Inspiring story of community building, innovation, leadership and love. This article focuses on how a powerful woman, unknown to history, created a vibrant community and kept a highly successful business alive through disaster and depression.

1. The Shaver Ranch: The Early Years
Lena Shaver, a Legacy of Determination, Love, Loss, and Renewal
October 2021—The Shaver Ranch on Pine Ridge has been in the care of the Shaver family
for 100 years. And one year since the Creek Fire left it in ashes.
It is difficult to recognize. But there is the familiar curve
of the road, the old rock wall, and the metal Shaver
Ranch sign. On the granite rock at the edge of the
road, moving charred branches and debris, there is the
brass benchmark embedded in the stone: 4,940 feet
above sea level. Yes, this is the place. This branded
rock by the side of the road, here for thousands of
years, before any men, and then for all the comings
and goings through the years. If rocks could talk!
The idyllic meadow, formerly surrounded by pines and
cedars, has long been a natural way-stop and gathering place. Geologically, it is a small
hanging valley set between the crest of Pine Ridge and the San Joaquin Canyon. A few
hundred yards below the meadow, Jose creek plunges 3,000 feet down the steep
mountainside to the San Joaquin River. This narrow shelf in the mountainside is the only
practical way to get from the foothills to the high mountain basins of Shaver and
Huntington Lakes. The trail of the indigenous Mono Tribe likely went through here, and the
makers of the original wagon road followed this route.
August 1966--Charles Burr Craycroft, son of Grace and Harry Craycroft, on his final trip to
the Shaver Ranch, pointed out the rock with the benchmark across the road. Then resting on
it for a while, he talked about the importance of this place to the family, of growing up here,
and recounted some of "Grandma Shaver's" memories of the early days on Pine Ridge.
July 4th, 1893—As the oxen labored, slowly but surely, hauling the wagon up the rough and
dusty Toll House Grade, Lena Shaver finally got a chance to see what her husband had

2. been talking about so passionately for the last two years. The first part of the trip up the
grade through steep, dry terrain may not have met her expectations. But when they
reached the meadow at Jose Creek, the environment changed dramatically. They certainly
would have stopped here to rest and water the animals as it was the first opportunity, an
oasis, after the long haul up the
grade. At that time, the Kenyon
family operated the Post Office, a
store and blacksmith shop with
cabins for guests, an apple
orchard, and cultivated fields in
the meadow. The following year
they would add a school. This was
the center of the community of
Pine Ridge.
Little did Lena know that one day,
this would become her beloved
mountain home.
She and her young daughters,
Grace, and Ethel were on the last
leg of their cross-country journey to join her
husband, CB (Charles Burr) Shaver. He had spent
most of the previous year supervising the flume and dam's construction on Stephenson
Creek, while his partner LP Swift was in charge of setting up the lumber mill.
After Kenyon’s, the wagon trail passed Ockenden’s and then Musick’s Mill before getting to
the hill, now known as “The Point” where the meadows of Stephenson Creek came into
view. Around and down the right side of the hill was the lumber camp, where she found CB
with a crew working on repairing the dam after a washout in the spring. The massive mill
building was under construction, the timber frame walls waiting for their skin of pine
boards. On the hillside above, scattered among the trees some wood-frame buildings were
under construction. One of these was their new cabin. The scene was likely reminiscent of
her childhood growing up on a small farm in the Pennsylvania woods, where she was born
in the midst of the Civil War in a place called Cedar Realm.
Though she is not mentioned a great deal in the history books, Lena was a remarkable
woman who played an essential role in developing the Fresno Flume and Irrigation Co. and
the Pine Ridge/Shaver Lake community. For over four decades, she was a prominent and
respected figure both in the mountains and Fresno. She was strong and forthright, with a
good business sense and was a close confidant and advisor to her husband. Her pragmatic
nature balanced his idealism.
Kenyons Store 1886

3. The development of the company was a group effort, accomplished principally by the
actions of four families: the Musicks, Shavers, Swifts, and the Longs. The Musick brothers
were among the first to conceive of the idea of erecting a flume to transport lumber and
irrigation water to the valley. They also brought considerable acreage and a lumber mill to
the endeavor. The Longs, father, and son provided management experience and the money
to get the project off the ground. The father was a former employer and mentor of CB’s
and the son Arthur, became a protege of CB’s and was vice president for 18 years. CB
Shaver and the Swift brothers provided some capital, but their most important
contributions were their expertise, energy, and leadership skills.
CB's brother Truman came from Michigan and worked for many years for the company, first
as a woodsman and then in the box factory at Clovis. Truman was part of the other essential
element--a dedicated workforce. Together the management and workers met many
challenges with some setbacks along the way. CB was generally the
spokesman. He said they would complete the flume within two years,
and they did. The dam failed. CB said they would rebuild it within
months, and it was--taller and more robust. The mill at Clovis burned
to the ground. CB said they would rebuild it within a year, and was.
There was an economic panic and downturn. The company continued
to produce lumber and grew through the difficulties. Unlike most
Sierra lumber camps, it evolved into the vibrant and enduring
community of Shaver Lake.
The Shavers split their time between the mountains, which they
preferred, and Fresno, where Lena practiced the intricacies of
Victorian etiquette so they could properly entertain business
associates and financial backers in the expected fashion of the day. At
Shaver, the social life was more relaxed, with the crew, surveyors, engineers, and forest
rangers often meeting on the cabin's porch or around a campfire. In 1897 their daughter
Doris was born. For pleasure, they went swimming or took boats on the lake and camped
at Dinkey Creek. Evenings they would often walk the flume out to what they then called
Sunset Rock, now known as Shaver Rock.
Around 1900, CB was diagnosed with an acute form of diabetes, and the doctors put him
on a special diet and told him to stop smoking. He did but continued to sport an unlit cigar
in his mouth. In 1901 the company suffered a setback, LP Swift died of a heart attack. His
brother Harvey came out from Michigan to take over his role. CB maintained his
enthusiasm and carried on with his normal active lifestyle in spite of his struggle with
diabetes. He frequently traveled to San Francisco to promote the company, often taking
Lena or one of his daughters along with him. In 1906 the family took a cruise to Alaska. He
purchased a new White Steamer large enough for the family and took up the latest pastime

4. of automobile touring. They explored Yosemite and Lake County. In September of 1907, he
drove the family to Los Angeles in his brand new White Steamer automobile. Early rains
turned it into a bit of a misadventure. Most of the roads were not yet paved!
Ultimately a relatively minor condition caught up with him later that year. With a
compromised immune system from diabetes, an infection on his neck spread throughout
his system. After being bedridden for three weeks, he passed away on Christmas Day, 1907.
His doctors W.T and J.L. Maupin, Davidson, and the young Harry Craycroft (who had just
completed medical school and would marry the Shavers daughter Grace) had employed all
the latest that medical science had to offer at that time. Today, even a few decades later,
improved treatment for diabetes and antibiotics would make recovery routine.
With CB's untimely death, Lena held the family together, attended to raising their daughters
and righting their ship. Even though they had a comfortable life in Fresno, she had no
thought of leaving her mountain life. She intended to carry on CB's vision for the success of
the company and the prosperity of the Shaver/Pine Ridge community. As a majority
shareholder, she became a director of the company. She worked closely with her brother-in-
law Harvey Swift, who took over CB's role as president, in the management of the business
through some of its most productive years until they sold out in 1912.
Lena kept her cabin at Shaver, dividing her time between summers at Shaver and the winter
months in Fresno. Her daughters married. First Grace to Harry Craycroft in 1909, Ethel to
Gus Hoover in 1914, and Doris to Harold McDonald in 1918. Lena engaged in real estate
development, buying and selling properties, holding mortgages, and carrying out one of
CB's dreams. She built the Shaver Building at the corner of Fulton and Merced Streets in
downtown Fresno, with the ground
floor leased to a hardware and auto
supply store with the Sierra Hotel on
the second floor.
When the Edison company planned to
build a new dam and flood the town
of Shaver, she partnered with her son-
in-law, Dr. Harry Craycroft, to create
the development of Rock Haven. The
name was a play on words of the town
she grew up in--Lock Haven,
Pennsylvania. She was able to get the
Edison Co. to dismantle her cabin
piece by piece and rebuild it at Rock Haven. The grandchildren delighted when they found
the board from the kitchen, where they had marked their heights as they grew, now part of
the ceiling of their attic bedroom. The Craycroft's built a cabin here as well.

5. In 1921 they acquired the old Kenyon place, which had become Armstrong's Resort by
then. It included the old store built by Gus Bearing, the stately Victorian hotel built by the
Armstrongs, a dozen or so cabins, a large barn with a dance hall with a stage on the second
floor. They changed the name from Armstrongs to the Pine
Ridge Tavern: Cabins, Hotel, Post Office, and General
Merchandise Store. Harry became the Post Master. As the
former physician at the Shaver Mill, he set up one of the
cabins as a mountain medical
office. They moved CB's Surry
(with fringe on top) and Harry's
Pheaton Doctors Buggy into
the barn, where they sat, never
to be used again, but were fun
for kids to play on! They leased
out the operation of the store
and hotel at first and spent
most of their time in the
mountains at the cabins at
Rock Haven.
One evening in the fall of
1927, Lena gathered the family
along with other locals on the hill to witness the intentional
torching of buildings of the old mill and town of Shaver.
The new dam was complete and towered over the scene.
When full the new lake would leave the old site under 100
feet of water.
Lena loved her cabin at Rock Haven, but over time, she found that she preferred life at Pine
Ridge. Here she could be part of the comings and goings of the mountain residents getting
the mail and visitors on their way in and out of the mountains. And so, the old hotel became
the family's mountain home. It had plenty of room for the entire family. They had many
happy gatherings in the living room with the stone fireplace and bearskin rug, around the
big dining table with lazy-susan; or campfire, singing or reciting poetry—often performed on
the stage in the upstairs of the barn. The player piano and old Victrola for a large selection
of classical and popular music. Lena's sister, Minnie Swift, widow of Harvey Swift, built a
cabin above the house, and they spent many happy summers there.
It was a magical place for the whole family. There was a caretaker, but the family took part in
the work around the ranch during summers or weekends. There is always plenty to do,
taking care of the horses, firewood, planting, clearing dead and thinning trees, fixing

6. fences, checking on the spring. Both CB and Lena came from generations of farming and
lumbering families and understood the importance of land and forest management.
Lena developed a heart condition later in life. Her grandson Burr Craycroft, then in Medical
School at Stanford, arranged for a young woman from Kingsburg, Adeline Nord, to be a
companion for Lena during the summer in the mountains. Adeline became a close family
friend and later talked about how she cherished that summer with "Mrs. Shaver,” driving her
around, hearing stories, and learning about the mountains. That summer, Lena passed a
torch to Adeline, who would become a mountain legend of her own. She later married Karl
Smith, and they purchased and ran the
Diamond D Ranch at Blaney Meadows,
above Florence Lake, now called Muir Trail Ranch. In the winters, she taught school in
Auberry and returned to the ranch each summer, continuing to run the ranch with her
daughter and granddaughter after Karl's passing for many years.
It was to Lena's great sorrow that she could not die at Pine Ridge. In May of 1939, she
passed away at her home in Fresno. But she had established a place where the entire family
including seven grandchildren, and eventually twelve great-grandchildren could gather, call
home or come back to when needed.
This sense of place, this refuge—their mountain home—would help them cope with the
turmoil they would soon face. As the country entered World War 2, the families sought to
deal with worry and uncertainty. The men enlisted— Burr Craycroft, Dick Hoover, Bob
Hoover, Gordon McDonald, Doug McDonald, Red Rude—Marian Craycroft Rude’s husband,
and Clinton Olson—Ethel Hoover Olson’s husband.
During the war, a great tragedy struck the family. In the summer of 1943, while spending
some time at Pine Ridge with her grandchildren, Grace suffered a heart attack while
attempting to save a young boy who got into trouble while swimming in Shaver Lake.
After the war, the families sought to put the pieces of their lives back together, the Hoovers
& Olsons in Los Angeles, the McDonalds in Pasadena, the Craycrofts in San Jose, and the
Lena and Fop on the Porch and tending the garden

7. "Will you remember the famous men,
Who had to fall to rise again?
So take a deep breath,
Pick yourself up,
Dust yourself off,
Start all over again.
Nothing's impossible I have found
For when my chin is on the ground
I pick myself up,
Dust myself off,
Start all over again."

8. Resources:
• Charles Burr Craycroft—stories told during his lifetime of events he participated in or from
stories he heard from his father, Dr. Harry Craycroft, mother Grace Shaver Craycroft, and
grandmother Lena Roberts Shaver.
• Documents and photos from the collection of Charles Burr Craycroft
• Historical books and newspaper articles including:
• The Story of Big Creek
• Fresno County—The Pioneer Years
• Fresno Daily Expositor
• Fresno Daily Republican