AMBULANCE  Advisory Vote Near
By Janis McRaie, Staff Writer
MARIPOSA- "If Mariposa County  commits $100, 0000 of general fund revenue for the 1989-90 fiscal years, would yo support an assessment on improvements (residential and commercial) to fund an acceptable level of ambulance service within Mariposa County?"
This is the question that will be presented to Mariposa County voters as an advisory measure on the special election ballot on Tuesday.  The results will indicate to county supervisors if the electorate will support the formation of a service area to fund ambulance service in the county.
The county is not obligated to provide ambulance service but stepped in to do so several years ago when the John C. Fremont Hospital District said it could no longer afford to offer the service.
Twice the voters of the county have turned down measure that would have provided funs for the ambulance service.  This measure, being only an advisory measure, allows the supervisors to use their discretion in continuing to underwrite Riggs Ambulance of Merced which has been  serving the county for several years.
About four months ago, Kraig Riggs of Merced told supervisors, the $5,000 a month subsidy they were paying was no longer adequate.     He said he needs at least $13,000 a month to continue  to station an ambulance in Mariposa and Coulterville.
County supervisors who say they are not advocating or opposing the measure, have agreed that the assessment on any habitable  dwelling or commercial unit will not exceed $25 per unit for the first year.  They have agreed to hold the public hearings before revising the assessment.
The county has agreed to keep all funds generated from the  assement including the set-aside from the general fund in a separate account that will be used only for ambulance service.
If the advisory measure fails, the board can  find the additional funds needed by cutting other programs or can decide to let the  subsidy go.
Riggs told the Sun-Star that if the subsidy is dropped, he will continue to keep a unit in Mariposa but will no longer station one in Coulterville.


MORE MARIPOSA COUNTY HISTORIC NEWS