Situated near the summit of the Upper Tule River of the Sequoia National Forest, Bordering on the eastern side of the Great Western divide Highway, lines one of the most beautiful, well planned, mountain home subdivisions in the high Sierras. The area is well studded with all varieties of fir and pine trees, especially the Ponderosa pine, for which the subdivision was named; interspersed are groves of Quaking Aspen. The subdivision is part of the Kramer meadow property that has been owned by three generations of the Kramer family for a hundred years.

Alexander S. Kramer, born and raised in Pennsylvania, came to California in 1874. He filed for a homestead site about two and a half mils south of Alila, (now Earlimart). He engaged in sheep raising about 1878. His brother, Howard, came to California later and joined him as a partner. Their operation grew to be very large, numbering ten thousand heard of sheep, which fed on open range between Delano and Earlimart. The area was very good feed for most of the year, but the brothers decided they needed summer pasture for their sheep. They found several thousand acres in and around what is now know as the Johnsondale area, which was the private property of George Flitz. At that time, there were no roads beyond Springville. All food and supplies for the sheep herders, including salt for the sheep, had to be packed in on animals, so there was a need for a pasture for the horses and pack animals.

In the NE¼ of the NE½ of Section 16, Township 21 South, Range 32, the Kramers found forty acres which were ideal for their pasture needs. This land, which had been granted to the state for schools was patented to the Kramers on May 25, 1884. It became known as Kramer Meadow and still retains that name.

The Kramer brothers dissolved their partnership in 1903, and afterward, Alex bought two hundred eighty acres in the same Section 16, which was patented on March 18, 1904. The present Ponderosa subdivision is part of this acreage.

The area around Kramer Meadow is fairly level and is known as bench land. It was a camping area for Indian tribes who come to the high mountains to get out of the hot valley for the summer, and by tribes migrating between the Owens and San Joaquin Valleys. Many mortar holes used by the Indians for grinding grain and acorns are still visible west of Kramer Creek, east of the old cabin site, and in other areas near Kramer Meadow. The ample pasture and adequate water made it ideal as a stopping place for trappers and explorers crossing the Sierras between San Joaquin and Owens Valleys as early as 1851.

The Flitz property, where Kramers pastured their sheep for may years, was traded to the National Forest Service and the Kramers were issued a permit for grazing in Upper Little Kern basin, between Little Kern east to the Big Kern to the south of what is now the Sequoia National Park. Kramers brought their sheep up to the mountains through the Indian Reservation east of Porterville, leaving there about May 1^st., then on to higher range, coming in on the south side of Slate Mountain and following a designated trail laid out by the Forest Service, arriving at Kramer Meadow about July 1^st., and using the meadow as a stop over for the bands of sheep before into the Little Kern area.

Alex Kramer discontinued bringing his sheep to the mountains in 1925 due to two factors: the Sequoia National Park area was closed to sheep grazing, and the drought of the 1920's reduced the desirability of the pasture land.

In 1932, Harvey Slade, of Delano, leased the meadow area of Kramer Meadow for his trotting horses and young colts. He fenced the area and built the first cabin on the property, which stood on the hill east of Kramer Creek. After the death of Slade, his wife gave the cabin to Mr. Henry Muller of Terra Bella. It was then moved further east near a good spring on National Forest Service property. Mr Muller and his family used the cabin, and pastured their horses on the meadow until Mr. Muller's death. The cabin was again moved back to the west of its present site just west of Kramer Creek, overlooking the meadow.

Alex S. Kramer died July, 1936, and his three sons, Alexander J., Clarence A., of Bakersfield, and Herbert H., of Earlimart, inherited the property.

In 1940, John Bateman, of Tulare, leased a portion of Kramer Meadow and established a saw mill. He logged the area west of Kramer Creek and as far north as what is now Snowflake Drive. The saw mill site was just east of Kramer Drive and south of the present Langston cabin. He built two large cabins, one for his family and the other a kitchen and dining room for his help. He also built five small cabins to house the help. The kitchen cabin was later destroyed by heavy snow, but the five smaller cabins remained for many years. Early residents of Ponderosa remember these very well. These small cabins were later removed to other areas or torn down. The family cabin was eventually remodeled and is being used by the Herbert Kramer family.

Mr. Bateman also established a water system, developing a spring that lies just west of the present Muller cabin, and piping water to his mill and cabins using a gasoline engine for pumping. After closing the mill, he removed the equipment and water system.

About the same time that Mr. Bateman had the saw mill, a partnership consisting of Harris, McHart, and Bowden, leased ten acres on the north end of the property, in the area where Fox Drive is now. They raised silver foxes for safe of fur. They built a cabin and some animal runs for the foxes. The project was short lived, being abandoned when the U.S. entered World War II and gas rationing made it difficult to obtain the proper food for the foxes. The cabin and runs later collapsed due to heavy snow.

In 1951, Lyman Lumber Company of Springville did some selective logging on the west side of Kramer Meadow and to the north boundary, taking out many mature trees and transporting the logs to a mill in Springville.

After the death of Clarence Kramer, his widow, Ona, sold her interest in Kramer Meadow to Don Carter, a real estate developer from Santa Barbara. This entailed dividing the property into three portions. At the time of the division of the property, A. J. Kramer sold his interest in Kramer Meadow to Herbert and Anna Kramer, retaining five acres that borders the Great Western Divide Highway south of the Ponderosa Lodge. Don Carter started subdividing his portion and the Ponderosa was born. The first subdivision tract map #391 was recorded May 1, 1963.

(NOTE: This above history was compiled and written by Anna Kramer, July 1984)

Prior to 1920 there wasn't a road into Camp Nelson and you had to pack in from the Wishon Forks by horseback.  During the winter of 1938, the closest one could get to Camp Nelson was the Wishon Forks due to the snow and from there on it was snowshoes.

The following is from WESTWAYS, December, 1964

With the winey bite of fall on this high country of the Sequoia National Forest, with the full weight of winter still a few unpredictable weeks away, just now is a richer time to call here and savor the sights and sounds and smells.

Late November and early December along this lift of land can be sunlit and fair. Avoid the worst of the roads if the weather threatens, but when the sun has washed the mountains for days on end look for R crisp, cool, but exceptionally delightful mile-high world.

Trees that nod to the change in season will be flagged with gold and copper leaves. By some alchemy of climate the sky is actually a brighter blue now. Gone is the haze of October, and the far saw-edged ridges, purpled with distance a month ago, seem a closer deep green now.

There is always a wind here, a haughtier wind that leaves groundlings pretty much alone but one that causes a subdued and good-natured shouting among the peaks of trees. A noise, a call or gunshot or snarl of chain saw, can be heard at farther distance now, as if amplified by the cooler air.

There are scents that lie heavy on the sun-washed spines of mountain: the vanilla perfume of pine bark, the bite of the resins, the cloy of bear clover, the earth odor of sunbaked duff, the sugary spirit of wood smoke.

North of Kernville at Johnsondale- the end of pavement- up through the dust-hazed, shadowy wooded lanes, along the hillsides that slant down to the Kern, to Double Bunk and Long Meadow, and then, via a strange island of excellent highway sixteen miles to Quaking Aspen, the byways beckon.

There is a roadside stand of redwood here, not nearly as exotic as it seems at first, for this run of hill country and on west into the Tule Indian reservation, is dotted with random sequoia groves. Here, too, bright by fall, are aspen.

There is a sudden extravagance of granite. Dome Rock can be reached by a short old spur road that is better for walking. A road reaches part way out toward The Needles and a trail finishes the course out to the Forest Service lookout perched here. Both Dome Rock and The Needles are spectacular upthrusts of stone.

With the rasp of winter about to descend, this piney mountain country is a place of particular exhilaration and beauty.

This byway starts at a lower elevation, at Kernville, a riverside community born as Whiskey Flats out of the gold rush excitement of the 1860's. William Harland Boyd, in his slim book Land of Havilah, tells about the coming up of the town. Late in 1862 plans were made to start a town near the Kern's north fork mines. Two towns evolved. One was called Rogersville, after a local miner-Lovely Rogers but this town was renamed Quartzville. It was a company town and when the first saloon came, it was frowned upon. So Adam Hamilton moved his saloon from Quartzville to the new town which was called, naturally, Whiskey Flats. In 1864 the town was renamed Kernville. "Within two years the settlement

consisted of a half dozen dwellings, two or three stores, together with an equal number of saloons and hotels."

Today, of course, Kernville is a busy recreation community. By mid-summer it is packed with vacationers, its motels are full and overflowing. People come for the water sports at nearby Lake Isabella, and for the campgrounds along the Kern upriver from Kernville.

This time of the year the campgrounds will be sparsely occupied. There are a few regulars-mostly retired folks-who camp here as long as the weather isn't downright grim; they enjoy the noisy river as a neighbor even though fishing is not allowed again until May.

It is twenty-three miles from Kernville to Johnsondale. There are ten principal Forest Service campgrounds along the run: Headquarters, Camp No. 3, Hospital Flat, Corral Creek, Lower Spring Hill, Upper Spring Hill, Gold Ledge, Lower Fairview, Upper Fairview and Limestone. As a rule, several of the campgrounds are closed early in December, but when the weather is balmy as it has been for the last several years deep into December, Headquarters Campground, four miles north of Kernville, will remain open as will one or two other campgrounds. Information on which campgrounds are open can be obtained from the Cannell Meadow District Ranger Station at Kernville.

At least three interesting hiking trails take off from the road north of Kernville. From the Kernville area a trail leads back to the Cannell Meadow country and Dome Land region to the west of the South Fork of the Kern.

Near the Salmon Creek Campground a trail takes off to the east back to the Salmon Creek Falls-a long day's round trip trek.

Above Fairview Campgrounds is the eastward trail back three miles to Pack-saddle Cave, a small limestone cavern open to the public.

There is a state fish hatchery just north of Kernville that is frequently open to the public and the sight of so many trout of all sizes-from fingerlings to great lunkers-is always impressive.

There is a postoffice at Road's End, a resort community about sixteen miles upstream from Kernville that used to be located at the end of the highway here.

Above Road's End is a power station, dam and a large pond of trapped water from the Kern. Near the Limestone Cliff Campground a dirt road runs east in a big arc back to the Cherry Hill country and the Horse Meadow region.

Then the highway crosses the Kern River and runs west. Here is a spectacular waterfall on South Creek. The road climbs, reaching for timbered country. Durrwood is passed.

Johnsondale is a colorful lumber mill town. It has a permanent population of around 500, with store, postoffice, grammar and high schools.

Great islands of sawed lumber stand here and the air is rich with the sweet smell of sawed wood and sawdust. Nearer the store and postoffice area is a mountain of sawed logs waiting for the trimming saws to cut them into usable lumber. The Mt. Whitney Lumber Co. processes some 35 million board feet of lumber annually.

Pavement ends in the pine forest country at Johnsondale-not a new camp, but one that took its name from Walter Johnson of the Mt. Whitney Lumber Co. in 1938. There is a wye and two roads reach toward the west, both good dirt roads. The first of these leaves the Johnsondale area and heads generally northwest. This is called the Last Chance Meadow Road and it runs back for ten miles across Meadow Creek, Bone Creek, Nobe Young Creek into the Last Chance Meadow area near the Western Divide Highway.

The second dirt road west from Johnsondale generally follows along Pack-saddle and Double Bunk creeks toward the Western Divide Highway. This is a short six-mile drive and perfectly fine for passenger cars driving in good weather. It climbs suddenly right out of Johnsondale and offers an impressive view.

This is a most attractive byway through the heartland of the Sequoia National Forest. The pine and the cedar crowd the road and overhang in many places, fashioning a woodsy tunnel.

The tiny outpost of Double Bunk still stands: a rustic cabin within a small corral. It dates back to the time when ranger stations in this back country 1 were a day's ride apart and among the outposts reaching back from California Hot Springs were Double Bunk, Nobe I Young and Frog Meadows.

Just beyond Double Bunk the dirt road touches pavement-the Western Divide Highway-a wide road, beautifully contoured and graded; a highspeed modern road that curiously can only be reached by driving on lesser avenues.

To the south there are fourteen miles of dirt road from the end of pavement down to California Hot Springs.

But for sixteen miles to the north from here, all the way to Quaking Aspen, a most unusual wide byway calls.

The Western Divide Highway, according to Forest Service information which describes the road from north to south, "junctions at Quaking Aspen with State Highway 190 and runs southerly past Long and Redwood Meadows, crossing the Hot Springs- Johnsondale road [the one we have taken from Johnsondale to Double Bunk] just west of Double Bunk. It continues past Powderhorn, Packsaddle and Frog Meadows, thence along the backbone of the mountain ridge through Portuguese Pass and on to Greenhorn Summit. At Greenhorn Summit it forms a junction with the county road from Wofford Heights to the east and Glennville on the west."

Much of the planned route is unimproved, unpaved. The highway was surveyed in 1949 and the first section was constructed that year. Another section was completed in 1960. Paving of these sections was completed in 1962.

Just north of Double Bunk on this fine byway the site of a large redwood grove-Redwood Meadow-is reached. There are other redwood groves in the general area. The Freeman Grove, down hill from Quaking Aspen toward the Kern river contains 1,300 mature trees-a beautiful virgin grove. There are groves at Packsaddle, the Powderhorn Grove, the Cunningham and others.

Near Double Bunk is the Forest Service's Holey Meadow Campground. To the north along the Western Divide Highway are campgrounds at Redwood Meadow and Long Meadow.

By summer cattle graze in the lush, green meadows here. The highway crosses numerous side creeks spilling down from the Slate Mountain country toward the Kern: Bone Creek, Last Chance Creek, Nobe Young Creek, Alder Creek, Ice Creek. Horse Canyon. Several of these small canyons have old roads leading off the Western Divide Highway to the west and up the hill. Some of these are old logging roads, some are old access avenues into the remoter Sequoia National Forest country. Some can be hiked but should not be attempted by passenger cars.

Timber grows high on either side of the highway, preventing for several miles a view of the great canyon of the Kern off to the east. When the ridge steepens and the timber drops away on the east, the view is spectacular. Far to the east, on the horizon, the Kern Plateau country rears.

Closer at hand is Dome Rock, a great humpbacked and bald hemisphere of granite hung along a ridge. There is an old road for a mile out to the site from the Western Divide Highway, but the road is in poor condition and the Forest Service people would much prefer that you walk the mile to the rock. There are plans to make the dome into a scenic overlook area. Peppermint Campground-not yet fully improved-is off to the right of the road now, attractive and woodsy. On the left is a rough spur road reaching for the upper edges of Slate Mountain-a lofty, beautiful and unspoiled region recommended by some for classification as a Wild Area.

Then a: sudden surprise~an outpost in this unspoiled forest country. A store and a gasoline station. Beyond Holby Meadow the first aspen stand along the road. This, then, is a region of considerable contrasts: from sequoias at Redwood Meadow, through pine and cedar on to aspens at Holby Meadow.

There is a Forest Service campground at Quaking Aspen; a number of pack outfits base in the area with Woody's Pack Station, one of the most popular and active, located off the highway.

And just about here the miracle of the island of byway in the mountains, the Western Divide Highway, comes to an end. The narrower paved road that continues is State Highway 190 and it corkscrews down the western slope, .away from the Kern and toward the Tule River drainage. The road runs steeply down for ten miles to Camp Nelson; the next fifteen miles are tamer on in to Springville. From Springville it is nineteen miles of more or less flat- land driving to Porterville in the San Joaquin Valley. Thus, by using State highway, a loop trip can be fashioned.

Because of its comparative remoteness -the most conventional way to get to the paved sixteen mile of the Western Divide Highway is up the tortuous State Highway 190-this island byway in the Sequoia National Forest high country s never heavily used. Someday, when the road is fashioned on down toward the Greenhorn and Glennville country, it will get more use. But most tourists shun the six miles of dirt road out of Johnsondale, not because it's rough, for it isn't; or because it is steep and narrow, for again, it isn't. It is just that most modern drivers avoid dirt roads to any spot; consequently, they frequently miss out on scenic bonanzas.

For the drive north out of Kernville it is a good idea to gas up at Kernville. I did this and still had a half tank of gas at Bakersfield on the loop returning.

Don't count on gasoline at Road's End, Ponderosa, Quaking Aspen or Camp Nelson out of the normal tourist season; such places might be open but it's chancy.

If the weather is sour when you get to Johnsondale, enjoy what you've seen C of the upper Kern-and come again on a brighter day.

The odds are all in your favor that the high Sequoia National Forest region will be bright and clear. Christmas, 1963, found the area "like summer," according to Woody Hamman of Woody's Pack Station.

The charm of this byway adventure is that it is in the late fall. Fall and winter exploration of the high mountains is particularly rewarding in California. Not only are the sights and scents and sounds accented, sharpened; but there is a mood about the high places. If it must have a label call it a kind of excitement; or call it a kind of peace. It could be either. Whatever, it is good medicine, it heals the wounds of city living with miracle-drug efficacy. Even a brief day here, breathing in the elixir made up of pine smells and sun-washed air, feeling the buoyancy of room-enough, sends the explorer away restored.

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