Lotta Crabtree

Lotta Crabtree

By Claudia East

            Around 1950, along Miner Street in Yreka, a sign was placed approximately near the curb where one today finds the plaque dedicating our National Historic District. The sign partially read:  “Arcade Billiard Saloon, here in the fifties Lotta Crabtree sang for the miners…”  the sign disappeared sometime more than 20 years ago but is fondly remembered by many Yreka residents.

           

During the early Gold Rush in California there was a talented and beautiful little girl with curly red hair that used to sing, dance, and play the banjo for the miners. The miners would cheerfully throw gold at her feet!  Lotta traveled with her mother to various mining areas throughout California and Nevada to entertain.  She became the equivalent of today’s “rock star” at an early age, and by 20 years old she was touring the nation with her own theatrical company.

            During the 1870s and 1880s she was the highest paid actress in America earning sums of up to $5,000 per week.  Her mother managed her affairs and invested Lotta’s earnings in real estate, race horses and bonds.  She also used some of the earnings to support local charities and build fountains.  The most famous of these fountains, “Lotta’s Fountain” still stands at the intersection of Kearny and Market Streets in San Francisco.  The fountain was an important meeting place following the 1906 earthquake for folks to find family and friends who survived the ordeal.  In fact, today, the fountain is the site of meetings on April 18 of each year that mark the anniversary of the earthquake.

           In 1945, local historian Bernice Meamber met and carefully noted a conversation she had with Charles Herzog, a long time Yrekan, about Lotta Crabtree and her time in Yreka.  It has been speculated through various accounts that Lotta arrived in Yreka sometime between 1853 and 1857, so she would have been between six and ten years old at the time.  The length of her stay here has also been disputed from three months to three years, but no matter how long she was here, she won the hearts and gold from the miners. 

            In the conversation with Charles Herzog he recalled to Bernice Meamber that it was in November of 1854 that Lotta and her mother came to Yreka.  When they arrived they were “destitute” and they stayed with his family.  Lotta sang and danced at the W. S. R. Taylor Saloon [aka Arcade Billiard Saloon] and entertained the miners.  He recounted that one night at Taylor’s Saloon she took in $10,000 in gold dust alone!   When all of this happened Charles Herzog was just a mere toddler, being born in Yreka in 1856.  However, Charles goes on to verify his story by recounting a chance meeting with Lotta years later in 1876.  Charles had just finished driving a band of cattle to San Francisco and was actually at Lotta’s Fountain getting a drink of water when a woman stopped and spoke to him.  In the conversation she asked him where he was from, and when he mentioned Yreka, the conversation blossomed from there.  She told him she remembered when she stayed with his family and that she used to carry him around as a little one.  She recounted the night she took in $10,000 and that when she left Yreka she gave her piano to the Catholic Church (when it was still up on the hill by the cemetery).

            Lotta reigned as a top earning star in America for 25 years and traveled the entire nation.  At the age of 43 she retired following a fall; she “went out on top”.  She lived until 1924, at age 76 and after her retirement did not perform much according to research except for a special event, her last performance, during the 1915 Panama Exposition in San Francisco during “Lotta Crabtree Day”.  Lotta felt her wealth had come from the people and thought it should be returned to them.  After her death in her estate was valued at about Four Million dollars in a charitable trust, and it was left to funds for hospitals, education, needy actors, homeless animals, and spreading cheer at Christmas.  The largest sums went to disabled veterans of World War I, and to ex-convicts in starting life anew after release from prison.  These funds are still in operation. 

Copyright:  Claudia East, 2013