Exploring the History of Oriole Lake
Posted: Tue Jul 30, 2013 11:08 pm
Well I had considered posting this "mini TR" in the backpacking section, yet my motive for the trip was based mostly on the history of a place known as Oriole Lake. The "lake" really looks more like a large pond, which is located north west of the Mineral King Valley, below Milk Ranch Peak.
A year or so ago, "PasoAndy" posted a message on another web forum inquiring if anyone knew about a road which comes off the road to Mineral King as there are no signs indicating where it goes. Someone else had responded with a few words about Oriole Lake and other comments. This was just enough to intrigue me and soon enough I was viewing the area in Google Earth. The lake looked to be in an area which is largely untouched, except for the road which terminates about a mile from the lake. It also appeared to have a couple of man made structures near the end of the road.
Next I found myself Googling Oriole Lake hoping to find some current info. These days it seems every named place in the Sierra has a few visitors every year, maybe some photos online? Well, I couldn't find any recent info, but I did discover some interesting history.
For starters, there is a document titled "General Information Regarding Sequoia and General Grant National Parks Season of 1917". The document describes various site seeing tours into Sequoia, including the "Oriole Lodge 25S. 5,500 Wagon Tourist camp and sawmill on private holdings, near Oriole Lake; one of the attractions of the vicinity."(translated to mean that via wagon, it's 25 miles to the lodge). It includes an interesting old map of the park.
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/onli ... 7/sec2.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Next I found a wealth of historical information about the area on the Mineral King website. In summary, several camps were established at the lake as early as 1880. In 1909 some local merchants had planned to build a resort near the lake, to include a power plant, airstrip and all the amenities. Thankfully, the resort never manifested.
http://www.mineralking.org/Mineral_King ... e_Lake.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Beyond this information, there really isn't much on the web about the area, albeit I didn't go looking much further.
So a year passes and all the while I have in the back of my head how cool it would be to go explore Oriole Lake, to go visit history in person and compare it to what I had imagined. This past weekend I canceled plans to hike in the eastern Sierra due to the smoke filled air. When I awoke on Sunday it clicked - time to check out Oriole Lake.
Unfortunately, the dirt road prevents most of us from driving up it due to a locked gate one mile in. So....I walked up the road, explored the Lodge and few other items of interest at the end of the road, then hiked up a use trail to the lake.
I took a little video so others could see what the area looks like. Really a bit boring, seeing me march around in the woods, but at least now there is one other bit of information on the web for future explorers to discover.
Exploring Oriole Lake
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySekmMj- ... b63cDq-EZg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;[
Thanks to PasoAndy for the motivation to go see the place.
A year or so ago, "PasoAndy" posted a message on another web forum inquiring if anyone knew about a road which comes off the road to Mineral King as there are no signs indicating where it goes. Someone else had responded with a few words about Oriole Lake and other comments. This was just enough to intrigue me and soon enough I was viewing the area in Google Earth. The lake looked to be in an area which is largely untouched, except for the road which terminates about a mile from the lake. It also appeared to have a couple of man made structures near the end of the road.
Next I found myself Googling Oriole Lake hoping to find some current info. These days it seems every named place in the Sierra has a few visitors every year, maybe some photos online? Well, I couldn't find any recent info, but I did discover some interesting history.
For starters, there is a document titled "General Information Regarding Sequoia and General Grant National Parks Season of 1917". The document describes various site seeing tours into Sequoia, including the "Oriole Lodge 25S. 5,500 Wagon Tourist camp and sawmill on private holdings, near Oriole Lake; one of the attractions of the vicinity."(translated to mean that via wagon, it's 25 miles to the lodge). It includes an interesting old map of the park.
http://www.nps.gov/history/history/onli ... 7/sec2.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Next I found a wealth of historical information about the area on the Mineral King website. In summary, several camps were established at the lake as early as 1880. In 1909 some local merchants had planned to build a resort near the lake, to include a power plant, airstrip and all the amenities. Thankfully, the resort never manifested.
http://www.mineralking.org/Mineral_King ... e_Lake.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Beyond this information, there really isn't much on the web about the area, albeit I didn't go looking much further.
So a year passes and all the while I have in the back of my head how cool it would be to go explore Oriole Lake, to go visit history in person and compare it to what I had imagined. This past weekend I canceled plans to hike in the eastern Sierra due to the smoke filled air. When I awoke on Sunday it clicked - time to check out Oriole Lake.
Unfortunately, the dirt road prevents most of us from driving up it due to a locked gate one mile in. So....I walked up the road, explored the Lodge and few other items of interest at the end of the road, then hiked up a use trail to the lake.
I took a little video so others could see what the area looks like. Really a bit boring, seeing me march around in the woods, but at least now there is one other bit of information on the web for future explorers to discover.
Exploring Oriole Lake
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySekmMj- ... b63cDq-EZg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;[
Thanks to PasoAndy for the motivation to go see the place.