Dales, California

Dales is an unincorporated small town approximately 10 miles (16 km) north east of Red Bluff on State Highway 36 East, at the intersection of Manton Road (aka Long Road or Tehama County Highway A6), in Tehama county, CA. The area had been historically known as Dales Station until sometime around the year 2000 when the name was shortened to Dales.

The name is derived from the Dale family which moved onto the ranch adjacent to Dales Station in 1908. In 1913 Creath Dale purchased this property that previously belonged to the Long family, and before that, the Gates family. The Dale home was originally known as the "Halfway House" when the Gates owned it, being halfway between the cities of Red Bluff and Manton or Paynes Creek. The Halfway House was originally located on the north side of the Paynes Creek waterway, but was disassembled and rebuilt while the Gates' owned it, near its present location on the south side of the creek. The ranch became a routine stop for the local mail stage coach and passenger stages, with livestock and fresh horses being kept in the Dale's barn. The Dale family raised cattle on the ranch, and offered meals and lodging to cattlemen, shepherds, and travelers. Dales Station had now become a landmark.

The ranch houses included a wooden structure built in 1922 by the Dales as a gasoline and automobile service station in response to the popularity of the Ford Model "T". Then, in 1937, major flooding in the area destroyed the service station and the wooden bridge that crossed the Paynes Creek on the road to Manton. The Dale's home (old Halfway House) survived the flood but floated approximately 12 feet (3.7 m) to its current location. The following year, the Dales rebuilt the Station using stones from the nearby lava beds on their property, ensuring that future floods could not have the same devastating effect. Since that time the Dale family began leasing the space to others to run as a restaurant and bar, and finally sold the Station in 1962. The Station had grown in size to accommodate live-in owners and a commercial kitchen, and no longer serves as a service station. A popular place for generations, the Station began to fall into disrepair and was finally closed around the year 2000 after the Dale's ranch stopped providing water, forcing the live-in owner at that time to close the business, move out, and finally lose the property, the same fate befalling several other homes dependent on the Dales' water supply. The Station remained unused for 5 years while it changed investors' hands, falling further into disrepair.

In 2006 Dales Station was purchased by Tom Eckmann of San Jose, CA, who envisioned that the historic property could once again become revived. A skilled tradesman with expertise in restaurant construction, he singlehandedly gutted the 2,000-square-foot (190 m²) facility and rebuilt it over a period spanning almost 4 years. Originally considering the facility as a residence, most of the walls were rebuilt, all the utilities were replaced, new windows, doors, and fine finishes such as limestone, granite and hardwood floors, and new cabinetry were added. Finally, due to a downturn in the construction industry, Eckmann realized that his most recent business endeavor, as a General Contractor, was in dire straits and that he needed a new job, and so worked with the local health department and government agencies to restore the facility back to a restaurant and bar with a live-in residence. The original restaurant seating areas and bar were restored with new equipment and finishes, breathing new life into Dales Station. The restaurant and bar reopened in November 2010 under the revived name of Dales Station, operated by Tom Eckmann with help from his wife Nicky, when she would visit every 2nd weekend from San Jose, where she continued to live while she maintained a steady job as a manager of a hospital gift shop.

Dales now consists approximately 25 residences with approximately 70 residents, a few ranches of varying sizes, and a trout farm. The local geography includes vernal pools to the west (Hog Lake) and just north of the Station (Dales Lake), as well as volcanic buttes (Tuscan Buttes, Soap Butte, Inkskip Hill), natural mineral springs, rolling hills of blue oak savannah, several seasonal gulches and the anadromous Paynes Creek, and borders the Sacramento River Bend area. The ancient Indian tribes known as the Yana, including the Yahi and Nomlaki Indian, occupied and flourished in this area for millennia until slaughtered by white settlers in the 1800s. The Ishi Wilderness is a local protected public area dedicated to these Indians, named for Ishi, the last known aborigine survivor of the Yahi who made contact with the modern world in 1911. This area borders other protected areas including wildlife preserves, which are the winter habitat for the migratory Tehama deer herd, the largest migrating deer herd in California.

Dales Station is nestled in the heart of lush valley at 650 ft (200 m). el. on the approach to Mount Lassen Volcanic National Park. The natural beauty of this riparian landscape is home to a large variety of wildlife, large and small. Bald eagles, hawks, osprey, owls, geese, swans, egrets and heron, duck, doves, quail, turkey, woodpeckers, vultures, jays, and many other birds live in or travel through Dales daily. The Paynes Creek behind Dales Station flows year round and spawns trout, salmon, smallmouth bass, Sacramento suckers, squawfish, crayfish, and more species of fish. Fox, coyote, raccoon, skunk, and large numbers of deer have called this area home for millennia. The majestic cottonwood trees and live oak trees towering above Dales Station provide a home and nourishment for many of the local fauna and are a vital part of the local ecosystem. While the landscape of Dales is lush, it is an ancient yet active volcanic terrain , covered with lava boulders, lava beds, volcanic buttes, and climbing hills filled with springs. Dales is on the climb from the northeastern tip of California’s Central Valley to the mountainous region where the Sierra Nevada meets the actively volcanic Cascade Mountains. Prior to Mt. St. Helens, Mount Lassen was the last volcano to erupt in the United States in 1914 continuing for over 2 years.

Dales Station shares its PO Box ZIP Code (96075) and wired telephone prefixes (Area code 530-597-xxxx) with the community of Paynes Creek, California but it shares a ZIP Code for street addresses with Red Bluff, California (96080).

Politics

In the state legislature Dales Station is located in the 4th Senate District, represented by Republican Doug LaMalfa, and in the 2nd Assembly District, represented by Republican Jim Nielsen. Federally, Dales Station is located in California's 2nd congressional district, which has a Cook PVI of R +13^[1] and is represented by Republican Wally Herger.

References

1. ^ "Will Gerrymandered Districts Stem the Wave of Voter Unrest?". Campaign Legal Center Blog. http://www.clcblog.org/blog_item-85.html. Retrieved 2008-02-10. 

Coordinates: 40°18′50″N 122°04′14″W / 40.31389°N 122.07056°W / 40.31389; -122.07056