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Basque Studies Program Newsletter · Issue
51, 1995
Sheep Camp Restorations
Whisky Creek Sheep
Camp
Located in the Granite Chief Wilderness area of Tahoe
National Forest, California, the Whiskey Creek Sheep Camp
consists of two beautiful log cabins and an outdoor bread
oven. The cabins were built in 1954-55 by Severino Ibarra
(Nafarroa) and Pete Bengoetxea (Bizkaia). The bread oven was
constructed by Valerio Zubiri
(Nafarroa).
In accordance with certain laws governing wilderness
areas, the camp was slated to be demolished. However, Tahoe
archaeologists Carmel Miesenbach and Susan Rose took up the
cause of the camp. Historian Jose Mallea wrote an evaluation
of the camp’s significance, and Rose presented the case
to the California State Historical Preservation Office. To
make a long story short, the camp was declared historically
significant and became eligible for federal
protection.
In the summer of 1992 a crew from Euskal Telebista,
the Basque television station, joined Mallea and
archaeologists Richard Markley and Carrie Smith for the 3.5
hour hike to the camp. The interview recorded there was
later aired in Euskadi.
The camp was in need of restoration and caretaking. A
large tree had fallen across the roof of one cabin, and the
lower cabin logs were rotting and needed to be replaced. The
Forest Service wondered if the Basque community would
volunteer to help with repairs and future upkeep of the
site. Jose Mallea acted as an intermediary between the
Forest Service and North American Basque Organizations
(NABO) representative Jesús Pedroarena, and after
months of negotiations, in the spring of 1994, Bob
Echeverria, President of NABO, signed an agreement with the
Tahoe National Forest Service to formalize the
relationship.
Wheeler Sheep Camp
The completion of the restoration of the oven at the
Wheeler Sheep Camp in Kyburz Flat, Tahoe National Forest in
1993, meant the preservation of another piece of Basque
history in the West. The effort began in 1992 when Michael
Baldrica, archaeologist for the Tahoe National Forest
approached Jose Mallea with the idea for the restoration.
Mallea took the project on, along with volunteers Javier
Cillero, Erik Mallea, Analiese and Kirk Odenkranz, Abel and
Judy Mendegia, Marc Ugalde, David Grippo and others. Forest Service personnel also participated in the
project.
Martin Gallues ran the camp from around 1915 into the
1950s, and dozens of other Basque herders worked there from
the turn of the century to the 1970s. They carved their
names and the dates of their stay on the trunks of the aspen
trees in nearby groves.
Wheeler Sheep Camp is now a Special Events Picnic
Area and eventually it will be equipped with restrooms,
running water, and similar amenities. The oven is a
“working oven,” and civic groups may reserve it
for a fee. Several events have taken place there, including
a picnic and barbecue for Forest Service personnel, various
speeches, and an exhibition of Basque dancing by the Zenbat
Gara cultural organization of the University of Nevada. If
your group wishes to reserve the picnic area for an event,
call the Forest Service in Sierraville, California (phone:
916-994-3401).
(Professor Jose Mallea is currently working to create
a videotape and photographic record of carvings left by
Basque sheepherders on aspen trees in the American West.
Mallea’s research has meant that records left by
sheepherders in the Cottonwood Creek area were saved for
posterity before those groves were destroyed in the
Cottonwood fire of August 1993. He has also completed
research in an area to the east of Lake Tahoe where logging
has begun. Mallea also travels the West giving lectures and
slide shows about the aspen tree
carvings.)
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