Inside California’s Poorest County
[mellow acoustic guitar plays] [Peter] Good morning, guys. Today we have an epic roadtrip ahead of us We're gonna be going over these mountainshere to the poorest county in California, Trinity County. I think it's fair to say California is one of the most mixed up states in the country if not the most. What we're gonna see today is a completely different world than say Los Angeles or San Francisco. So we're gonna hit the back roads out here, get lost in this rugged landscape, talk to the locals, hear what they have to say, see the beautiful sites, and learn a thing or two.
Let's do this. [music continues] [Peter] Here we are, Trinity County. Mean income of $42,000 per person. Santa Clara County, the richest county in the state in the Bay Area is $154,000 per person. So huge divide on that front but there are only 16,000 people living in the county.
It's around 3,200 square miles. So it's very sparsely populated with only a few small towns in it and here's our first bit of civilization. Some old rundown buildings. Just very wild landscapes out here I've actually been driving for quite some time. I've had the camera off 'cause it's just cruising and this is one of the most remote parts of the country in a way as far as big cities being around.
You can see that times were better here in Trinity County What's that, an old arcade? Some storage units? Let's check out this store. Salyer Store, they got the Bigfoot up there. -How you doin', boss? -Pretty good. You?
Good, you guys got Bigfoot sightings out here? -There's been lore about it. I've never personally seen it but people talk about it a lot. [Peter] You believe? -I think there's something out there, yeah.
The woods are beautiful but they can be eerie especially at night time, mist, fog settles in too. It's like you hear noises. What is that? [both laugh] -[man] Never know. -[Peter] Yeah. Hello, sir. I want t to know about Bigfoot, are you a believer?
-Sasquatch? -Sasquatch. When it started, the guy that was… -Bear sh*t in the woods. -[laughter] -So that's the story, it was a bear? -Couple guys started that.
-Oh, started the rumor? -Yeah. Put things on their feet and was like making tracks. -No way. How is it living out here? It's the only place I've lived since 1955.
[woman] It's the most beautiful place in the world. [Peter] It is beautiful. Used to work in a sawmill in Bear Ranch. -You worked at the sawmill? -For 37 years.
-The Endangered Species Act got it. -Shut it down? -We couldn't get no more timber. -What did you do for work after that? Worked over at Pacific Choice. It's a seafood place in Eureka.
-You drove all the way to Eureka? -Every day. [Peter] How far is that, hour and a half? No, I can make it in less than that. So I figured I'm working on that till I retire.
-Gotcha. Then when the Endangered Species Act kept… Because the spotted owl, couldn't get no more timber. So the mill faded away.
-Is that still big out here, timber? There ain't no timber? -No timber? -Owl got it. -The owl got it? -Spotted owl. Now the barn owl's eating spotted owls. [laughs]
-So what's the industry out here now? There isn't any. That's just it. -Nothing? Tried pot for a while. -Growing? -[laughs] -How did that go? -That got a little spooky. Spooky why? You gotta keep looking over your shoulder. [man 2] $4,000 or $5,000 a pound it used to be.
-$4,000 or $5,000 a pound? Yeah, at least that. -So you had timber, you had weed, now you're looking-- -Nothing. -Nothing? Just old age pension. [laughs] [Peter] Old age pension, all right. Thanks, guys.
-Okay. -Right on. What's your name? Peter, I have a son named Peter. -Okay, good name. Keep it going. That's good to hear. [Peter] All the best. [door beeps] -Hello. -Hello, how you doing, ma'am? -Okay.
[Peter] The old Burnt Ranch Store. Looks like the last iteration was a kayak operation. We're starting to get into it though, guys. Around the 1850s is when gold was found in these mountains. People came west from the east and the town we're going to had 2,000 Chinese that lived there. They had their own Chinataown and they were part of the gold operations, the mining operations back in the day.
The spaces between are massive here. The camera's off most of the time because it's just long stretches of road without any people. You see occasiaonal houses like that and then markers of the old world.
We drove roughly 55 miles from where we started today and now we're in the town of Weaverville. Only 3,500 people live here but it's the biggest town in the county. County seat. Gotta say, quite a cool looking place.
Old architecture. -Hello. -Hey, how you doing? -I'm good. How are you? -Good. All these old buildings what? -They are the original buildings on Main Street. -Okay. -It's really cool.
-They have, if you go to the front… -Yeah We have… 'cause this was a Chinese mining town and of course during segreation and stuff and so Chinese men weren't allowed out past 5:00 PM so they built a tunnel system underneath. -No way. -Mm-hmm. Weaverville, so they could get from bar to bar.
It's all blocked in now but our whole storage unit underneath the ground, if you go and order you can walk over it but I can't open it for ya. -Okay, gotcha. Just safety-wise but… -How was growing up here? So fun. -So fun? -So fun, yeah.
I just moved home. I graduated college in June. I think as a teenager, you're like, "It's small, I wanna get out." -Sure. -Go experience things.
But it's a lot of fun. Very Hallmark. You watch Hallmark movies at all? I don't but what's that, like Pleasantville? Yeah, like very… just cheesey. Like holiday town. I went to school in San Luis Obispo and it is so much different than here. People have never heard of Weaverville You get up and introduce yourself, "My name's Alissa, I'm from Weaverville."
"Where?" -Right, that's Central Coast, what's that, like seven hours of driving? -Yeah, it's like eight and a half. -Eight and a half? -You guys are out there. -Yeah. No, we're up in the boonies. -It's cool. All right. Im gonna check this out up here. -Please do.
-All right, thank you. -Yeah, of course. [Peter] These beautiful archways here. -How you doing, sir? -How are you? -Doing well. -Good.
-Do you live in town? How are things? -How you doing, man? Good, I'm making a video on Trinity County. -Okay. -Oh, gosh. Do you guys wanna jump in it? -Depends on what is your outlook? -My outlook is I have none. I just talk to the locals and it's really their outlook. It's the friendliest town I've ever been in. -Friendliest town you've been in? -Yeah.
Even though there are people that are right wing. -It's right wing? -Yeah, yeah. -Oh, and you're not. "Dump Trump"? -Yeah. -Okay. -Don't get him started on this.
-Don't? Okay. -No, no. Is this the underground way for the Chinese back in the day? -This whole block system had underground areas where they would, as I understand it, the Asian community used to be able to move through the community. -From this building… this one, next one, next one, next one, are all connected. Looking through that door and you could go through here and this door on the other side. -But they've been blocked off. -Okay. [Peter] Oh, they have cookies here.
-Yeah. -We just made these today also. -Okay, I'm in. -Just one of 'em? -Yep. -[Peter] Thank you. -[man] I'm gonna open this up. All right.
-All right, my friend. -Yeah, take care. All the best. All right, this place is fantastic, Mamma Llama Eatery. -Yeah, take care, guys. -Yeah, all right. If you're in Weaverville get the homemade cookies. Okay.
Here's what prices look like in the region. $400,000 for that cabin. $275,000 for that three bed, one point five bath. 2,200 square feet, 2.9 acres, $459,000. So depending on where you're from that's either cheap or expensive.
From the urban parts of the state this is a true value but there are no jobs most likely or very few. Seperate ownership external spiral staircases. Cool architectural details here.
We have Diggin's. -How you guys doing? -Good. I'm just making a video of Weaverville. Is this a cool place? Yeah, this whole building's been here since 1856.
-What was it? -What was this before? A bank? -Yeah, a a bank. That's cool. -It's been a bar since the '50s. -You guys from town? -'Round here, yeah. What's going on out here other than a beautiful town? Nothing really, just a bunch of rednecks and logging really. -Is logging still happening? -Oh, yeah.
The mills right down there. -Oh, really? -Yeah. -They're still hiring people? -Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Other than working for Caltrans, like, you know, the highways. That's probably the best local job.
-Okay what do they pay do you think to start there? Probably at least between 18 to 22. -And that means you're out in the forest? -No, no that's at the mill. -Okay. That's actually working at the mill not out there logging.
Those are all private companies that feed the mill. -Okay. So bringing in the logs and the mill's cutting down boards, everything like that. -And the mill's privately owned? -Yeah. So it's important for the community having that? -Huge. -Huge?
If the mill went down like that's why the Hayfork's a ghost town. Hayfork's a ghost town. The only thing I kept Hayfork alive to this day is weed.
After the mill shut down, Weaverville's mill's all we got in Trinity. The mill shut down, then the town shut down? -Yeah, for the most part. -Okay. It dwindled down, that's for sure. -That was a long time ago. -You grew up here? -No, I'm from Nebraska. -Whoa.
Well got you out here? Cannabis. Well, that business isn't so good right now. -Hell no. It's gone. -It's gone? That's one thing that kept this town alive. I mean, up until California made it recreational for the whole state.
if you had to be 21, just go buy it. We had people all over the world. Our little 3,000 people town, we'd have 45,000 people from around the world coming here to trim weed. -Trimigrants, that's what we call them. -Trimigrants? They would get their 90 day visas, come out here to Humboldt, and just trim weed. Go back to wherever, France, I met people all around the world.
-Okay, so you had a lot of Europeans come? And then South Americans, Chile, Argentina, France, Spain. -The trimigrant gets the 90 day visa, comes and works. -And then it goes back home.
-Makes a bunch of money, goes home? -Yeah. -But no longer? -No, it's dying now. -If the economy is hurting, why does the town look so nice? It looks really nice here. It's been this way, it hasn't changed. All this brick is the same brick since the 1800s.
-These were like brothels, and bars, and hotels. -Was that a brothel? -Yeah. This was the New York Saloon, one of the oldest places here.
Yeah, this was all the gold rush. This was formed by the gold rush back in the day. -This is your ride? -Yep, I'm out of here.
-What's your name? -Bret. -Bret, Peter. -Nice to meet you. Enjoy our beautiful little town.
Thanks, Bret, all the best. What a cool place. Guys, just been here a few minutes, really and got right into conversation. People are friendly. This video is sponsored by Ground News. The overall goal of this channel is to get on the ground, talk to people on the street level from all different backgrounds and get all different takes of what society in the world is.
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And so they would set up these hydraulic giants, as they say, and blast the water into the side of the mountain. And pull away the dirt and out would come the gold. I believe that's how that worked. It was because of that gold the money trickled down, created a town with nice architecture and a thriving economy gun fights, brothels, all sorts of wildness back in the day. [lock rattles] Oh, wrong day.
[woman] Friday night, I think. -I have two lemon zucchini breads left. -Okay. -Do you mind, I'm making a video on Trinity County? -Oh well-- -Are you from here? Yeah, I live in Poker Bar. Yeah. Poker Bar Farms Bakery. -Uh oh, my sign. -Okay. -So this is your bakery? -Yeah.
This is the farmer's market location right here. -Okay. At the Meadow and we have like it stops in mid-October. -Okay. -And I just almost sold out. I make Greek stuff.
I make baklava. -Oh cool. -This is milopita, it's apple. I just had a cookie, but I'm gonna have to try this. -Okay. -Can you hold this? -Yeah. Here we go… milopita.
-Greek apple cake. -Homemade? -Of course. -You make it? -Yeah. Mm-hmm. -Good? Fantastic. I make a lot of Greek… I'm half Greek, so.
-Look at that apple. Fresh apples. -Fresh apples. Actually, off trees in Lewiston. -In Lewiston nearby? -Yeah. And I make baklava and the kourabiedes cookies.
Yeah, I'm the Greek baker. -So how are things in Weaverville? Well, we were just talking about how to come up with some great activities. 'cause that one gal in the black, she owns Yantra, and she can't open it 'cause she doesn't have a ADA compliant bathroom. -Oh. So she's thinking about like a private wine bar or something. -Okay.
But there's a lot of that, you know, all along the main street here. The first Saturday of every month they have an art walk and all businesses open. -I had no idea it would be so nice out here. Oh, it's beautiful.
-I thought Trinity County is technically the poorest county in the state. Yeah. -So I thought it'd be all run down.
No, the people are poor but they have a lot of volunteerism and community groups that are real active. -Okay. -I'm retired, but I do… -[both chuckle] -That guy's fired up. -I know.
He's been coming back and forth all day. -We know Trump won the election. -Yeah, so… But yeah, they have a lot of events like they have the Salmon and Harvest Festival here. They have events throughout the year for people and they have a lot of music.
They have a lot of entertainment, very talented artists. We get tourism dollars come in. I do a lot of Airbnb myself. I'm busy all throughout the season. It slows down in the fall but the fishermen are, you know, come all throughout the year for the fishing and it's good right now. [truck passes] Let's check this place out of here.
Hello, sir. -Pearson B. Redding came over from-- -Yeah. [Peter] Who came over? This guy right up here. -This guy? -Yeah, that's Pearson B. Redding. Okay, so Redding is named after this guy? -Redding was originally going to be named after this guy.
-Reading. -Reading? No, no. The English pronounce this as Redding.
-We pronounce it reading. -I know. [Peter] And you're five generations, Weaverville? I'm four-plus generations, Humboldt County. -So 1849, California Gold Rush, but it happened here, 1850. -Bunch of people moved from the East. -Yeah, from all over, basically. Kids who were growing up on farms too small in Indiana, you know, or Louisiana.
The late 40s were economically tough, not only in the United States, but in Europe. It was a worldwide recession, not too deep, but felt everywhere. The sound of gold discovery in California in the media brought people from a lot of places. A lot of German names up in those pictures.
-Okay, yeah. -There were a lot of French came here, but virtually everybody. The year 1848 saw revolutions all across Europe and also a collapse of the French government. -So the French, the Germans, would hear of this in Europe, they'd get on a boat, come over here, come to the east coast, then across the country? Some might've come across the country, some came around the horn. That is a sketch of Weaverville made in 1850, a charcoal sketch, and at that time it was a town made out of woodhouses, woods readily appropriable.
The major part of the wooden structure in the town was burned out by succession of fires and merchants who got enough money rebuilt in brick. So all this historic district is brick up here. [Peter] So fair to say these were some of the most ambitious people in Europe or some of the most desperate? -They were desperate and also the European education system functioned a lot differently, you know? Because you're talking about a society that has a denser population than the mid-continent part of the US had and certainly the West. So these people were the successful ones. There's also a fair number of English, and Irish, and Scotch immigrants as well. That's Jim that's obviously not German.
Lorenz, and he was the most prosperous hydraulic miner in the county. -This guy? -Yeah. If you go on to Redding on California Street you'll see the Lorenz Hotel, a big three-story imposing brick hotel.
So if it was gold at one time, timber still going to some degree, it was pot. -This is the Emerald Triangle? -Part of the Emerald Triangle. With Humboldt and Mendocino County. So back before 2016, before it became legalized for recreational use the small farms were all around here, correct? -There were a lot of them. -Okay. Do you miss those days or no? Well, I was never involved in that at all. -I was kind of-- -You didn't Inhale, that's good.
-No. -[laughter] I came from a ranching family and we had Mexican cartel guys invade our place. -Really? What year? -Yeah. Early in the 2000s and… -What do you mean they invaded your place? They trespassed and built a farm with about 20,000 plants. -And there's nothing you could do? -You have to find it first. They're pretty good at hiding those things.
And so I worked with the sheriff's office and we got rid of them. They're still here, not the numbers they used to be, but they're still here. -They're still growing? -They're still growing, yeah. -[man 2 ] In the back country? -[Peter] So way back there? Yeah.
If you don't have local knowledge… This is one of the 10 largest wilderness areas in the lower 48. So about 600,000 acres. I've been hiking there for 65 years and I've been on top of almost every mountain and seen almost all the lakes several times and there are places that I probably won't walk.
Humboldt Gulch would be a good example. They will move, they might be in a place for two years, maybe only one year if they decide there's much traffic there. -And it's just because it's hard to really explain it unless you've been here. It's so remote.
It's remote. And there's so much space between the towns but this is the California most people don't think of when they hear California. They think of Yosemite and San Francisco LA, Disneyland, a few other things, that's it. -They think San Francisco's Northern California till you get up here. -San Franciscans always talk of themselves as being Northern California and we talk to them as being middle California.
Yeah. [Peter] Totally unexpected, guys. I was thinking the main town in the poorest county of California would be a little rougher, a little more beat up but this is quite charming, quite beautiful, and you never know what you're going to get into until you go. That's for sure.
[mellow acoustic guitar plays] -You've lived here for how long? -38 years. Okay, so what's the story? What do the outsiders not know? We got a thing called Trinity County time. We're all on it. [laughter] Everything's a little slower pace here than the people from the city. -Pretty tight community, would you say? It's getting back to that. They just started a community action committee type thing.
So that's getting together and they're going to try to start doing more events out here. So then we've got music going on down at the Moose now. Yeah, music at the Moose.
-So they say statistically it's the poorest county in the state but it doesn't feel or look that way though. Driving through today. You know, it's definitely lower.
-It looks way nicer than I thought it would. -Like Weaverville's a charming place. -It's a charming place. -It used to be a lot more charming. -Really? Yeah. -I thought it was clean and nice. -Oh man. When I lived there in '97 is when I came out to Lewiston from Weaverville.
And it was a lot more pristine even back then. -Yeah. -Okay. Are the young people staying in town? They all move. Most of the majority's moving.
-They go to the cities? -Cities and stuff like that. Some of them come back after a while. Yeah. We're getting a lot more people that are selling their homes in the Bay Area. -We got a lot of retirees up here. -And then moving up here. Because I mean for what they're selling down there. They can…
-Yeah. -Yeah, it's crazy. [laughs] I worked for the County Behavioral Health for 20 years and then I retired. -Oh, you shouldn't retire. We need you. -[laughter] No, I don't want to go there anymore. -You've done enough of that? I'm still a newcomer and I've opened the shop in '01. -Yeah, we're smi-natives. -Yeah. [laughs]
-Did the true natives embrace you easily or that was a long time to crack in? Yeah, it took a while, but, you know, then all those… If you go over to Hayfork it's kind of different. -If you fix their car though, they probably like you. -You know, it's been good. -Yeah.
Let's put it that way. -Cool. Where should I go in Lewiston? So there's not many places. -There's some smokehouse, right? Smokehouse and talk to Jarret. -Jarret? Okay. -Yeah, he's the owner. If he's not there, what is it, Sean? -He's like a manager or something. -Okay.
-It's a little smokehouse restaurant. -All right. Short red headed guy with a beard, that's Sean. -Yeah. -All right. -Nice meeting you. -See you guys, thank you. [Peter] So we're gonna go down to the Smokehouse.
This is true small town feeling Americana. [man] I'll give my boss guy a jingle 'cause he heard you were coming around. -He wanted to be here. -Oh, he knew? Okay. He just got back into town from a grocery run. -Did you grow up here? -No, I didn't. I was a transplant up here, I used to work… I was a geographic information specialist.
-So a cartographer. -Okay. And I was working doing CEQA documents for a commercial cannabis consulting company and then when the green boom crashed I couldn't find work and so I started working here and I love it. I've been working here for two years now. -Oh, wow. -Yeah.
One of the pot refugees. -Are there a lot of you guys? -Yeah. -Pot refugees? -Oh yeah, there's a lot.
When the farms all kinda crashed, they went out. -Yep. So here in Trinity, just in Lewiston there used to be probably 30 farms and then they had anywhere from five to ten guys that worked for them. So you had a lot of people left the county after that 'cause when that went away… So it was on a downward trend and now it's tourism that keeps the places going. -So it was better-- -Hey.
-How you doing? Peter. -Jarret. -He's the boss man. -Oh cool, this is your business? -Yes. -Nice. I'm just getting your take on Trinity County. I'm doing a video on Trinity, cruising through. I love Trinity County, super chill.
-Super chill? -Yeah. You guys feel removed, left alone out here? Absolutely, you're in the county 40 miles from the city. This is a sweet setup, can I take a video of it? -Yeah, man. -Where are you taking this? I do the archery tournament in Redding. I do Heather's Fair, Hayforks Fair, Down River Kayak Races. The Fourth of July, I do the VIP tent, Fourth of July for the rodeo.
-Nice. How's business? Business is good. Bar social media blew up two years ago and we've just been slamming. -Right on. -Yeah. Sasquatch, you believe in him? Sure.
-That's a legend up there in the sticks? I'm from South Carolina so we ain't got many Sasquatches. Okay, how is it here compared to South Carolina? So where I grew up in South Carolina is almost identical to this. -Seriously? -Almost identical. -The community? -Mountain town. Actually my community was smaller than this in South Carolina.
We were farm but just the layout. I was 40 miles from the city. A lot of people who live here never have gone anywhere outside of California. They've never been outside California, never been to the city, never been to LA. Like straight up, they're country kids.
They ride horses, and motorcycles, and rodeo, and sh*t. -Right so that-- -[laughing] Straight up, yeah. That would be a cultural collision dropping these guys into Downtown LA? They'd have no idea what to do, yeah. -They don't want to go and I get it. -Yeah.
I got in the military, and I got out, and went to San Diego. -You know what I'm saying? I got out. -Okay. 'Cause I wanted to experience life. -But I think from the outside in South Carolina nobody knows Trinity County or how remote it is.
No, they have no idea. And so they don't understand like a good chunk of California, maybe the majority is rural. Oh yeah. How many sheriff's and cop cars have you seen? Saw one at town, Weaverville. Yeah.
-CHP probably. -How are they? They good? Yeah, our cops are good. I love our sheriff's department. This is… Lewis is remote. So, there's not a lot here.
In a little mountain town, you better have three businesses. -Why? -Because there's no money. So, we have the market and we have this.
My wife runs an early head start daycare out of our house. So… -Is it hard to run businesses here these days? So, hunting season ended last Sunday and we are now in wintertime money, which is not much but starting in March, we'll pick back up. I do a 12-week street run of no breaks starting May No breaks.
Every weekend I'm somewhere doing something I private chef for a month at a fishing camp. -So you just make her while it's here and then you got to bank up and then that rides you through the winter? Absolutely, you have to. I do catering Saturday and just Christmas parties. That's what makes enough money to pay the employees 'cause we stay open. Tacos are my number one seller for the year.
-Okay. And then the mountain philly is right behind that and then the pulled pork, and depending on the day of the week, man, I might sell out of 25, 30 pounds of pastrami just making reubans. It's great 'cause it's our own little twist. We use a slaw sauce, Carolina mustard barbecue sauce. We smoke our own pastramis. -I'm going to do it. I'll do that pulled pork.
-I got you, man. Now the Mac is Sean's baby. -The Mac and cheese? -Deep fried Mac and cheese balls. That's Sean's baby. -I got to do one of those. -Are those ready? Okay. -Yeah, they're ready.
-Did you come up with that? -Hell yeah. Just sound advice, bro. -It's a meth a big thing out here? -Tweakers.
-[woman] It's everywhere. -What about Fentanyl? Oh yeah, the city's overrun with it, yeah. -The city, you mean Weaverville? -Redding, yeah. -Oh, Redding. -Oh Redding's horrible.
-It's bad? -Oh, bad. Like scary bad. Like, so bad that I came back here. -No way, you lived up here, went to Redding, then came back? -Yeah, I grew up here. -What was that like? Oh, it was wonderful. When I was young, I'm 34, right? -Okay.
When I graduated high school, I went to college in Redding, and so just 17 and a half to 19 it wasn't too bad. -Yeah. Went down to the Bay Area. Did my career, made a lot of money and stuff and then divorce.
-What did you do? -I build Bridges. -Oh, cool. -Yeah. But I went through a nasty divorce, lost my house and everything.
And then I came back in 2019 is when I had my divorce and I was just like what the heck, man? I'm going that's such a short amount of time for this influx. -Yeah, yeah. -I'm like, oh. -That's, that's too bad. I was hoping I wouldn't hear that out here, but it's everywhere. I just met a woman on the Lost Coast though and she was in rehab her fourth time, and she found a great rehab out there. -And she's been clean five years. -Oh, that's wonderful.
-Yeah, she's helping people. -That's great. Yeah, no, I'm with that. Do you feel pride when you go over the bridge you made? -Oh heck, yeah. -Is that cool? Oh, dude, it's awesome. Like, especially because a lot of people just not mentally capable to handle that amount of stress and stuff, you know? Especially when you start running work, and running crews, and running jobs, and stuff like that. It's just not meant for everyone, you know? Have you ever driven under a bridge that's under construction? -Like being built? -Yeah.
And all the things that are holding everything up. -Yeah. -That was my specialty. Here we go, mac balls? -Mac and cheese balls, yeah. Pulled pork with pickles. -I need a third hand. -Right. [chuckles]
-Right on, thank you. -Yeah, man. All right. This is looking good. Smelling good. These balls are just, uh… grab a bite.
Mmm. Messy, but wow, that's good. Woo.
Mmm. That's an interesting combo. -This is so awesome. The Mac ball. -Thanks, bro. Yeah. I've never had that.
-[chuckles] Yeah. That's a barbecue thing. The industry's come up with a couple years ago. -Yeah? -Yeah, man.
-I'll never be the same… ever. -Ever. Pulled pork sandwich. Mmm. Nice smoke to it. Very tender. Soft bun. You gotta have a soft bun. Mmm.
So good. And they got a cool market right next to it and you said a tattoo shop? Yeah, down by the hotel. -Oh, there's a tattoo shop, okay. Yeah, he did all this work. -Oh, nice.
All his stuff. -Guys, take care. All the best. -Yeah, brother. All right, we have an ambitious goal to go way north in the county. before the sun goes down but since it's going down in about two minutes here over that mountain we might be in the shadows but we're going to try to get up there. To Trinity Center. Yeah, so this is just that part of the country where you got your little general store, maybe your restaurant.
All the locals come in, congregate there, live out in the countryside, and just a few of these little hubs, really, in the whole county. These are old the abandoned homes. You can see the forest just taking the home over.
Brush growing up over it. Wow, look at these ones right in the ravine here. Someone must be living down there, the porch light's still on. Old schoolhouse up there. Let's go check it out.
Wow, it's so beautiful. It's a schoolhouse library. Then up on the hill here, we have the congregational church.
Such beautiful architecture. Probably built around the time the old prospectors came out, built up these communities. Oh, wow, look at this. The nature is everywhere. Look at these guys.
Beautiful animals. [mellow acoustic guitar plays] In the distance you can see some of the peaks of the Trinity Alps. Unfortunately we won't be getting deep into those. But that is what's around here outside of these forests, these river valleys. The majority of the day has been like this.
Open road, forests, some deer on the side of the road. A stop sign. A house out in the middle of nowhere.
It's only 16,000 people over a ton of land and that's the draw to Trinity County. There's nobody out there. [music continues] [Peter] So the sign across the street, state of Jefferson, is that still a thing? So what they were trying to do is make Northern California its own separate state. So that we could have our own separate laws for gun control, et cetera, because they were trying to take away all of our guns and everything here a few years back. So State of Jefferson was a movement where we were trying to make Northern California, because we're so rural, not like San Diego and San Francisco, to be its own complete separate state.
Add an extra state to the United States. -That's a hard thing to do, huh? It didn't go through but everybody still supports it. All the craziness that goes on in the big cities, you know? -Okay, so no crime up here really? No, not really and if some kind of crime goes on everybody usually knows exactly who it is doing it.
So I love that small town feel where, you know, we're all basically like a family instead of a town. -Have you lived anywhere else or you've always been here? Fifth generation, my great-grandparents actually made Trinity Center when the lake inundated the old Trinity Center. -Oh, that's where I want to go to finish up the video. -When did they dam it? -'58. -Okay, and where does that water go to? It goes down through three pump houses to create power, ultimately into Shasta Lake, and then continues on down south. -How do you guys feel about that? Um, I know that they really didn't want it to happen before the lake was put in.
Now we really rely on the lake because it brings in the tourists, which keeps our economy going. -Okay, okay, 'casuse that's the main economy up here, tourism? Yes, definitely. When they told everyone they were going to put the lake in, everybody was told they had to either sell their home to the government or up and leave. And so everything that Trinity Center is on was my family's land. And they actually brought up the Iowa Love Hall and the store and things like that. -Oh, they brought the buildings up from the Lake Shore? Yeah, from down on where the lake is now.
Everybody who wanted to move their home, our family went ahead and helped them and brought their homes up here and anyone who wanted to just build a new home they helped them build their new homes. They put in the streets, the roads. There's actually I think it's the K-I-X-E-T-B, my uncle Lynn. It was his parents who did it and he helped build the roads and power in. And he did an interview about the old Trinity Center becoming the new Trinity Center. -Cool, all your family still around? -Yeah.
Yeah, my grandma is in her 90s and she is still running the water company. We are deeply rooted here. Okay, so tourists, this is the place to go to town? -Do you have a bar? -A little bit of everything. The old one that's just down the road, that used to be the bar down at the old Trinity Center. Owners passed away. It's up for sale, has been for a long, long time.
There used to be a bar down by the airport. Same story. Owners passed away. Nobody's bought it and brought it back up.
-So do most of the young people like you move out of town? Yeah, usually when the kids around here get old enough they leave for a while but they always come back. -They do? -Yeah, pretty much. Here's the lake we just talked about.
There's also a tiny airstrip over there. And that's the end of the road guys. I definitely underestimated the size of this county. It's just country, nature, solitude, and beauty.
And it goes to show you you can never put a simple label on something such as California. This is California, Los Angeles is California, Death Valley is California, all different realities, much different feels, and completely unique and interesting places. Thanks for coming along on that journey, guys. Until the next one. [mellow acoustic guitar plays]
2024-12-28 09:49
