Winter sports at Huntington Lake Lodge in the High Sierras the story of the First Annual Ice and Snow Carnival of the Commercial Club of Fresno California by George Wharton James. Pasadena, California: The Radiant Life Press, 1916. 23.3x14.2 cm, pp. [1-2: blank] [i-viii] 1-50 [51-54: blank], 8 plates with 30 illustrations, original pictorial gray and tan pictorial yapp wrappers printed in red, green and light blue, side stapled. First edition. This account of the Commercial Club's excursion was an effort to promote year-round use of Huntington Lake Lodge which opened in 1915. The book includes a general description of the San Joaquin High Sierra and information on the facilities of the Pacific Light & Power Corporation (later merged with Southern California Edison Company) and its subsidiaries, Huntington Lake Lodge and the San Joaquin and Eastern Railroad Company. Apparently, the first Ice and Snow Carnival was also the last. See Redinger, The Story of Big Creek (1949), pages 46-51. "The Huntington Lake Hotel Company was incorporated ... in 1915 as a subsidiary of the S J & E and a lodge constructed at the west end of the lake ... The new lodge opened for business on July 4, 1915, and saw limited patronage for the balance of the summer. An attempt was made to promote Huntington Lake as a snow resort during the first winter, but when only one group, the Commercial Club of Fresno, evinced any interest, the lodge thereafter remained open only during the summer months ... The Huntington Lake Lodge was closed up at the end of the 1931 season. The Lodge had never been on a paying basis and summer attendance had been dropping steadily until a low of 673 customers was reached during the final year of operation." - Johnston, The Railroad that Lighted Southern California, pages 56; 104. "... a splendid, early record of winter sports in the Sierra" (Larson, Controversial James, p. 41). Overlapping edges worn, shallow loss along lower edge of front wrapper, a nearly fine copy. (#166200).
Price: $150.00
No statement of printing.