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Ghost's chance of saving lake
Tom Stienstra, San Francisco Chronicle
May 4, 2003
If only I had a good relationship with the ghost at Independence Lake. Or maybe an extra $22 million or so lying around to buy the place.
That ghost could torment anybody from putting up a gate on the road in and locking out the public this summer. The $22 million could be the only way to keep the new owners from subdividing the land and converting it from a wilderness paradise to a member's-only millionaire's club with a lake-view condo village, shopping center and restaurants, and maybe a ski resort, too.
"Nobody knows what's going to happen," said Dave Miller, the lands manager for Sierra Pacific, which has owned the property surrounding the lake for 56 years and kept it in pristine condition. "I wish I had the money to buy it, too."
Three years ago, Sierra Pacific decided to get out of the hydroelectric power business and put the dam at the lake and the surrounding 2,200 acres up for sale for $26 million. In disclosure papers, the ghost was not mentioned. A buyer recently stepped up with $22 million, that is, $10,000 per acre, and just like that, the property was in escrow. The deal is scheduled to close by mid-June or early July.
Miller and other sources would not divulge who the buyer is. One said it is a corporation that is likely to develop the property, naturally, in order to profit from what it sees as an investment.
Independence Lake has long been California's "Mystery Lake." It was the answer to a quiz that was profiled in stories that appeared on Sept. 10, 2000 (mystery posed) and Nov. 26, 2000 (mystery solved) and archived at www.SFGate.com. As I wrote then:
"The lake is a deep azure jewel set in a canyon at an elevation of 6,949 feet in the Sierra Nevada, bordered by high timbered slopes. It is a place of both intrigue and giant yet elusive fish, with a history like no other place in North America.
"Some visitors have even seen a ghost who is wearing a plaid shirt and blue pants, guarding the living room of a 150-year-old house that is set at the entrance of this remote lake."
That ghost was first seen in the 1950s -- perhaps the specter of a photographer who drowned here or a pilot who crashed -- and has guarded the entrance to the lake ever since.
This entrance is at the end of a circuitous, unsigned network of logging roads, located generally north of Truckee. When you finally get there, you will find that the facilities consist of a vault toilet, a few dispersed campsites, a small, primitive boat ramp, and two caretaker's residences, one for the ghost (seriously) on the right, and one for a Sierra Pacific employee on the left.
What adds to the intrigue is a longshot gamble for huge and elusive cutthroat and brown trout in the 10- to 20-pound class (catch-and-release, no bait, no fishing from shore), a trek to a hidden cave and jaw-dropping viewpoint, and, of course, the idea that a ghost could be roaming around at night outside your tent.
The idea of shutting out public access is not new at lakes, even if the lake is a public resource. If the land bordering a lake is privately owned, all it takes is a gate, and there you go.
There are many examples. In the central Sierra, for instance, public access is permitted at Donnells Reservoir, which looks like a miniature Yosemite Valley in the Stanislaus River Canyon. But a half mile from the access point at the dam, an 11-foot-high fenced gate with an entry point for foot traffic only (with no shore access) has been installed by Tri-Dam, which operates the facility for the Oakdale-South San Joaquin Irrigation District.
Another example is in Shasta-Trinity National Forest at Picayune Lake, a mountain jewel backed by a high granite wall, ideal for swimming, car-top boating and fishing. Except that Roseburg Lumber, which owns the property around the lake, has gated the access road. You can walk in, but even getting a canoe in takes a long, difficult portage.
At Independence, there is a gate right at the tiny boat ramp, and that could get locked the moment escrow closes by the new buyer. In the coming years, the property would then likely be subdivided for private use. That's the consensus among insiders.
About the only thing left to stop it would be blocking the necessary building permits from Sierra County, which isn't likely, or buying the place myself (there's always the lottery, right?).
Or perhaps there could be another way: Who knows what havoc the ghost could convey on the nonrespectful?
Tom Stienstra, San Francisco Chronicle
May 4, 2003
If only I had a good relationship with the ghost at Independence Lake. Or maybe an extra $22 million or so lying around to buy the place.
That ghost could torment anybody from putting up a gate on the road in and locking out the public this summer. The $22 million could be the only way to keep the new owners from subdividing the land and converting it from a wilderness paradise to a member's-only millionaire's club with a lake-view condo village, shopping center and restaurants, and maybe a ski resort, too.
"Nobody knows what's going to happen," said Dave Miller, the lands manager for Sierra Pacific, which has owned the property surrounding the lake for 56 years and kept it in pristine condition. "I wish I had the money to buy it, too."
Three years ago, Sierra Pacific decided to get out of the hydroelectric power business and put the dam at the lake and the surrounding 2,200 acres up for sale for $26 million. In disclosure papers, the ghost was not mentioned. A buyer recently stepped up with $22 million, that is, $10,000 per acre, and just like that, the property was in escrow. The deal is scheduled to close by mid-June or early July.
Miller and other sources would not divulge who the buyer is. One said it is a corporation that is likely to develop the property, naturally, in order to profit from what it sees as an investment.
Independence Lake has long been California's "Mystery Lake." It was the answer to a quiz that was profiled in stories that appeared on Sept. 10, 2000 (mystery posed) and Nov. 26, 2000 (mystery solved) and archived at www.SFGate.com. As I wrote then:
"The lake is a deep azure jewel set in a canyon at an elevation of 6,949 feet in the Sierra Nevada, bordered by high timbered slopes. It is a place of both intrigue and giant yet elusive fish, with a history like no other place in North America.
"Some visitors have even seen a ghost who is wearing a plaid shirt and blue pants, guarding the living room of a 150-year-old house that is set at the entrance of this remote lake."
That ghost was first seen in the 1950s -- perhaps the specter of a photographer who drowned here or a pilot who crashed -- and has guarded the entrance to the lake ever since.
This entrance is at the end of a circuitous, unsigned network of logging roads, located generally north of Truckee. When you finally get there, you will find that the facilities consist of a vault toilet, a few dispersed campsites, a small, primitive boat ramp, and two caretaker's residences, one for the ghost (seriously) on the right, and one for a Sierra Pacific employee on the left.
What adds to the intrigue is a longshot gamble for huge and elusive cutthroat and brown trout in the 10- to 20-pound class (catch-and-release, no bait, no fishing from shore), a trek to a hidden cave and jaw-dropping viewpoint, and, of course, the idea that a ghost could be roaming around at night outside your tent.
The idea of shutting out public access is not new at lakes, even if the lake is a public resource. If the land bordering a lake is privately owned, all it takes is a gate, and there you go.
There are many examples. In the central Sierra, for instance, public access is permitted at Donnells Reservoir, which looks like a miniature Yosemite Valley in the Stanislaus River Canyon. But a half mile from the access point at the dam, an 11-foot-high fenced gate with an entry point for foot traffic only (with no shore access) has been installed by Tri-Dam, which operates the facility for the Oakdale-South San Joaquin Irrigation District.
Another example is in Shasta-Trinity National Forest at Picayune Lake, a mountain jewel backed by a high granite wall, ideal for swimming, car-top boating and fishing. Except that Roseburg Lumber, which owns the property around the lake, has gated the access road. You can walk in, but even getting a canoe in takes a long, difficult portage.
At Independence, there is a gate right at the tiny boat ramp, and that could get locked the moment escrow closes by the new buyer. In the coming years, the property would then likely be subdivided for private use. That's the consensus among insiders.
About the only thing left to stop it would be blocking the necessary building permits from Sierra County, which isn't likely, or buying the place myself (there's always the lottery, right?).
Or perhaps there could be another way: Who knows what havoc the ghost could convey on the nonrespectful?
