Climate: mild 4season
Average snow days: 9
Location: 2 hours east of East Bay
Elevation: 3640
Population: 2586
Politics: Conservative
Residents love the lifestyle available here with all mountain and foothill recreational opportunities and the mild 4season climate. Twain Harte is one of California's premier retirement communities.
Twain Harte was originally inhabited by the Me Wuk Indians, who built their homes or umachas from willow limbs and tree bark. The Me Wuks were known for their fine baskets woven from the same native willows.
It was after the discovery of gold in 1949 in nearby Columbia, Sonora and Jamestown that white men began tapping other area resources like agriculture, grazing land and timber. Apple orchards cattle ranches and lumber mills began springing up on lands that had previously been occupied only by the Me Wuks. In 1861 Congress authorized construction of a road from the foot of the Twain Harte grade to connect the growing commercial center of Sonora with the boom mining town of Aurora over the Sonora Pass. Toll gates were constructed in Twain Harte to defray some of the road costs, one in Twain Harte, the other in Sugar Pine.
In 1924, Keturah C. Wood subdivided 540 acres of land including where the Twain Harte Golf Course is now located and named it Twain Harte Lodge, after two famous Mother Lode authors, Mark Twain and Bret Harte. Twain Harte is believed to be the first private recreational subdivision in the Sierra Nevada. Twain Harte Lodge Realty was organized in 1925 to sell stock in the development. In 1926, Albert L. Nevins and Dr. E. Turner bought into the Twain Harte Development Company, wood retained 40 acres known as Lilac Terrace. Nevins and Turner pulled together plans for the subdivision including a dam to form Twain Harte Lake during the summer of 1927. Edward M. Marquis loaned the group money for the dam construction but they were unable to pay the note in 1934, Marquis foreclosed, took the company over and renamed it Twain Harte Realty. By that time, Twain Harte was a thriving summer colony, consisting largely of wealthy San Franciscans who purchased the cabin sites for $100.00 and up. Marquis later added a lodge, bar and a modest motel.
Nearly all community activities centered around the clubhouse located near where the Twain Harte Fire Station stands today. The clubhouse doubled as a meeting and social hall as well as church for all denominations.
Ray Eproson was instrumental in allowing the golf course to be built. It became popular with many of the resort's summer residents, including Mario Giannini, then president of the Bank of America.
In 1943, Nevins and Eproson bought Marquis' holdings, which included the subdivision, hotel and service station.
Twain Harte has grown. Once a summer retreat for a few hundred, the community is now home to several thousand permanent residents who are attracted by the same qualities that drew the Me Wuk Indians many decades ago.
Thanks to Twain Harte Chamber of Commerce for much of this article's content. |