
LOWER LAKE, Calif. – After a hiatus, a local landmark, the Anderson Marsh ranch house, is once again open to visits from the public.
A group of 11 people met three Anderson Marsh tour docents in the parking lot of Anderson Marsh State Historic Park at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 10, for a walking tour of the marsh that culminated in a tour of the ranch house, opened for the first time since the contents of the house were evacuated to protect them from the 2016 Clayton Fire.
Docents Roberta Lyons, Dr. Harry Lyons and Henry Bornstein, members of the Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association, led the group along the Cache Creek Nature Trail.
Along the way they stopped to point out bluebird houses and one of seven types of oak trees, the valley oak, along with natural grasses on the 540 acres, acreage set aside from the 1,065 total acreage of the State Historic Park as the nature preserve.
Two white-tailed kites scoured the marshlands for prey. A blue kingfisher dove for food in the creek.
Walking along the wooden boardwalk built by the volunteer group Telephone Pioneers of America, gave the crowd an intimate view of the creek.
Each season brings different flora and fauna. Bornstein said that it’s possible, if hikers come early morning, that a herd of deer, sometimes numbering 400, can be seen drinking from the creek.
Springtime brings neon pink California native roses in a stand along Marsh Trail. The honeycombed-shaped common teasel, which is currently brown and dry, flowers in the spring, creating a field of purple.
Roberta Lyons halted the tour several times to point out trails leading back to the ranch house, for those who wanted to take a shorter tour.
Approaching the Ridge Trail, through the Blue Oak woodland, naked and looking like arthritic fingers reaching upward, the crowd had thinned to four, plus the guides.The tour also stopped at the stunning acorn woodpecker granary tree, the woodpeckers’ storage site.
The distance for this monthly tour was two-miles and took roughly two and a half hours. Once back in the parking lot, the group gathered again for the tour of the ranch house.

The house was built in three sections, with the original, middle section, dating back to the 1860s. Most of the furnishing was used by the Anderson family.
Access to the sleeping room – which slept the Anderson’s six children – upstairs is prohibited as the ceiling is in a weakened state.
The spacious parlor was added on in the 1880s, made completely out of redwood for the floors, walls and ceiling.
Cooking was done over wood outside until a stove was brought into the Craftsman-style kitchen wing, built in the 1920s, and eventually replaced by the current stove.
The area was originally inhabited by Native Indians – Koi, Miwok and Pomo – as far back as 14,000 years ago.
In 1885 the John Anderson family bought the ranch and occupied it until the 1960s. The house and land were then sold to rancher Raymond Lyons and eventually bought by the California State Parks in 1982.
It is now a protected part of the archeological and nature site, maintained by the 100 volunteers of the Anderson Marsh Interpretive Association, with some help from the Californian State Park system.
Free guided nature tours and tours of the ranch house are conducted on the second Saturday of the month, except January, September and December, starting a 8:30 a.m. Binoculars and sturdy shoes are recommended.
Dogs and horses are not allowed; their scents will scare native wildlife from the area.
Lucy Llewellyn Byard is a Lake County News correspondent. She lives in Lucerne.
