The town of Tollhouse is located at the foot of Sarvers (or Tollhouse) Peak. Elijah Sauvier, a solitude seeking goatherd was the first known non-Native American to settle in the area, sometime before the mid 1860's, exactly when is unknown. Mr. Sauvier contructed a corral of split oak posts, to protect his goats at night from the bears and panthers that roamed the area at that time. He also constructed a crude structure to protect himself from the elements and laid claim to the fertile bottom lands along Big Dry Creek, which flows through this area. He remained in the area until early 1866, leaving behind, through a county map maker's error, a variation of his name on the nearby peak overlooking the community. In 1866,  J. H. and J. N. Woods, two brothers, hunters and trappers by trade, came to the area to explore the possibilities of the area for that purpose. Instead, their explorations revealed a wealth of pine forest on the ridges above what would become Tollhouse. Unfortunately, access to this wealth of timber, which was in great demand by immigrants then moving into the San Joaquin Valley and foothill areas, was greatly limited to Indian trails that surmounted the ridge leading to them. This notwithstanding, the brothers, in the summer of 1866, built a camp above the area, in what would come to be known as Pine Ridge. It was there, that they proceed that summer, to commence a shake making operation, and by fall had amassed an inventory of several thousand of the thin slats of wood used to make roofs. While settlers could use a variety of materials to construct homes (adobe, logs, etc.), providing a roof for them was more problematic. Problematic for the Woods brothers was the delivering of their product to a waiting market. To that end, they commenced hacking away the brush and widening existing Indian trails from their camp to a point near the northern portion of Sarver's Peak, near what is locally called Tollhouse Falls, the point at which the waters of what maps currently call Tollhouse Creek descend nearly 1000 feet to Big Dry Creek. It was here that they were at an impasse, being unable to continue their rather crude and primitive road building activities. Their solution, showing the ingenuity of the pioneer spirit, involved the purchase of a wagon at the County seat of Millerton and bringing it, via Auberry and Big Sandy Valleys, to the base of the mountain. Here, they hired Native Americans to haul the disassembled wagon, a piece at a time, up the precarious trails making the ascent to the end of their road. Reassembling the wagon, they then proceeded to use it to haul their product from their point of manufacture to the end of their road, then hiring the same locals to haul bundles of the shakes down the trails to the base of Sarver's Peak, and on to a waiting public.  As a result of their efforts, and the success of their venture, thus far, they then applied to the County Board of Supervisors, late in 1866, for permission to build a toll road from base of Sarver's Peak to their holdings at Pine Ridge, and after deliberaton, the Supervisors acceded to their request in October of 1866. The brothers started at once to survey possible routes for a roadway to secure the rights that they had been granted. The enterprise of the Woods brothers, at this time, came to the attention of John W. Humphreys, a pioneering owner of a mill operation in Mariposa County to the north. Upon examination of the area, and seeing the bounty of timber on Pine Ridge, Humphreys sent Moses Mock and Jerry Simmons to the area in December of 1866, along with equipment necessary to help make the enterprise a reality, which they stationed at the base of the peak. From what we have found thus far, the exact nature of the agreement between Humphreys and the brothers is unknown. Mock and Simmons commenced at once to build a crude cabin at the base of the mountain, preparing for the arrival of Humphreys, his wife and two small children, which occurred in January of 1867. Mrs. Humphreys is generally acknowledged by historians as being the first white woman to reside in what would become known as Tollhouse. In February of 1867, work began on excavating a roadway up the massive ridge that lay between the members of the enterprise and their dreams of potential wealth on the ridges beyond. According to historical accounts, by May of 1867, the roadway had reached the divide on the top of the ridge above Tollhouse, by the route that had been determined to be the most practicable for use which took the road to the southern side of Sarver's Peak. The work had been carried out by the efforts of local Native Americans, other men hired from the Millerton area as well as what were described at the time as "a big gang of Chinamen from Millerton." Unfortunately, this left the roadway at that point still some distance from the end of the Wood's brothers own primitive road, which was on the northern portion of the ridge. Not wanting to lose the upcoming season for the harvesting of timber, much effort and resources were expended to then haul the saw mill equipment up the new roadway and then conveyed, by much effort and risk down the canyon on the other side, then hoisted once again up the canyon to a point on the Wood's upper roadway, thus bridging the gap between the uncompleted portions of the roadway. Everything needed for the enterprise was thus transported to the mill site, where Mock had been digilenty preparing foundations for their arrival. Also, in May, the Humphreys family moved to primitive accomodations at the mill making Mrs. Humphreys, the first white woman to reside in Pine Ridge as well. With the mill now in operation and a large number of men working in the woods felling and sawing the timber holdings, work continued on bridging the gap between the two roadways. This relatively level section of the roadway, which still had to be hewed out of nearly solid rock in places was called the East Grade. Excepting for a delay of nearly a week, caused by a massive rare summer deluge in August, work continued 7 days a week, and it was finally completed in October of 1867 when at last the two sections were joined and the first Tollhouse Road was completed. As a tribute to their diligence and hard work, it should be noted that this portion of the grade is still in use as a local roadway to this day, much as it was constructed nearly 150 years ago. If you have been one of the many that have soared off of the ridge in hang gliders or paragliders, it has been the East Grade that has been the path to your launch.    With the roadway completed for use, the backlog of timber was immediately begun to be transported down the mountain in late Ocober of 1867, and the new mill could barely keep up with the demand for its products, but work at the mill and transportation down the road continued until December, when upper elevation snows, and lower elevation rains made the road quite impassible. The house in our first photograph on the top left of this section is the original Toll House for whence the name of the town is derived. In fact, all early day newspaper accounts of the area refer to the community as the Toll House. Up until the winter of 2003-2004, this house still existed as a shed behind a house that was built in front of it. Both of the trees in the picture still are standing. The price for the toll road was set by Fresno Couty Supervisors at .10 cents per head of loose cattle, horses or mules, .50 cents for a horse and rider, $1.00 for a buggy, and $1.50 for a wagon with one span of oxen, horses, or mules, with each additional team charged another .50 cents.  Loose sheep or hogs were charged at the rate of .02 cents per head. The ridge visible in the background of the photo was the site of a flume that travelled some 50 miles from nearby Shaver Lake carrying roughly cut lumber from the mill at Shaver to the town of Clovis in the San Joaquin Valley floor descending nearly 5500 feet in the process. An early  day 'e-ticket thrill ride' for the local residents was riding the flume down to the valley making the trip in a few hours that took two days on a horse and buggy. We'll have more to say about the flume later in this article. While the road was still being built during the summer of 1867, the Woods brothers sold a portion of their land about a mile below what would become Tollhouse to a Doctor Howell, recently of Kings River. There resided springs on the property that the doctor believed to have healing properties and it was there, near the location of the current day Sierra Elementary School that Howell constructed the first home in the area to be constructed of sawed lumber. In the meantime, during the Winter of 1867-68, Humphreys and Moses Baley proceeded to construct a road below the Toll House that had been established to collect the tolls, while Mose Mock and a crew continued to toil at the mill site to construct facilities for the mill, a home for the Humphreys family and cabins for workers. The road they constructed forded Big Dry Creek behind where the current post office building in Tollhouse resides and proceeded onward to the Howell property, where it cross the wagon track from Millerton across Big Sandy Valley that would, in time become Lodge Road.  Before lumbering could resume, James F. Morgan arrived at the newly forming community of Tollhouse and opened a blacksmithing shop. Shortly thereafter, a family named Winkleman also arrived on the scene. According to a 1933 history of Fresno County by Lilbourne Winchell, this family was to play a role in what happened next in early Tollhouse History. According to Winchell, some dispute between this new family and the Woods brothers led to the latter, literally leaving Tollhouse in the middle of the night. Apparently, an ultimatum by the family to the brothers, the ignoring of which would lead to very unpleasant consequences for the boys, the cause of which was said to be alleged sladerous statements about the family made by the brothers. So the brother departed Tollhouse and Fresno County as well, selling the rights to their road and their property to "Doc" Glass. In the meantime, around August 1st came the arrival of a family that would shape Tollhouse history for the next 150 years. It was at this time that Charles Abraham Yancey arrived at the new community and constructed a home for himself and his family and a hotel to provide services to the many teamsters that were now making their way up and down the new roadway.

The picture at right, probably taken about 1880 is one of the earliest surviving photographs of Tollhouse. The peak, visible in many of our photographs is clearly visitble. Barely showning on the left is the Tollhouse Blacksmith Shop, which was eventually replaced by the Tollhouse Garage in the 1930's. This building or a replacement of it, still exists at the same location. On the right side of the photo are holding corrals for stock being taken up and down the grade. Behind that lies the Tollhouse Saloon. There are piles of drying shakes stacked behind the Saloon. In the distance on the left beneath oak tree is the start of the Tollhouse Grade and where the Toll House was located. The oak tree, which was pictured on our site in the news section recently still exists as of this writing and is estimated to be between 200 and 300 years old. This is the same tree shown above on the far left. This would make it one of the oldest living 'residents' of Tollhouse.

This building was the original Tollhouse Store. This photo was also taken about 1880. This building survived until sometime during World War I. By that time, it had started to deteriorate and was completely falling apart. At that time, it was replaced by Max Yancey's Cash Store. Pictured on the porch are Abe Yancey (in suspenders) and his wife, Frances. The man by the wagon is named Tom Ockenden, the latter builder of a big hotel near Shaver Lake. The rest of the people in the photo remain unidentified. From what we have been able to ascertain so far, Tollhouse has had a market or store operating in it for nearly it's entire history since before 1880. To anyone's recollection, the longest period of time that the town has gone without having a store or market open is only a period of some months.

The picture at right shows the Max Yancey Cash Store as it existed about 1916 when it appears to be quite new. Leaning against the post in the middle of the picture is Max Yancey himself. Mr. Yancey, a life-long Tollhouse resident and businessman ran a number of businesses in early day Tollhouse. He himself owned the vast majority of the town of Tollhouse until his death in the early 1960's. Later, his descendants owned the town until the early 1980's when the south side was sold to Jim and Marcella Davies. The north side was owned by the grandchildren of Max until the last day of 2003, when it was sold to it's current owners. Notice that the store doesn't appear to be very large in this phtograph. It would soon be enlarged as evidenced by the photograph below.

By about 1922, when this photgraph was taken as well as the photograph below, two additional wings had been added to the store. The wing on the left was added to provide for more floor space for the store. The wing on the right was added to provide a lunch counter in the front portion and to provide a post office in the rear portion. A local resident recently related how there was a porch at the rear of the store whereby the local residents could access the post office boxes and retreive their mail at times when the store was closed. In addition to this a garden is evident to the left of the store. This garden was used to raise fresh produce that was sold at the store. This garden was fenced as was the hotel from where this picture was taken. This was necessary to prevent livestock being driven through town from encroaching on the garden. Notice how close the road is to the front porch of the store. The road remained this way until it was moved in 1960 about 25 feet south to it's current position. The garden is also the location of the current market.

The townsite of Tollhouse was homestead and/or acquired by the Abe and Frances Yancey family in the 1860's. Their son, Max Yancey had the Max Yancey Cash Store, among his various enterprises. These also included the Tollhouse Saloon. This A.C. Mudge photograph shows the store on the left and the saloon on the right as they appeared around 1922. A local historian relates that sometime during the 20's on a rather cold winter night, a fire and been built in front of the saloon and a rather inebriated local woman fell into the fire and died. Mr. Yancey, feeling responsiblity for this tragedy, closed the saloon and allowed no alcohol to be sold within the town limits of Tollhouse until after his death in the 1960's. Gary Davidson relates how it was Max's daughter Dorothy Yancey Polling that finally allowed beer and wine to be sold in the store when his parents owned it about 1966.

Throughout the period from the 1940's until the late 1960's, Tollhouse continued to prosper with various businesses coming and going. The market passed through a number of tenants making a go of it, with varying degrees of success. With Tollhouse then still on the main highway, that is State Route 168, there was a never ending flow of traffic, up and down 'the grade'. The mill continued to operate, it still being relatively easy to obtain adequate wood to feed the hungry power saws of the mill. The cafe and market were always busy places. The garage as well. For a small town, Tollhouse was still a busy little place and the hub of it's region. This picture of the store and garage was taken sometime in the early 50's after the store had been moved to a newer building to the left of this one. Recent discussions  with long term residents say that the gas tanks from the original gas station still remain buried in the ground, though no firm confirmation of this has ever been made.

At that time, property owners of abandoned gas stations were not required to dig up underground gas tanks and until recently the land remained the property of it's original homesteading family and their heirs. They should have been removed as a condition of sale, and local environmentalists are looking into why this did not take place after the recent sale of the property. The facade of the store was removed after the store was moved and the wood used to remodel the inside of the building and turn it into a private residence. After Max Yancey, so far we have discovered that the store was run for a number of years in the 40's and 50's by Lorne and Louise Shaffer during which time it also served as post office. In fact, the orignal post office window was transferred to the current store and is still there to be seen today. The store was acquired in April 1966 by Harold and Enid Davidson. They, along with son Gary at times ran the store until shortly after the highway was rerouted during the fall of 1971. At this time, the store had a meat counter and lunch counter with soda fountain. It's truly a shame that these things could not have been preserved, as such items in this day and age, with such popularity for nearly all things nostalgic, would make quite the tourist attraction.

Gary Davidson relates that just as now, there was a quite active morning Tollhouse Coffee Klatch. Thereafter, the store was run for a time by Phil Armstrong, grandson of Max Yancey along with his wife.  Recent research into the most recent operators of the Tollhouse Market has thus far revealed that the store was managed by Don and Dottie Smith during part of the 80's, who sold it to Jim and Marcella Davies who operated it during the later 80's and early 90's, and who also owned and ran the Tollhouse Cafe during the same time. Following them was Sharon Hamilton, who ran the store from about 1994 to about 1998. At that point in time, the market also served as an arcade for a short period, with the addition of a number of video games for local youngsters and visitors to enjoy.

This was  followed by Sheri Roberson and Chuck Newton from about 1998 to March 2003. During the latter portion of this period of time, Sherri at some point, acquired full ownership of the businees. It was acquired by Al and Sally DeLuca in March of 2003, who ran the market until February 28, 2005. At that point in time, the market was taken over by Chuck Newton, who's parent's, Chuck and Barbara Newton, acquired the property on which the market sits in January of 2004. While trying to maintain the original ambiance and flavor of the market, It continues to take a great deal of effort to continually upgrade the facilities to meet an almost endless number of county, state and federal regulations. Above is a picture of the store as it existed about 1992. The tree covering most of the store fell during a storm in the mid 1990's.The author of this website still remembers with fondness passing through on his way to Boy Scout camp and stopping at this store in the mid sixties with his father's 1965 Pontiac Catalina wanting to vapor lock as it got close to the top of the grade.Then later passing through Tollhouse and stopping at the store on a chartered bus to go skiing at what was then China Peak, now Sierra Summit. The large orange buses that were often used had a most difficult time with the first of the 5 hairpin turns on the grade, and on more than one occassion had to stop, and then back up to make it around that turn.

It was a very slow go climbing the Toll Road before the turn of the century. Stagecoaches climbing the steeper portions of the grade often had to ask their passengers to get out and walk in the steepest parts of the climb. It usually took a minimum team of 6 horses to haul even a small load up the grade, often many more. This, of course made the going quite dangerous as the narrowness of the road (about 8 to 10 feet in most places) made it very easy to have a horse lose it's footing and go over the edge of the road, taking the rest of the team and wagon and if he was not quick enough jumping away, the driver as well. This happened a number of times over the years on this road. The descent of the grade was also fraught with peril as well as the prospect of a runaway was always a constant threat. The usual method of descending from the mountain with a load of lumber destined for the mill below was for the teamsters to cut large branches from trees at the top of the grade and attach them to the back of the wagon creating an additional friction brake using the drag of the branches to help slow the wagon on the downward trip. Early day pictures of Tollhouse would often show the piles of discarded branches left over from these trips, an early day source of firewood.

The original Tollhouse Grade was quite steep in many places as is evidenced by this picture. This original picture had been tilted to the left to make the grade appear even steeper, but using computer technology we have 'straightened' this photograph so that the slope of the grade is accurate. This photograph shows a portion of the road about 3/8ths of a mile from it's start at the edge of the town of Tollhouse. Road races that were held on this road from about 1915 to the 1930's proved that a 'fast' car of that era could make the 8 mile climb from Tollhouse to Pine Ridge in about 90 minutes, a far cry from today when using the newer road, the average motorist can make that same drive in about 15 minutes. The grade was also the cause of much overheating of early day automobiles owing to the steepness. A recent vistor to our website has related how a 1930's national advertisement for Buick advertised that their coupes could even climb the Tollhouse Grade wthout overheating. Obviously at one time, our little road was quite well known. The same vistor reported that a copy of this ad was displayed proudly at a Buick dealer in Fresno for many years.

From 1910 until about 1935, a race was held every year that ran from the town of Tollhouse to the Armstrong Store, which was located in an area about 1 mile above where Cressman's is today, and is now known as the Shaver Ranch area. The event was widely attended drawing a great number of visitors from the Valley. As is evident from the pictures of the notorious Tollhouse Grade, it was impossible for the cars to run the race at the same time, so the race was not so much a true race as it was, what would today be called a Road Rally. Each car contained both a driver and a timer. The timers job was to track the total time it took each driver to complete the run. A local resident recently related that each driver wishing to compete in the race would bring a timer with him, and that the timers names would be put into a hat and drawn to be matched with another driver. While we have had no way to verify this information or find any written record that this was done, it would make a certain amount of sense. The cars would leave one at a time from the town allowing a sufficient amount of time between departures to allow each car to climb the grade.

After all cars that could do so had completed the trips, the various times of each of the runs would be compared and a winner declared. Old information gleaned from local historians indicate that a winning time in the race was usually awarded to the driver that managed to make the 8 mile climb up the grade at an average speed in the neighborhood of 5 or 6 miles an hour. This was definitely not a modern NASCAR style race by any means. Another interesting fact about the picture of the race shown above is that the original photo always had a feeling of wrongness about it to the author of this history. Upon numerous trips walking the old grade, the author finally discovered what caused this feeling. The original picture at one time or another had it's negative reversed, as he found the spot where the original picture had been taken, which is slightly below the point where the old Tollhouse Grade crosses the current Tollhouse Road. The wrongness was because of the nature of the old grade. At nearly every point climbing the old grade the drop off is always to the right of the driver. This is true nearly every where except at one small spot not far from the top where the current electric lines cross the old grade. To make a long story longer, the author used a computer to restore the picture to it original orientation.

The picture on the left is an aerial view of Tollhouse taken about 1933 during the construction of the new Tollhouse Road. Near the top of the photo is the mill in Tollhouse spewing smoke. As you look downward from that point, one is able to see the town of Tollhouse laid out along Tollhouse Road. About halfway through the town site is where the new road diverged from the old. Up to that point Tollhouse Road from Clovis, CA pretty much followed the original routing. Portions of the original Tollhouse Grade is barely visible in this view being slightly above the new road cut clearly visible near the bottom of this photograph. The original grade was quite steep and only a single lane. The new 'modern' Road was actually a mile or two longer than the old, and hairpin turns, were added to lessen the steepness of the grade. Despite the construction of the new road, the original unpaved grade was used to herd livestock to the top of the mountain, until shortly after World War II. Since that time, it has slowly deteriorated, but is still passable as trail for hikers, horseback and moutain bike riders, though the lower portion is impassible as a road. Portions of the upper portion, however, are still drivable with a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Though no fence crosses the old grade at any point, there is currently some discussion going on as to whether the old grade is still public versus private property.

The Tollhouse Hotel was a popular stopping over place in Tollhouse from the early 1900's until the mid 1940's, when improving roads and better vehicles rendered it's use unnecessary, after which time, it was torn down. Located diagonally across 'main street' from the Tollhouse Market, the location of the hotel was behind where the State Historical Marker in the middle of Tollhouse now resides. The stone was put into place by E Clampus Vitus about 1971. Gary Davidson whose parents owned the market at the time recently related how he was one of the individuals who helped lay the stone marker in it's current position.

By 1948, when this picture was taken, the livery stable and bar that used to sit on the right hand side of 'main street' have been replaced by the Tollhouse Cafe. This early watering hole was popular with early day teamsters having to 'pull the (Tollhouse) grade' with their vintage trucks. The ridge on the right is where the Tollhouse Hotel had stood until about 1940. In the horse and buggy days, it was a two day trip from the San Joaquin Valley Floor to the higher environs of the Sierra and Tollhouse was the logical overnight place for the stagecoach route, and for the many cattle drives that took place earlier in the history of Tollhouse. The original 1860's Toll Road, which was acquired by the county in 1878, was eventually replaced by a 'modern' road in 1933 and became State Route 168, and most traffic destined for the High Sierras in this part of California had to pass through Tollhouse. The Tollhouse Cafe building is destined to be our 'corporate office' in the near future. Hopefully with plans to turn part of it to a small community gathering place for the Tollhouse Locals. Every purchase you make from our website will bring us closer to that goal. Finally during the summer of 1971, this author now in high school, rode with two friends from Tulare to Huntington Lake taking the grade on their vintage Schwinn 10 speeds. However, on the return leg of this trip, the friends encountered the Caltrans Road Crews working and paving what would later be called the 4-lane. This was a re-routing of State Route 168 which would completely bypass the community of Tollhouse, and which would eventually make the tiny crossroads of Prather, the major stopping off place of those heading to this area of the High Sierras in the current day and age. It was a great adventure, however, when the three friends were allowed by the crews to descend the new route, which they had entirely to themselves.