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INTRODUCTION
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I Caught a Fisherman
by J. Anita Foster
293 pages
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This is the story of the physical, financial and emotional
struggles of a couple who turned their backs on the Hollywood
studios, to pit themselves against the roadless wilderness
of the High Sierra, and thereby found happiness, security and
personal achievement. The story relates experiences and incidents
that became the lot of a city girl, who became a pawn of fish,
and fish became the thing that dominated her life.
Some of the things that happened at the resort built by the
couple, to the late Coach Howard Jones, Fred MacMurray, Otto
Kruger, the late Lon Chaney, Sr. and Dr. Lee de Forest and
also many amusing happenings to other guests, are told in this
book.
Most people think of California as being a state of sunshine,
balmy weather and orange groves. The fact that there are towns
and places where the thermometer hits forty degrees below in
the state, sounds a little exaggerated, but the country where
this city girl and her husband had decided to start a summer
resort, in the year 1924, was almost as wild and woolly and
cold as the interior of Alaska. Mono County is the fifth largest
county in the state of California in area, but is sparsely
settled. Nearly one third of the 3,000 people that made up
its population were Indians of the Paiute tribe. It was practically
unknown as a vacationland. The roads were all dirt, and many
of them were just two winding tracks. And yet all this was
in California.
The High Sierra contains 5,000 gem-set mountain lakes, 2,000
miles of fishing streams and over 50 mountain passes. It is
a land of towering peaks, glacial lakes and Alpine meadows--a
vast and varied empire of the wild.
In this beautiful but austere region, Anita Foster and her
husband, "Walt," pioneered their high mountain resort.
Anita and Walt's experience in the thirty years in which they
developed a resort in the High Sierra from bare land to a lovely
resort, is packed full of trials and tribulation and drama.
From the joys and fun came sheer satisfaction of outdoor life
in a magnificent setting, and the friendships of wonderful
people. This book is the story of those experiences. |
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