Martin Smith, the town founder, opened a trading post and inn on the Placerville-Carson Road in 1851.[3] Eight years later, Ephraim "Yank" Clement and his wife Lydia purchased the station and outbuildings from Smith and George Douglas, who had run the station as a hostelry and stagecoach stop. The Clements enlarged the station into a three-story, fourteen-room way station which included a large stable and hay barn with large corrals across the road.[3][4]
The station served as a Pony Express stop up until October 26, 1861. Upon completion of the wagon road over Kingsbury Grade, the Pony Express route continued from Mormon (Genoa) Station to Friday's Station and then along the south shore of Lake Tahoe, stopping at Yank's Station Toll House[5] near Myers (original spelling) on U.S. 50. It then continued on to Strawberry Station. A USGS topographic map from 1891 shows Yanks near present-day Camp Richarson. Meyers was its own distinct locale.[5]Warren Upson was the first Pony Express rider to arrive in Meyers (April 28, 1860).
With both a trading post and a hotel, the station was also used as a stage stop. Sadly, the toll house was pushed off its foundation by flood waters and is currently located on blocks adjacent to the Tahoe Paradise Museum. Later, in 1873, George Henry Dudley Meyers bought the property. Business would flourish at the newly rebuilt station for decades. It served as a hotel and store. But on November 25, 1938, the building was destroyed during the Meyers town fire.
Earlier (in 1904), a post office opened south of the station.[3] The post office closed in 1957, only to reopen in 1958.[3] It was adjacent to the Lincoln Highway Sierra Nevada Southern Route by 1916, and was renamed Tahoe Paradise in 1962.[3] Since then, houses have been built sporadically in the neighborhoods that surround it. By 1896, a railroad had been connected that ran up Lake Valley from a landing in Bijou.[6]
Meyers has one grocery store, Holiday Market, a hardware shop and lumber yard, Meeks, and multiple other restaurants and shops. There is a California Highway Patrol station near the south end, along with an insect inspection station and a post office. The nearest major city center is 5 miles (8 km) to the north along U.S. Highway 50 at an intersection that is known locally as "The Y" in South Lake Tahoe proper.
Climbing
Meyers is located 20 minutes from Lovers Leap campground and climbing area. Meyers also has its own local climbing areas, including the Pie Shop on Sawmill Road.[8] Pie Shop houses a bouldering area right off the road and a sport and trade climbing area up a short hike.[9]
Climbing "Cruise Control" at the Pie ShopThe view from "Lunch Rock" at the Pie Shop
^ ab"Yank's Station". Office of Historic Preservation, California State Parks. Retrieved October 7, 2012.
^ abcdefDurham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Clovis, Calif.: Word Dancer Press. p. 522. ISBN1-884995-14-4.
