Southwest Sierra — #45

Main Street Alleghany 1961. Taken from the corner of Plaza and Main looking down towards Casey’s Place. The first building on the left behind the pickup truck is the Kanaka Club. The two story building is the Golden Eagle. The roof of the current Red Star Cafe building can be seen on the right. Wayne Brooks Collection courtesy of undergroundgold.org

Genny the Baker ~ This week I am sharing memories from living at the Kanaka Club. As mentioned in an earlier article, in 1977 after about 18 months of living at the Mott Cabin, my family moved to Alleghany proper for a year. The Hall family had moved to Goodyear’s Bar a few months prior. Our first residence was the old Kanaka Club building located next to the Golden Eagle Hotel.

Two dogs and two cats made the move with us. I already shared the story of the cats going feral. Nugget, the gray “bobcat” was named Jinx when we got her from the Grass Valley pound (before we moved to the Mott Cabin). When we got her home, one of the first things that she did was to use my dad’s gold pan that had sand and gravel in it as a litter box! That is how she got her name. The dogs, Ruby and Thunder were introduced in my first porcupine article (it was a coincidence that our dog was named Ruby, she was named before my dad met the old man who gave him a job at the Ruby Mine).

In the 1970s dogs ran free in Alleghany. Everyone joked that there were more dogs than people. One cold winter night at the Kanaka Club, our dog Ruby gave birth to three puppies in the rooms below our living quarters. When I found them the next morning, they appeared to be dead. They weren’t even huddled together, and Ruby wasn’t with them (when I saw Ruby that morning, I noticed that she had given birth, and went looking for the pups)! Mom placed the pups in a black trash bag and brought it upstairs for later disposal. After about a half hour, we started to hear whimpering from the garbage bag! The pups were alive! This was Ruby’s first litter. She wasn’t the greatest mother, but once we made a box inside she cleaned them and let them nurse. I had to drag her in daily to get her to lie with them. When the pups were eight weeks old, it was our job, as kids, to sit in front of Ben Franklin Crafts in Grass Valley to find homes for them. Three was easy!

Mom and her friend Jan Mueller got permission to set up a little gift shop at Casey’s Place. At that time, Casey’s place was divided into three sections. The bar was in the same area as now, except that the bar went across the back of the building in front of the door to the upstairs. There was a middle room that took up about 1/3 of the floor area and a much tinier room on the end where the bathrooms are now (the wall that divided the small room from the store is still there). The gift shop was in the little room. It still has the same windows, but at that time it included the space now occupied by the bathrooms. Mom was impressed that Jan knew how to use a skill saw, and the two of them made little shelves that went across the windows to display their wares. Jan’s mother made felt mice. They were about 6 inches tall and dressed in people clothes. I coveted those mice but never did get one as they were out of my price range. I don’t remember anything else about the short-lived gift shop.

The store in the middle section was being run by a young couple named Mike Barry and Genny Durham. Mike is a smaller man with bright blue eyes who had black curly hair (I ran into him recently and he still has his curls, now gray). Genny was a voluptuous woman with long straight blonde hair. They had lived in the Kanaka Club before us. I remember a box of belongings that Genny left in the back room. Mike and Genny baked fresh bread every morning! Their store was also short-lived, but I’ll never forget Genny’s exit from Alleghany. As a kid, I had no idea what went down, but Genny was PISSED OFF! I remember overhearing her tell my mom: “When I leave this f%$#ing town I am going to streak out of here on my bike!” On the day of her departure, she did just that! She took her ten-speed bicycle up to where Main Street turns into Hell’s Half Acre, undressed, and rode down Main Street through town to where Mike was waiting. We cheered her on from the front porch as she flew by the Kanaka Club!

About the author: Rae Bell (aka Pauline) grew up in the Ruby Mine area. She currently resides in Alleghany proper and can be reached at raebell44@gmail.com or PO Box 919, Alleghany, CA 95910.