Gold Lake Lodge Established in 1912
The Main Dining Room Circa 1921
The first permit was issued in 1912 to Mac and Mava Machomich. The lodge was built to accommodate guests who wished to fish Gold Lake and nearby lakes, but didn’t want to “rough it” by camping. Visitors came to the area by train to Blairsden then by horse and buggy and motorized car.
In 1942,the lodge had a recreation hall, dining hall, a store, a generator cabin, eight cabins, and twenty-one tent cabins. In the late 1940’s disaster hit, when a tree toppled into the Recreation Hall. Tradgedy was not over, in 1925 the main lodge burned to the ground, but it was reconstructed the next year. Lodge owners are never daunted by problems and the Machomichs built it again.
The Machomichs, due to age and health, sold the resort in 1953 to Dorothy McClenaghan, a school teacher in Berkeley, California. She renovated cabins with newer facilities and removed older tent cabins. She employed seasonal help but did a lot of the work herself. She did much of the cooking, carpentry, reservations, and even repaired the ‘farmer phone line’ each year with Mr. Drew from Elwell Lakes Lodge. Ms. McClenaghan was an industrious entrepreneur who thought nothing of oiling the interior walls of her buildings each year by herself before opening for the summer.
In 1987 she had to part with the lodge because of poor health, selling to Pete and Ann Thill of Graeagle, California. They rebuilt the clientele, appealing to families who wished to hike, fish, boat, and mountain bike in the area. The Thills strived to retain the style of earlier days with breakfast and dinner served in the dining room and campfires each night. They catered as well to outside dinner guests who wished to experience dining in an old-fashioned lodge.
In 2002, the John Barker family of Portola purchased the lodge and operated it for 15 years, updating and improving the facility each year getting the lodge to modern guests preferences. Today, Gold Lake Lodge continues its operation of providing quality summer recreation to guests of the Lakes Basin area with the Remlinger family as owners since 2017.
Historical Writing Credit to Sugie Barker