Community Stories

The Resiliency Fund is committed to honoring the historical legacy of the Central Sierra region by collecting community stories of the Creek Fire–and the unique histories that precede it– and preserving those stories through the Central Sierra Historical Society.

We are collecting stories of places before and after the Creek Fire, and/or of your experience during the Fire itself.

Peter Arroyo

Peter Arroyo | Cressman Road 2-10-21 The Creek Fire started at 5:30 in the evening on September 4th at Camp Sierra. The morning of September 5th was already blistering its way into the oppressive heat that was to be all consuming for the Labor Day weekend. My wife, Ari, and I

Ari Arroyo

The Creek Fire was the largest single fire in the history of the state of California and burned 379,895 acres. I am a firefighter and engineer and my husband, Peter, is a firefighter with the Pine Ridge Volunteer Fire Department. We were here from the beginning and will forever be affected by what happened, what we saw, what we did, and the people we met.

Nancy & Steve Soares

We purchased our beloved cabin, “Rock Crest” in 1999. Being a 4th generation Dowville Tract family, I realized how lucky we were to find this cabin in Huckleberry Tract with a beautiful view of the Lake.

Jeannie Coe

The Creek Fire came through our property and destroyed our horse barn, shed, and 40′ foot storage unit. Search and Rescue helped us evacuate our horses, as my husband’s horse would not trailer load.

David & Rebekah Johnson

My Husband, David, had been looking for a place in the mountains for quite awhile when he stumbled upon our place. He fell in love with it when he first saw it and it has been his, then my, heaven on earth.

Howard V. Hendrix

Due to the ferocity of the Creek Fire, my wife Laurel and I are now displaced persons staying in a motel in Fresno. On Sunday, September 6, we were ordered to evacuate from our house in the Pine Ridge community, just south of Shaver Lake.

The Shaver Ranch Story

In the aftermath of the Creek Fire’s devastation of the Central Sierras, the unique historical legacy of this region emerges as if rising from the ashes. These many stories cannot remain buried beneath soot.

The Gillett Family

Cressman’s General Store is an iconic landmark in Pine Ridge on the way up the mountain to Shaver Lake, built in 1904. For well over a century, it has provided food, fuel, and supplies to loggers, fishermen, campers, and locals coming up and down the mountain.