Meyers, California

History

Martin Smith, the town founder, opened a trading post and inn on the Placerville-Carson Road in 1851. Eight years later, Ephraim "Yank" Clement and his wife Lydia purchased the station and outbuildings from Smith and George Douglas, who had run the station as a hostelry and stagecoach stop. The Clements enlarged the station into a three-story, fourteen-room way station which included a large stable and hay barn with large corrals across the road.

The station served as a Pony Express stop up until October 26, 1861. Upon completion of the wagon road over Kingsbury Grade, the Pony Express route continued from Mormon (Genoa) Station to Friday's Station and then along the south shore of Lake Tahoe, stopping at Yank's Station Toll House near Myers (original spelling) on U.S. 50. It then continued on to Strawberry Station. A USGS topographic map from 1891 shows Yanks near present-day Camp Richarson. Meyers was its own distinct locale.

With both a trading post and a hotel, the station also served as a stage stop. The toll house was pushed off its foundation by floodwaters and is now situated on blocks next to the Tahoe Paradise Museum. In 1873, George Henry Dudley Meyers purchased the property. The newly rebuilt station thrived for decades as a hotel and store. On November 25, 1938, the building was destroyed in the Meyers town fire.

From the History section of Meyers, California on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.