The Van Vleck Ranch...Queen of the High Country

There are many historical ranch cabins dotting the lower elevations of the Crystal Range of the Sierra. They each have a unique personality but none of them were as large and grand as the Van Vleck Ranch.
Most of the high country ranches were built in the mid to late 1800s as Italian/Swiss emigrants, having come to America in search of instant fortune in the California gold fields, turned to the life they knew best...providing the milk and dairy products that fed the hungry miners.
The original owner of what is now documented on forest service maps at the Van Vleck was a man by the name of Ciperano Pedrini. Wishing to sound a little more American, he changed all his business holdings to the name of William Tell and consequently the name of Tell is still used for the first peak in the Crystal Range and the creek that has its meager beginnings near the summit of that peak. The original Pedrini holdings bear the name of Tells Peak Mountain Ranch in all of the early El Dorado County records prior to the sale of the ranch property to the Van Vleck family in 1933.
In 1875, the Pedrini holdings were reorganized and a partnership was formed between Massimo Pedrini, Clement Pedrini and a nephew, Rinaldo Filippini, who had come to California in 1859 to work with his uncles. The new partnership was known as Rinaldo Filippini and Co. The Mountain Ranch became the summer graze for the ever-growing herd of dairy cows the company maintained to produce the dairy products they sold in their store in Garden Valley, Calif., as well as to other merchants in the area. Several large cheese cellars were built about half a mile away from the main ranch house where the workers stayed for the summer. Half way to the Van Vleck/Pendola airstrip, the dirt road cuts through a huge meadow. Historically known as the Filippini Pedrini meadow, it was renamed by forest service and is now called Milk House meadow. Near the road, on the left, is a huge slab of granite with the head of a pick ax embedded into the granite as well as the crumbling foundations of what once was a huge cheese camp. Walk just a little further and you will see the remains of hand stacked rock foundations built right into the hill side where the cheese cellars were located.
In 1901, Massimo Pedrini passed away and in 1909, the two surviving partners sold off most of the holdings of the high country Tells Peak Mountain Ranch to Alex F. Forni.
With the acquisition of the high country ranch, the Forni's became neighbors of their cousin's by marriage, the Bassi's. Alex Forni's father, Dennis Forni, was an uncle of Giosue Bassi's wife, Virginia Forni Bassi. The Forni high country holdings came to approximately 2,240 acres adjoining the lands of the Upper Bassi. The Forni's used the land in the same tradition as their predecessors had done only they found more profit in raising cattle for the beef instead of the dairy products. The Forni's owned a large meat market in Placerville, located on the west side of the Bell Tower on Main Street. Forni beef was some of the finest in the county.
The Forni's had owned the Tell's Peak Mountain Ranch for almost 18 years when Alex Forni died on September 30, 1927. His widow Nettie and his 20-year-old son, Loren, gallantly tried to keep his estate intact but too many of Forni's business dealings were dependent on his good name and when he wasn't around to insure financial success of the investments he had made, too many people wanted to take their money and run. Nettie and Loren were able to hold out until 1932 but while drowning in financial difficulty, Oren Van Vleck was able to purchase the high country holdings for delinquent taxes, finalizing the deal in 1933 and breaking the chain of Italian/Swiss ownership.
The Tell's Peak Mountain Ranch remained under Van Vleck ownership for 40 years. They made a lot of improvements to the property during the years without changing the exterior appearance of the original ranch house more than slightly. The large kitchen, which had been nothing more than a screened in porch, was fully enclosed. A bathroom, complete with indoor plumbing, was added as well as a large entry way mud room along the driveway side of the house. The upstairs, once a huge open attic lined with bunks for the ranch workers, was walled off into two spacious and sunny bedrooms on the south side of the house and two smaller, but cozy little rooms on the north side. At the top of the stairs was a huge landing that could accommodate another bunk and small dresser. Downstairs, along with the new additions of the bathroom and kitchen, was the great room along with two more large bedrooms and a smaller one. A huge picture window was transported up the bumpy dirt roads from Sacramento and installed in place of the two smaller windows on the east side of the great room providing an unobstructed view of the Crystal Range. During the early 40s
the bunkhouse was built and wood was salvaged from the old Orelli homestead located at what is now the meadow behind Robbs Resort to enlarge the barn.
When Oren passed away, his son Stanley continued to run the ranch for grazing and limited logging operations. Stanley was a horse person but he was more enamored with flying. He acquired huge salvaged military grids used for temporary landing strips during WWII and laid them out in the front meadow so he could land his small aircraft right in front of the house. The makeshift airstrip was dangerously short so, off to the south, he leveled the tops of the trees to give a little more space to get his plane up during take-off and even then a few straggling branches would tickle the undercarriage of his plane. He later built another airstrip higher up on the mountain which still required someone with a dare devil spirit to negotiate but it was a whole lot safer than his first creation. In later years he adopted the helicopter as his method of rounding up the cattle, surveying his land holdings and making it easy to land, once again, in the front meadow at the ranch.
In 1974, he made the decision to sell the high country holdings to William J. Pendola of Grass Valley, Calif. Stanley only retained 10-acres of the airstrip along with the rights to use it and the Orelli Meadow behind Robbs Resort. The Pendola family used the land for limited logging and then traded all but 52 acres surrounding the ranch house to forest service in 1987 for other investment properties at Castle Peak near Highway 80.
After the Pendola acquisition in 1974, the historic ranch house was used as a high country pack station. The owner of Crystal Basin Outfitter and Sugar Pine Stables, Barry Gorman, treated many city weary people to the high country experience. He opened up the ranch to guests that wished  to escape the hustle of modern living and return to the warmth of kerosene living like a hundred years ago.
On May 19, 1992, a chimney fire took the "Queen of the High Country ranches" and all the ancient surrounding out-buildings, except the bunkhouse, from all of us. But, even in the ashes, the memories of happiness created within its walls still remains. The meadow still comes into full bloom every year. The endless view of the Crystal Range will never be gone.  For those of us who passed through the doorway of the Tells Peak / Van Vleck Mountain Ranch, it will always stand in our hearts forever. In 1994, Pendola traded the remaining 52 acres to forest service ending the long reign of private ranching on the Van Vleck. The remaining bunkhouse has been converted into a winter ski hut and summer cabin rental for the public to still enjoy.