RUBICON SPRINGS
One of the oldest and most famous resorts of the High Sierras is
Rubicon Springs. It is nine miles from Lake Tahoe, at McKinney's,
over a mountain road built many years ago, engineered so as to afford
marvelously entrancing glimpses of the Lake and of the mountain
scenery on either hand. Here are primeval forest, flower-strewn
meadows of emerald, crystal streams and placid-faced glacial lakes
in which snow-clad mountain summits are mirrored in quiet glory. The
Rubicon River is one of the feeders of the American River, and the
springs are located not far from its head waters.
The Rubicon Springs were originally discovered and located upon by the
Hunsaker brothers, two genuine explorers and adventurers whose names
deserve to be preserved in connection with the Tahoe region. They
were originally from the Hoosier state, coming to California in 1849,
across the plains, by Fort Hall, the sink of the Humboldt, Ragtown,
and by Carson Canyon to old Hangtown (now Placerville). They mined
for several years. Then came the Comstock excitement. They joined the
exodus of miners for the Nevada mountains and were among the earliest
to help to construct the Georgetown trail. Thus it was they discovered
Rubicon. In 1869 they located upon 160 acres, built a log-house and
established a stopping station which they called Hunsaker Springs. In
the winter they rested or returned to Georgetown, making occasional
trapping trips, hunting bear and deer, and the meat of which they
sold. In those days deer used to winter in large numbers almost as far
down as Georgetown (some fifteen miles or so), so that hunting them
for market was a profitable undertaking in the hands of experts.
They and John McKinney, the founder of McKinney's, were great friends,
having worked together in the Georgetown mines. They soon made their
places famous. Their mining friends came over from Virginia City,
Gold Hill, Carson, etc., by way of Glenbrook, where they were
ferried across Lake Tahoe by the old side-wheel steamer, _Governor
Stanford_, to McKinney's. Then by pack trail over to Hunsakers.
For many years they used to cut a great deal of hay from the nearby
meadows. A natural timothy grows, sometimes fully four feet high.
A year's yield would often total fully thirty tons, for which the
highest price was paid at the mines.
There was another spring, beside Hunsakers', about a mile higher up,
owned by a friend of the Hunsakers, named Potter. In time he sold this
spring to a Mrs. Clark, who finally sold it back to him, when it was
bought by Mr. R. Colwell, of Moana Villa. When the Hunsakers grew too
old to run their place they sold it to a man named Abbott, who, in
due time wished to sell out. But, in the meantime the railroad had
surveyed their land, granted by Congress, and found that the springs
and part of the hotel building were on their land, so that while
Abbott sold all his holdings to Mr. Colwell, he could not sell the
main objects of the purchaser's desire. An amicable arrangement,
however, was made between all the parties at interest.
Mr. Colwell is now the owner of all the property.
For countless centuries the Indians of both west and east of Tahoe
were used to congregate in the Rubicon country. They came to drink
the medicinal waters, fish, catch deer and game birds, and also gather
acorns and pine nuts. How well I remember my own visit to the Springs
in the fall of 1913. Watson and I had had three delightful days on
the trail and in Hell Hole, and had come, without a trail, from
Little Hell Hole up to Rubicon. The quaking aspens were dropping
their leaves, the tang of coming winter was in the air, mornings and
evenings, yet the middle of the day was so warm that we drank deeply
of the waters of the naturally carbonated springs. No, this statement
is scarcely one of fact. It was warm, but had it been cold, we, or,
at least, I should have drank heartily of the waters because I liked
them. They are really delicious, and thousands have testified to their
healthfulness.
We saw the station of the water company, where a man remains through
the year to register the river's flow and the snowfall. Then we passed
a large lily lake to the left,--a once bold glacial lake now rapidly
nearing the filled-up stage ere it becomes a mountain meadow--and were
fairly on the Georgetown grade, the sixty mile road that reaches from
McKinney's to Georgetown. It is a stern road, that would make the
"rocky road to Dublin" look like a "flowery bed of ease," though we
followed it only a mile and a half to leave it for the steep trail
that reaches Rock Bound Lake. This is one of the larger of the small
glacial lakes of the Tahoe Region, and is near enough to Rubicon
Springs to be reached easily on foot.
From a knoll close by one gains an excellent panorama of Dick's,
Jack's and Ralston's Peaks. Tallac and Pyramid are not in sight. The
fishing here is excellent, the water deep and cold and the lake large
enough to give one all the exercise he needs in rowing.
On the summit of the Georgetown road one looks down upon the nearby
placid bosom of Buck Island Lake. It received this name from Hunsaker.
The lake is very irregular in shape, about a third of a mile long,
and a quarter of a mile wide in its widest part. Near one end is a
small island. Hunsaker found the deer swam over to this island to
rest and sleep during the heat of the day, hence the name.
[Illustration: Angora Lakes, Fallen Leaf Lake and Lake Tahoe ]
[Illustration: White Cloud Falls, Cascade Lake]
[Illustration: Upper Eagle Falls, Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe]
The Little Rubicon river flows into Buck Island Lake and out again,
and about two miles below Rubicon Springs the Georgetown road crosses
the river at the foot of the lake.
With these two lakes, and others not far away, fine hunting and
fishing, with several mountains nearby for climbing, the hotsprings,
a fine table and good horses to ride it can well be understood that
Rubicon Springs makes a delightful summer stopping-place. One great
advantage that it possesses, under its present proprietorship is that
guests may alternate between Moana Villa and the Springs and thus
spend part of their time on the Lake and the other part in the heart
of the mountains. The Colwells are hearty and homelike hosts, and are
devoted to giving their many guests the greatest possible enjoyment,
pleasure and health that a summer's vacation can contain.