The Alders

The History of the Cabin

The following is the history of how the cabin at Alder Creek came to be, as told by Cora Fiddyment.

In about the year 1916 Asa Warren’s father (Clarence Ford’s sister’s husband) came by covered wagon on the Immigrant Trail (now Highway 50) and camped at the Herd's cabin by Weber Creek every summer.  He found Steam Beer Flat, (named by Hilda McKean, because of all of the beer bottles that were found there) located where Tom Miller's cabin now stands.  Alder Creek ran beside the site.  Asa Warren and Clarence Ford came there together and camped out until 1918 when Idella Ford (Clarence’s wife) invited Elizabeth McKean (Kean-Kean) to come and camp with them for the summer.  In 1919 Hilda, a good friend of Gram's, accompanied her mother.

Aside: California Geographical Names: Alder Creek (El Dorado): stream, flows 12.5 miles to South Fork American River nearly 4 miles east of Riverton (lat. 38°46' N, long. 120°22'45” W; sec. 26, T 11 N, R 14 E). Named on Kyburz (1952), Leek Spring Hill (1951), Riverton (1950), and Tragedy Spring (1979) 7.5' quadrangles.

Cora and Hilda had been close friends since 1913 when they met while teaching school in Sacramento.  Cora Stone Spangler (b. September 20, 1889, d. October 3, 1992) and Russell Frederick Fiddyment (b. November 7, 1887, d. February 14, 1956) were married on April 4, 1920.

Cora and Russ in the 1920s

In 1921 when Russell Fiddyment Jr. was 5 months old, Kean-Kean invited Cora to spend part of the summer with her, allowing Cora and Russell to use the big tent.  They spent three weeks with them.

In 1922 Kean-Kean invited Cora again and just before coming up, about June, the Forest Ranger, Mr. Morse, stopped by the camp and told them that the government had just opened the Alder Creek area for summer home sites.  Asa Warren and Clarence Ford went immediately to sign up and were given Steam Beer Flat for their home site.   That lot extended from Alder Creek to the gate by Chilton's and back to Bill Bailey’s lot, now Gail Coney’s cabin.

1922 – Russ came up every weekend by car – a four-hour drive from Roseville.  When he came in July he was told of the home sites opening, so he decided on the site where the cabin (Lot 24) is now.  Mr. Morse asked, “Why do that? You'd have to build a bridge.” They called it just a pile of rocks. But Russ said he wanted that lot.  Mr. Morse said okay, but he had to build within a year.

1923 – Cora came up with Russell and David (2 months old) and started to build in June of 1923.  At that time there was a rickety bridge with piled rocks for piers across the river and a foot log across Alder Creek.  Apparently there had been no high water for years because the bridge across the river was small and low to the water.  Only a light Ford could drive across the bridge.  All of the lumber for the house had to be carried by hand across the river bridge and the log in the creek. Grandpa was a visionary about the beauty of this site. The difficulties of getting building material across a foot-bridge did not daunt him. Will Van Zee (Idella Ford’s brother-in-law) was the builder of the cabin.

The original house was one big room with two 8 foot porches across the front and back of the house.  The building was about 30 X 30 including the covered porches.  It included a 10 X 30 room with a stairway to an unfurnished room upstairs, however there was a floor upstairs. Later there was a dormitory upstairs with a wash basin at one end; Gram thought of everything.The kitchen was a screened area in the back of the house. The original dining-room was half the size it is now. There was a porch across the front of the house with the door where the bookcase is in the dining-room.

A bathroom was put in originally, too.  The bathtub and kitchen stove were carried across the log by workers. We had the only hot water in the tract because Grandpa put pipes through the back of the wood stove that lead to a hot water tank in the downstairs bathroom. The house maid’s goat was brought up from Roseville in the bathtub.  The tub had enamel kicked off, in several places, by the goat. The kitchen was on the left, south of the entrance.

1929 – the big room was partitioned to make a bedroom at the east end where the kitchen is now.  The living-room was added then after raising the house to clear a big rock under the house.  Russ decided to put a water system in for the house.  He laid pipe in the creek up to about Given’s.  There was no settling tank.  We had hot water by coils in the back of the stove, an inside toilet and bath facilities downstairs and a wash stand upstairs.  The septic tank was put in then too.

In 1929 the first bridge was built by Francis Stoffle’s father.  The old wall around the house was built as well as the deck house that year. It was meant for the nanny and had running water and a toilet. (Francis Stoffle was one of the original founders of the Roseville Telephone Company).

1936 – Russ, David and John built the wharf under the direction of Harry Brindle.  Harry built the cabin that is now owned by the McDuffee family (Alice Plummer married Nobel White when he died).

Grandpa and Grandma renovated the cabin the same year they did the ranch house, 1949, raising the house because of a boulder, adding an upper floor with bedrooms and bathroom and the living-room and dining-room, as well as hot water from coils behind the stove.

Now the Forest Ranger tells us that of the 650 different cabins within her jurisdiction, ours is the biggest. It was recently assessed and the value is not as great as one would think for the fact that it lies in the flood plane.

History of the Bridge

Grandpa's bridge across Alder Creek stood until the flood of 1955. The half that was closer to the yard withstood that flood. It was an all-wood construction with cement  piers as I remember it.

Dad Earl and Uncle David poured cement piers on which to attach two steel girders in order to span the main bed of the creek and connect with the remaining part of the bridge. When the girders were put in the boys also raised and added to the pier on Tom's side of the creek - thank goodness.  That saved the bank from eroding over the years.

Information from Kiefie Breuer taken from Mother Mildred McDuffee's "line-a-day" book:

Fiddyment bridge built in 1929

1955 Fiddyment bridge washed out       1958 new bridge built    

1960 bridge out                                   1962 rebuilt

1964 out                                             1965 rebuilt

1980 out                                             1980 rebuilt

1997 really out!!

The Cabin Has a Birthday

I’m 95 years old!

In 1922 I was just a glimmer in Russ and Cora Fiddyment’s eyes.

I became a reality the next year when they started working on me and named me “the Alders”.

I got my name because I sit right beside Alder Creek where it goes into the south fork of the American River.

The joy I have brought to this family would fill books – in fact many books of memories sit on my book shelves right now.

I’ve always been the place where people come to rest, recreate, and enjoy nature to its fullest. To sit on the porch, listening to the river flowing by is pretty close to heaven on earth. Cora would always say as she drove across the PG&E bridge, “The cares of the world drop off my shoulders when I’m here.”

In my early years this was Cora’s summer home, she and the children would arrive as soon as school was out. There was community at the Alder Creek tract. Church services, dances in the evening, children playing, always lots of laughter, while doing the chores, i.e. gathering kindling for the stove, canning when fruit was in season, and cleaning the lamp chimneys. Then in the afternoon a refreshing swim in the river and visiting with neighbors.

Week-ends were special because the men folk and guests would make the five hour trip up the mountain bringing food and necessary supplies. Having me to come to was a lot better than camping out. There were always lots of projects, but doing things at the cabin was always a pleasure. The second generation were always building things, like the dock at the riverside, a diving board, the doll house, which later was the club house.

Over the years I had many additions, and was painted, papered, and reroofed several times. A bridge was built over the creek which made getting to me much easier. In 1949-50 was the BIG remodel. Russ had a beautiful retaining wall built

around me and three separate bedrooms as well as the big dormer room, and a bathroom upstairs. Russ wanted to have enough room for his whole family at the Alders.

Electricity was installed in me in 1946, but that didn’t mean we stopped cooking on the wood stove! Russ bought a new Monarch wood stove with a section that had four electric burners. If Cora was in residence the wood stove was used (electric burners were for “sissies”)

My life was not without adversities. I survived two major forest fires and several floods. A landslide downriver caused the river to rise and flood 6 feet into my lower floor. The rising water drowned the rocks and rapids of the river and Alder Creek that caused a quietness like never before or since. The family all got busy, dried everything, rolled up their sleeves and put me back together as good as always.

Over the years I’ve been host to people of all ages from around the world. In my 95 years hundreds of friends of family cherish memories of time spent in me. There have been reunions, honeymoons, dinner parties, bridge parties, birthday parties, Halloween parties, church groups, world travelers gathered as well as many Christmases spent….once they even got snowed in! Always games and cards were played (just check in my closet under the stairs). Cora loved playing solitaire. Wouldn’t she smile if she could see the next generations with their electronic devices click a button to have the cards all dealt in a nanosecond?

As time has passed Russ and Cora passed me along to two of their children, and I’ve now been passed along to the children of those two. While things change, one thing remains constant. They all love me and take good care of me. They all think Russ and Cora had lots of foresight and appreciate all that they have because of them. There were four members of generation 2, eleven members of generation 3, twenty-four members of generation 4, and at this point there are thirty-six in generation 5 with more to come.

David Fiddyment passed on peacefully yesterday, March 6, 2023, just one month before his 100th birthday on April 20.  He was lovingly cared for by his family members in his last days and hours. He was a mainstay at the cabin practically all his life. Our sincerest sympathy to all his loved ones. 

Contact Charlene at cfcbrunner@me.com