Strolling around Markleeville

Election Day at last Ð no longer do we have to endure this election's strikingly negative commercials, advertisements and unsolicited phone calls. In Alpine County, since we have such a small population, we all vote via absentee ballot, and most of us cast our votes some time ago.

This also is a day to celebrate and appreciate the glorious sunny weather bestowed upon us. Yesterday we walked around the meadow at Grover Hot Springs State Park, and today we strolled through town. We walked down the hill to the library, making note of the spiffy new pergola, wrought iron fence, playground equipment, landscaping and curving stone walkways in Markleeville Park.

We crossed Markleeville Creek at the "library bridge," rounded the curve of Laramie Street, and stood in awe at the handsome, almost-completed home of John and Kim Jackson. Their large post-and-beam house is constructed with wood from British Columbia, milled by Vermont Timber Frame and shipped from Vermont to Markleeville.

The Jackson's first floor is paved with slabs of Rocky Mountain quartzite and the fireplaces are built with a thicker version of the same type of rock. One year has passed since the initial construction started, but the Jacksons are counting on occupying the house by December. Meanwhile, their three children, Mason, 12, Cole, 7, and McKinna, 5, enjoy going to Diamond Valley School and according to their mother, "They cry when we have to return to the valley at night, because they love playing in the creek, and they have good friends here."

Jackson and his two sisters, Jeanne Turnbeaugh and Judy Currence, lived with their parents, Robert and Rosella Jackson, on the same site by-the-creek where the new house is now standing.

John and Kim Jackson, who bought the sisters' share of the property after their father died in 2004 at the age of 91, found that they had to tear the house down, because it would have been impossible to bring it up to code. "It was a miracle that the house hadn't burned down, because most of the wiring was 'fried,'" declared Jackson.

The Jacksons and their family of three younger and two older kids and four grandchildren are looking forward to spending many happy days in the new house. John Jackson says, "I want to bring back the love I felt growing up here. I like living in our small town where everybody helps everyone."

In the 1980s, his father, Bob Jackson, told me, "On Laramie Street, the land where I live now was owned by my grandfather. There was one house close to the creek, and owner Louis Bergevin had a plank to cross the creek so it was easy to get to the store."

In that same interview, I had asked Bob Jackson about Grover Hot Springs, because he spent so much time soaking and sunning in the pool. "I remember going there as a little kid and my dad teaching me how to swim. There was just one dressing room, on stilts, over a very hot 'holding' pool. There was a rickety ladder going down into that small pool and a rickety fence going around the pools. In the winter, we'd ski up from town. We had to watch out for leeches lurking in the mud. In the summer, there were teeny red bugs that caused rashes on some people. When I was about 18, owner Charles Scossa offered free swims to us if we helped him enlarge the pool. We did dig it out, and we tore down the old fence, using the boards for forms to make a cement wall around the pools. But it was always more fun to sneak in!"

On Oct. 11, Monitor Pass highway was dedicated to Robert Milton Jackson, who was largely responsible for the completion of the road connecting Alpine and Mono counties.

n Gina Gigli is a Markleeville resident. Reach her at ginagigli@villagigli.com