History

Lot 4 Hume Lake – The McCrary Cabin – 1936

Lot 4 was one of the first lots in the Hume Lake USFS cabin tract to be selected. My grandparents, Frank (Pappy) and Agnes McCrary visited Hume Lake in 1936 and chose Lot 4 for its access to the spring and the open space to the east. Their sons, Homer (Bud) and Frank Jr (Lud), were aged 9 & 7 at the time. Pappy was a building contractor and wanted to give his workers a project. Construction started in 1936 and the family first occupied the cabin in the winter of 1937. Family legend says the construction cost was $200 and it took 2 weeks to build it, although I must admit that time may have blurred the facts a bit.

Frank's family had homesteaded and operated a roadhouse in Copper Center, Alaska, during the first decades of the 1900's. At age 16, he moved to Santa Cruz, California, following an older brother, because “winters were too cold in Alaska”. He married a Santa Cruz native, Agnes Trumbo, in 1925. I always thought he wanted a cabin in the Sierras because he missed the snow just a little. We heard many stories about the family skiing or dog-sledding into Hume Lake from Grant Grove or Cherry Gap. By the time my memories begin (late 50's), for winter visits we'd use a snow cat if the road wasn't clear. I remember Pappy checking the depth of the ice on the lake by chopping through it with an ax. I remember icicles 3 feet long hanging from the cabin's eaves and getting water from the spring in a big galvanized bucket, as well as huge fires in the fireplace and bacon sizzling on Grandma's wood-fired cook stove. Summers involved lots of swimming, sailing and sliding down the rocks in 10 Mile Creek.

Frank and Agnes visited the cabin often throughout the years. They brought their seven grandchildren many times. After Frank passed in 1964, Grandma Agnes continued visiting the cabin regularly and encouraged friends and family to use it, too. It was the chosen site for several honeymoons. When Grandma reached her 90's she signed the cabin over to her grandchildren. Now we're working on keeping it maintained for the enjoyment of the 4^th and 5^th generations. We plan to keep the cabin as close to it's original state as we possibly can. Thanks for visiting our beloved, timeworn little cabin!

Carol McCrary Chambers