Nevada Focus: Highway 50 town fading like its crosswalk

Only traces remain today. Faint white lines start out from the side of U.S. Highway 50 in front of her store and then disappear. Before it vanished the townspeople, 150 year-round, lobbied for an amber safety light over the small intersection. People were traveling faster on the highway and it just wasn't safe anymore for people to walk home from the lodge tavern. The higher-ups decided a light would create more accidents causing drivers to slow up suddenly impeding the flow on the highway.

Kyburz is just one of many stops that is becoming nothing more than a quick glance for travelers headed to Lake Tahoe from Sacramento.

"You're taking your life in your hands if you travel Highway 50 now," Eleanor said. After 26 years of running the Kyburz market with her husband, Jesse, Eleanor said they are third in line to be the oldest residents in town and have seen the changes coming.

Eleanor, 66, said their business has survived on a thoroughfare where many are dying because they have tried to match the time. They can't change much more.

When they opened for business, in the 1860 building that originally was a stage coach stop and stable, they were in the automotive repair business.

But when fixing automobiles became more about computers than old fashioned mechanics, they closed the garage and opened a mini-mart with some hardware parts for sale. They kept the towing business for a while, but finally gave that up this year.

"We've had the place on the market before," Eleanor admitted. "This place will probably close with us. I don't think any of our children or grandchildren want it."

If the market closes, the residents of Kyburz would lose one of their last meeting spots.

"At one time the Greyhound buses stopped here, but that ended about 20 years ago," Eleanor said. "We still get the occasional tour bus, but not much. Now people don't stop. You're honed in almost like a clone to go from here to there."

Gary Ceccheptini's business fell victim to that new trend. He was leasing the Kyburz Crystal Lodge located next door to the Martin's market. The lodge had a bar, restaurant, and market. It closed in January.

"The attitude of the people traveling the canyon has changed," Ceccheptini said. "There's such a hurry to get up to Tahoe they just go right through the canyon with blinders on and their foot stuck to the floor. It's very difficult to make a living there. The (mud)slides and highway closure have been a real determent to business."

The stops along U.S. Highway 50 were originally determined by a different mode of travel. They were spaced as Pony Express remount stations and stagecoach stops. Many of these points are now just historical markers that few stop to read.

Travelers miss the rush of the American River and a view of Sugar Loaf, an imposing granite outcropping on the north side of the canyon. To see it, they have to get out their car.

Travelers can catch the other side of Sugar Loaf at the only gas station left in the canyon at Silver Fork. The Union 76 station just a mile west of Kyburz was busy - a sharp contrast to the Martin's slow afternoon.

A few locations have thrived in the rush of progress. St. Pauli Inn is a fixture on the South Fork of the American River serving hearty German- American food year round.

The inn was built in the early 1900s and christened the Lucky Dime Saloon. For years it was a saloon and brothel. The current owners named it St. Pauli after the red-light district of Germany in honor of the building's past history.

Strawberry is now the last travelers' stop still in business before people reach Meyers. The market there got a boost when the post office moved there from Twin Bridges. With the post office came a turn lane.

"The turn lane made a big difference," said Connie Woodall. "People travel so fast it's hard to turn off anywhere without one."

Connie and her husband, Ken, live over the market and help their daughter and son-in-law run the store.

The store caters to cabin owners, hikers and travelers and offers a mixture of essentials and specialty items.

"It's like a country store to them," Connie said of tourists. "People come in just to see what we've got."

The market also has the added attraction of historic Strawberry Lodge just across the highway. The lodge's restaurant has limited winter hours, but is open full-time when the summer season kicks in. There are rooms available in the old lodge, built circa 1939, and more available in the addition built on last year.

Business on the canyon route definitely has its seasons, Connie Woodall said.

"The slide was rough, but you deal with it and you get over it," she said. "If this is where you want to be and you have a business you want to make a go of, you've got to know that will happen. And that there will be slow times."

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