To walk the streets of Wilsonia is to walk through a living past. Perhaps nowhere is there a better example of the ever-changing American dream.

     The mid to late 1800s was a time of dreams, especially in the far western United States. Freedom, equal opportunity, and settlement of vast, unoccupied government lands were seen as the unquestioned rights of every citizen. In sprawling, newly formed Tulare County, the forests were there for the taking, to explore, settle, and cut without restrictions, to divide into sections of ownership, to use and abuse at will. There was certainly more than enough for everyone.

     In 1857, Joseph Hardin Thomas set up a lumber mill in the county’s high timberlands near today’s town of Pinehurst. That opened settlement and logging in a prime area of Giant Sequoia trees until the 1870s, when a growing conservation-conscious public began an effort to save the grove.

     Daniel M. Perry held a homestead claim for 160 acres that lay just outside the grove. He watched as the conservation efforts grew through the years, and finally sold the parcel to lumberman Smith Comstock—just one year before the formation of General Grant National Park, in 1890. Times turned hard in the 1890s, the land changed hands several times, and no extensive logging on it ever took place.

     The turn of the 20th century heralded astounding changes for Tulare County. With the mass production of automobiles, recreational roads began to wind into the mountains, and interest in preservation of the forests gave way to new leisure-time pursuits.

     California Fish and Game Commissioner Andrew Ferguson could see the potentials. He gained private title to the Perry tract in 1918 and turned a portion of it into a summer home subdivision. A staunch Democrat and ardent admirer of then President Woodrow Wilson, Ferguson placed a large sign with a portrait of the President at the entrance to the subdivision, proclaiming it “Wilsonia.” He also placed some restrictions. No meadows could be sold and no trees over six inches in diameter could be cut without consent of Wilsonia’s governing body.

     In 1919 Ferguson sold 20 of the 160 acres to a group known as The Masonic Family Club, and the self-governing group built 24 cabins as a separate part of the Wilsonia community. The rest of the land continued to be subdivided until, by the late 1920s, the tract had 180 landowners and 150 homes.

     Wilsonia was the perfect example of a recreational mountain community of its times. It was a family retreat, with the women and their children making the rustic cabins their full-time summer homes. Dances, social gatherings, neighborhood barbecues, cooperative campfire programs with the Park, hikes, horseback riding, and functions to raise money for a community clubhouse filled the summer days.

     But it didn’t last. In 1931, Andrew Ferguson died, and his son Thomas sold 20 acres of the Wilsonia tract to the federal government for a new approach to General Grant Park’s headquarters. Next, Thomas sold a 40-acre strip along the eastern boundary to a private individual. Finally, he sold the remaining unimproved land to the Park Service. This gave the federal government a large stake in the community and was to portend even more unsettling changes.

     The biggest change came in 1940, when General Grant National Park became part of the new, greatly expanded Kings Canyon National Park. Overnight, Wilsonia was transformed from a private National Forest residential enclave into a National Park inholding.

     Since the 1930s, the National Park Service had made it clear that one of its goals was to eliminate private inholdings in parklands. But it wasn’t until the 1960s, after the Great Depression, World War II, and recovery from them finally ended, that a new wave of conservation and preservation efforts could be addressed.

     Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks then included Wilsonia on a list of their historic cultural resources; but they also began working toward a now-mandated Park Service policy to eliminate private inholdings. With passage of the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund in 1965, the parks set up a “willing seller-willing buyer” program to acquire as many inholdings as possible. Kings Canyon National Park used the funds to buy as many cabins and commercial properties in Wilsonia as possible..

     One commercial owner and 12 cabin owners took long-term leases and continued occupancy until their leases expired. Eleven of those cabins remain as historic structures. The Park burned or razed others to return the sites to their natural state, but left intact some that might possibly be used for park administration, only to let the structures deteriorate. It denied uses such as horse corrals on some of the open lands, leaving them untended and uncared for, while it actively pursued more landowners who might be willing to sell. And the historic community began to disintegrate.

     The Park Service continued its land acquisitions until only 100 private acres remained. It also changed its management guidelines with a requirement that private property holders get approval from the Park Service before making any changes that might be deemed incompatible with the surrounding park.

     In 1978, a group of Wilsonia residents took a complaint to the United States House of Representatives, protesting the new Park policies that had not had adequate public hearings. Their action helped establish new legal guidelines for public input on government policies. Still, the policies didn’t change, and the community continued to decline.

     Finally, in the summer of 1991, another community group met to determine what could be done to save Wilsonia. Political action had achieved few results; perhaps national and state preservation guidelines would. If they could get Wilsonia listed on the National Register of Historic Places, further destruction of the community’s historic buildings might be stopped.

     The project took years of effort. The community raised funds to employ a professional historian who documented the private holdings and history of the community. Then it hired a Los Angeles firm to guide it through a long process of California State Office of Historic Preservation determination of eligibility. After that, the Department of Interior reviewed the findings. Finally, on March 14, 1996, the Wilsonia Historic District was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

     In the following years, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks have worked together with the community to maintain and improve the district’s lands and structures. Once again, changing times have helped the process. For the Parks, not only the listing’s required need for historic preservation, but a growing American emphasis on public/private partnerships, has opened opportunities for new programs and cooperation.

     For Wilsonia, its recognition as an important historical resource has been the fulfillment of an American dream. That dream may continue to change, but the community and its vital history will live on for us to share.

April, 2016