Community
"McCloud from its very inception was conceived to be a kind of utopian company town, almost socialistic in what it offered to those who worked there, but also in what it required from them...The operation was referred to by many of its employees as Mother McCloud, for it not only took care of the housing, feeding, educational and spiritual needs of its employees and their familes but also exercised discipline over them as well"
Dillon Ph.D, Brian Dervin. 2019. “Red Cloud, California: All The Best Bad Things Obtainable”. From Life, Leisure and Entertainment in the Old West, Joseph Cavallo ed. The Los Angeles Corral of Westerners Brand Book 23.
To gain the best sense of what it was like to live in McCloud as a company town, one need only listen to the voices of those who experienced it. Following are a few snippets published in the McCloud issue of The Siskiyou Pioneer in Folklore, Fact and Fiction
(Vol. 6, No. 10. The Siskiyou County Historical Society. 1997. Available for sale at the Museum):
"The town was a neat and clean place to live. We were encouraged to maintain attractive yards and gardens. The lumber company employed crews of carpenters, plumbers and electricians to repair and maintain the homes. Our houses were painted and the walls were papered with new wall paper every seven years. The carpenter crews also maintained the board sidewalks that had been built on all the streets in town".
(The A.R. Johnson Family, by Betty Gray)
"In 1918, there were two cars in town. Dr. Legge, the original company doctor, owned the first one, and my dad owned the second one which was a 1916 Model T. I can remember in the summertime running from the house and jumping in the back seat; it would be so hot from that old leather sitting in the sun that I jumped just as high getting out of it".
(Voices of the Past: Clifford T. (Ted) Kirk, Oral history taped in 1984 by Elsa Wetzel Perry)
"In 1931...All teachers lived at the McCloud Hotel; women on the second floor and men on the third floor. The only telephone was in the hotel lobby where the conversations were publicly eavesdropped. Frequently the incoming caller spoke only Italian, which created a humorous scramble among hotel lodgers to try to understand who the caller was trying to reach".
(Memories of Kathryn Kaupp Nute, by Kristin Nute)
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