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| Landmark #389 | Tulare County | Visited: July 13, 2013 | Plaque? YES! 🙂 |
| What is it? | This tiny post office is the last remnant of the Kaweah Utopian Colony! |
| What makes it historical? | THE GUIDE SAYS: The Kaweah cooperative colony was a utopian project started in 1886. For several years it attracted international attention, many settlers came here and actually did much to further their ideals. Unable to secure title to the land, and experiencing internal difficulties, the organization ceased to exist after 1892, leaving the Kaweah Post Office as one of its tangible reminders.
OTHER TIDBITS: This movement was one of many socialist-utopian movements inspired by Edward Bellamy’s novel, Looking Backward, 2000-1899. It tells the tale of Julian West, who falls into a trance and wakes up 113 years in the future, when the USA is a utopian paradise! It was one of few books to immediately take root in political talks of the day! Colony founders, Burnette G. Haskell, John Hooper Redstone, and James John Martin came east from San Francisco to create a logging town in the sequoia forest. The move attracted lots of skilled laborers who exchanged time for wages, but the leadership spent so much time arguing over the details of Marxism and government that they didn’t spend a lot of time building the infrastructure they needed for the colony to prosper. By the time they built their first wagon road to the sequoias, Congress declared it Sequoia National Park, logging there became illegal, and the colony dissolved! |
| How can I Help the Helpers? | HERE’S HOW:
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| Where is this place? | LISTED DIRECTIONS: 43795 N Fork Dr Kaweah, CA 93271 ANNOTATIONS: From Los Angeles: ~200mi (322km) — 3.4hrs |
| When should I go? | Whenever the mood strikes you! |