Located within Cedarville Park is a historic wooden structure that has a rich past. There is a plaque monumented on a stone base in front of this building that reads:
CRESSLER - BONNER
TRADING POSTCALIFORNIA HISTORICAL LANDMARK No 14The first building erected in Deep Creek
settlement now Cedarville, was built in 1865 as
a trading post by James Townsend, who
was killed in an Indian fight in 1866. Purchased by William T. Cressler and
John H. Bonner in 1867, the building was
used as a trading post and general store
until larger quarters were built in 1874. The mercantile, banking and ranching
firm of Cressler and Bonner played a major
role in the settlement and development
of Surprise Valley and Modoc County. The land for the Cedarville Park was
donated to Modoc County by descendants
of Mr. Cressler in 1957 and the building
was reconstructed in 1977 in funds
provided by the State Recreational Bond
Act of 1974. |
This plaque is registered as a California Historical Landmark. I also located an online article from the Herald and News that highlights the history of this building and the former owners in more detail and reads:
Object Lessons: Cedarville home is valley’s oldest building
CEDARVILLE — Surprise Valley history lives in a small one-room wood building in the Modoc County town of Cedarville.
Known as the Cressler-Bonner Trading Post, the cabin is Surprise Valley’s oldest building. Located at a corner of the Cedarville Park at Center and Townsend streets, the cabin is tucked against a ponderosa pine and surrounded by a split rail fence.
An opening in the fence leads to its door, where visitors can peek inside and see flour sacks from the New Pine Creek and Lake City mills, a shelf with bighorn sheep horns along with pots and pans, assorted horse tack, bottles and a saddle resting on a stand.
Historic landmark
A brass plaque by the California Historic Landmark Program provides a brief description of the former trading post and pioneer times in Surprise Valley, the 70-mile valley on the east side of the Warner Mountains near California’s tri-state border with Oregon and Nevada.
Pieced together like Lincoln logs, the wood frame structure with notched logs was built in 1865 by James Townsend, who was killed by Indians shortly after its completion.
Two years later, the building was bought by William T. Cressler and John H. Bonner, who used it as a trading post and general store. When the larger Cressler and Bonner Building was constructed in 1883-84, still a dominate building along downtown Cedarville’s Main Street, the business relocated. At both locations, but especially during the Gold Rush years, business thrived as emigrants passed through Surprise Valley heading over Cedar Pass on their way to Alturas.
County’s first store
The trading post was Modoc County’s first mercantile establishment, and the first building erected in the town then known as Deep Creek. According to Tami Grove, author of “Surprise Valley: A Collective History of its Early Years of Settlement,” and the California Historical Landmark plaque, the mercantile, banking and ranching firm of Cressler and Bonner was important in settling and developing Surprise Valley and the county.
Bonner also figures in other regional history. He’s credited with building the first road connecting Cedarville over Cedar Pass to Alturas. The route, later named Bonner Grade, was an important stage and freight road, and was maintained by Bonner until 1871, when Siskiyou County took over its maintenance.
‘Father of Modoc County’
Cressler is also prominent in the region’s history. Called the “Father of Modoc County,” he was elected to the California Assembly in 1874 and introduced a bill to divide Siskiyou County into two counties. According to Grove, he proposed the new county be named Canby County, after the U.S. Army general killed in the Modoc War. Opponents suggested Modoc, believing the bill would die because of persisting hostile feelings against Modoc Indians. Cressler and others accepted the name, however, and the bill passed.
Land for the park was donated to Modoc County by Cressler’s descendent in 1957 and the building was reconstructed in 1977 with funds provided by The State Recreational Bond Act of 1974.