Meyers, California

Meyers
—  Unincorporated community  —
Meyers along U.S. Route 50 in a map of El Dorado County
Meyers
Location in California
Coordinates:
Country United States
State California
County El Dorado
Elevation[1] 6,352 ft (1,936 m)
Population
 • Total 3,000
Time zone Pacific (PST) (UTC-8)
 • Summer (DST) PDT (UTC-7)
ZIP code 96150
Area code(s) 530

Meyers (formerly, Yanks, Yank's Station, and Tahoe Paradise)[2] is a small unincorporated community in El Dorado County, California, United States,[1] along U.S. Route 50 in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada south of South Lake Tahoe in the Lake Tahoe area. It lies at an elevation of 6352 feet (1936 m). Established in 1851 Meyers started out as a stagecoach stop, trading post and Pony Express station.[1]

History

Martin Smith was the town's founder; he opened a trading post and inn on the Placerville-Carson Road in 1851 [2] In 1859, Ephraim "Yank" Clement and his wife Lydia purchased the station and outbuildings from George Douglas and Martin Smith, who had ran 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.[2][3] The station served as a Pony Express stop up until October 26, 1861. Upon completion of the wagon road over Kingsberry Grade, the Pony Express route continued along the south shore of Lake Tahoe stopping at Yank's Station Toll House, near Myers on U.S. 50. Warren Upson was the first Pony Express rider to arrive here on April 28, 1860. The station also served as a stage stop with a trading post and hotel. The toll house was pushed off its foundation by flood waters and is currently located on blocks adjacent to the Tahoe Paradise Museum. In 1873 George Henry Dudley Meyers bought the place. Business remained good at the station for a fair number of years and continued to serve as a hotel and store until November 25, 1938, when the building was destroyed by fire during the Meyers town fire. A post office opened in 1904.[2] The post office closed in 1957, and reopened in 1958.[2] It was renamed Tahoe Paradise in 1962.[2]

Demographics

(Note the following uses wrong zip code of 95023) According to the 2000 Census, in the zip code where Meyers is located 26,364 (spoke English as their primary language while 17,173 (39%) did not, 15,898 (37%) spoke Spanish or Spanish Creole, 180 (0.4%) spoke Tagalog, (0.3%) 145 spoke French, Cajun, Patois, or other French dialects, 134 (0.3%) spoke Portuguese or Portuguese Creole, 123 (0.2%) spoke Korean, 112 (0.2%) spoke "other Pacific Island languages" and the rest spoke other languages.[4]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Meyers, California
  2. ^ a b c d e f Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Quill Driver Books. p. 522. ISBN 9781884995149. 
  3. ^ "DIVSIION FIVE: STATIONS BETWEEN ROBERTS CREEK AND SACRAMENTO/SAN FRANCISCO, Yank's Station". Ormsby.org. http://www.nps.gov/archive/poex/hrs/hrs8b.htm. Retrieved 23 March 2011. 
  4. ^ MLA Data Center, 95023 entry, U.S. Census 2000, retrieved March 13, 2008