Dale Matson
Click On Photographs To Enlarge
Housing For Pine Logging Company
Dinkey Creek is both a small resort community east of Shaver
Lake and the name of a creek that flows nearby. Most of the time the creek is
tame and good for fishing, camping and recreation. However, I have seen the
creek flowing as a raging torrent like in 2006 when school administrator Mike
Young drowned in Dinkey Creek. The mountaineering unit of SAR team was not
involved in the search for his body because of concern about the dangerous
conditions of the fast flowing deep water headed to Pine Flat Reservoir.
Living near the central Sierra Nevada one gradually learns
and gains appreciation for the history of the area. There is the
glacial/geological history but there is also the more recent human history
connected to the Sierra. The Sierra is such a wonderful and necessary resource
for California in general and the local communities in particular. Each year
much of the California irrigation and drinking water comes from the annual
snowmelt held conveniently in the high Sierra and gradually released via the
major rivers flowing west toward the Pacific Ocean.
In addition to water, electricity and mineral resources, the
central Sierra Nevada has provided millions of board feet of lumber for home
construction. Lumber companies in Bass Lake, Shaver Lake and Dinkey Creek sent
lumber and logs to towns like Sanger, Clovis and the Pinedale area of Fresno.
Shaver Lake was initially only a millpond created by damming
Stevenson Creek. http://historical.fresnobeehive.com/2012/02/the-old-shaver-dam/
Only later was a larger dam built
that held additional water for the generation of electricity at Big Creek.
The
Pine Logging Company in Dinkey Creek was built in 1937 and operated until 1979.
http://www.pinelogging.org/Home
These lumber camp/mills became
self-contained communities. As you descend toward the community of Dinkey Creek
on Dinkey Creek Road, there is a CDF station on the left. If you turn there,
you will also encounter the deserted logging community. It is well worth the
time spent wandering among the buildings and imagining what life would have
been like in this busy community with the immense wood scrap burner as the
central feature. If you go inside, with all the bullet holes, it is like being
in a kind of planetarium.
There
is an additional feature of Dinkey Creek worth visiting. If you go into Dinkey
Creek, continue past the ranger station and store. Turn right on the paved road
that heads down to the creek. There is a beautiful unique Bowstring Arch Timber
Truss bridge. There are large boulders placed at each end to prevent vehicular
travel. I enjoyed seeing the wonderful craftwork and worked my way into the
center of Dinkey Creek to photograph the bridge from the side also.
