THE STORY

My friends and associates asked me to create a brief visionary perspective as to the reason why I personally believe that someone should invest in this particular development area. My inspiration and attraction to this project has been an on-going process, coupled with significant experiences along the way.

At one time or another, you have probably heard the old cliché, "What goes around, comes around!" I am no exception, yet the words seem to ring louder for me. Some thirty years ago before my life entered a culinary realm, I was an active real estate broker, and in fact I still am to this day! One of the distinct customer services I provided to my customer base, during the re-selling of their homes, was to assist them in the location of pristine retirement properties that they would possibly consider moving to in the future. Dependent upon their desires, their conceptions ranged any where from ocean front homes sites, to Carmel Valley ranch locations, to agricultural/ vineyard acreage, to mountain lake/golf retreat estates. Although diverse in their courses of action, they each shared a common factor. There was a special gleam in their eyes when they envisioned their own personal oasis. It's hard to explain in words, but it's when something grabs you and you know it's right!

One of the most stunning California mountain locations having this effect on me, and one which I encountered during my early real estate years, was a beautifully designed master planned community called Forest Meadows. It is located in the center of the California Sierra's, known as Calaveras County and at a 3200' foot elevation. I think God gave this particular mountaintop some special attention. Its magnitude is overwhelming as you gaze outwardly 150 miles off the ridges. This Mediterranean like zone, as they refer to it, is at a perfect elevation, emitting just a little snow in the winter to ensure that festive spirit. Conveniently being above the valley fog in the spring, the summers too are comfortable, making way for the spectacular array of fall colors. I even wrote a song about this exceptional region during my guitar toting days years ago! It truly is one of my favorite locations to visit and the fact that it is only two hours from the San Francisco Bay Area makes it even more intriguing.

Two years ago, my daughter, Nicole, became engaged. The first task was to secure a wedding site. Believe me, it is a momentous decision. I suggested we visit the Mother Lode in the center of California, spending the night in Murphys, so that we could visit Ironstone Vineyards. We had heard some great things about this place. In a word, UNBELIEVEABLE!!! Now my special corner of the world has even more significance than ever. It is where family and friends joined together for the first Spanek wedding amidst breathtaking surroundings known to be the crown jewel of the Sierras.

In an atmosphere of fiscal plummeting, dot-com horrors, a lingering recession, shadows of terrorism and war, is it any wonder that people might be in search of serenity? The Forest Meadows community and town of Murphys offer a wholesome environment and a distinct air of friendliness. It is where the people feel that history is indeed a gift and an effort is made to preserve it and make the most of it! Ok, it only has one stop sign and you may think you have been thrust back to Mayberry, but weren't those the best times we keep hoping will come back? Well, the search is over!

Probably the best way to understand and get a feel for the Murphys area is to read the most recent article that came out in the San Francisco Chronicle this last March 27, 2003. This front page pictorial two full page review on California's Rural Economy will give you a complete understanding of the opportunity that lies in" Them Dar Hills."

Denis Spanek

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  LOCATION

CALAVERAS COUNTY Located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains - 133 miles east of San Francisco - 135 miles west of Lake Tahoe. Midway along State Highway 49, which links the towns of the Gold Country, Calaveras County is filled with natural and historic diversity. ACTIVITIES Discover unique, year round adventures in Calaveras County including historic and picturesque gold rush towns, award winning foothill vineyards and tasting rooms, micro-breweries and pubs, eclectic art galleries, antique shops, and gold rush museums. Learn the art of Calaveras gold panning, or caving in the variety of natural limestone and crystalline-filled caverns open to the public. Enjoy a round of golf on professional courses laid out along canyon ridges in the pines or among 200 year old oaks in rolling terrain. Shopping is at its most fun and innovative in the tiny, fascinating towns of the Calaveras landscape.

Every season of the year holds its share of fun activities in Calaveras. In the spring, summer, and fall, enjoy biking and hiking trails that criss-cross through the giant Sequoias at Calaveras Big Trees State Park and the Stanislaus National Forest. Off Highway adventures and whitewater rafting tours of the famous Stanislaus River beckon the adventuresome, while fishing, water skiing, houseboat weekends, camping, bicycling, horseback riding and much more will keep the entire family busy.

The uncountable attractions of winter include first class downhill skiing at Bear Valley Ski Area; many excellent cross country trails offering silent, pristine scenes of winter wonder; miles of snowmobiling, two hour to all day tours around the village or through the woods; and ice skating under the stars at Bear Valley after a day on the slopes.

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RELAX AND PLAY IN THE SPECTACULAR MOTHER LODE

MURPHYS Known over 100 years ago as the "Queen of the Sierra", Murphys is one of the more appealing Mother Lode towns. With its art gallery, Old Timer's Museum, its antique shops and interesting old stone buildings, it is a charming and genuine reminder of the past. The little brick St. Patrick's Catholic Church is unexcelled for charm in a beautiful setting. And colorful Murphys Hotel, built in 1856, still displays the register which was signed over a century ago by famous personalities such as Mark Twain, Horatio Alger, J.P. Morgan, John Jacob Aster, Ulysses S. Grant, Le Count A. Rothschild from Paris and Lord Byron.

		CALAVERAS BIG TREES Majestic redwoods with trunks over 20 feet in diameter reaching heights in excess of 300 feet must be seen to be appreciated. In order to convince the skeptical, in 1854 the bark from one tree was removed to a height of 116 feet and shipped to London where it was reassembled and displayed. Growth rings on this tree indicated it was over 1000 years old at the birth of Christ.Calaveras Big Trees State Park, with over 5436 acres of forest land, is open all year for visitors.

		MELONES LAKE Constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the new Melones Dam on the Stanislaus River is one of the highest earth filled dams in the United States, creating a lake with over 100 miles of shoreline and 12,000 surface acres. Melones Lake provides unlimited recreational facilities - boating, water skiing, swimming, hunting, hiking, fishing, picnicking and camping. The dam backs water to a distance of 24 miles to within one mile of the lower end of Forest Meadows.

BEAR VALLEY / MT. REBA Excellent skiing is a pleasant 30 mile drive along scenic State Highway 4 into the High Sierra. Ski enthusiasts can ride up to some of the best skiing in the country on short notice when skiing and driving conditions are ideal. Bear Valley, which faces north, is known for some of the coldest powder this side of the Rockies. Steep, lightly wooded terrain runs are a powder skiers paradise. With over 30 miles of trails and season after season of record snowfalls, Bear is ideal for every level of skier -- and you can be back in Forest Meadows by evening to enjoy other activities.

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CLIMATE
Forest Meadows is nestled along the snow line of the Sierra -- a place for all seasons. Dramatic changes occur four times a year. At 3000' elevation, it snows in the winter, generally 12 to 18 inches in the season -- enough to cover, but not so much as to interfere with access to the site and your home -- a perfect setting for the holidays! Forest Meadows has the advantage of being above the fog line, which breaks at about 2000'. The valleys and ravines and the Central Valley below, covered with their layer of fog, become part of the spectacle of your view. Spring bursts on Forest Meadows in a symphony of color. Wild flowers play a rainbow of variations across the land. Numerous rivers and lakes host fishing, boating and water sports of every variety. Hike among the forests and seasonal creeks. Summer days reach the mid-eighties and occasionally the nineties, but you are out of the intense heat of the Central Valley. There are ample places for shade beneath the pine, cedar and large oak trees. Fall comes in a mantle of crimson and gold. Proud oaks light the treescape -- you will experience truly spectacular sunsets that are unmatched. Winds are gentle in the forest. They prevail from the southeast. Rain is comparable to the San Francisco Bay Area -- generally occurring in the months of November through March, with some showers in the early spring and late fall.

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TOUR MURPHYS

'Queen of Sierra' still reigns Gold town rich with wines, newcomers The San Francisco Chronicle Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, March 27, 2003 Murphys, Calaveras County -- Don Cantrell has a two-minute commute through some of the most gorgeous mountain scenery on Earth. His gourmet sandwich shop is going gangbusters like every other business on Main Street here, and the living is so relaxed, he can leave the keys in his car all day. Just four years ago, his life swirled around a head-pounding hour in the car every morning and night, commuting from San Anselmo to San Francisco, and he couldn't even begin to afford a house. Now he owns a home that would have cost four times as much in the Bay Area. And he's banking cash.

That's because he is in the recession-free zone known as Murphys.

For the past decade, through times good and bad, nothing has seemed to rattle the economy in this Gold Rush village nestled in the Sierra Nevada foothills 150 miles east of San Francisco. Not the recessions of the early 1990s or the past couple of years, not the hypersaturation of tourist draws that bedevil other little towns in the Sierra, not even the utter isolation of being perched in the trees at 2,000-foot elevation with little else around.

Far down the mountain, the two-year downturn is rampaging through the flatlands from Sacramento to San Francisco like a hungry beast, demolishing jobs and local economies. Traffic anywhere urban is an exercise in agony, and even starter houses in the suburbs cost $400,000.

But up in the big Sequoia trees, hard times are an abstraction -- and that is drawing hundreds of Bay Area people to relocate. Or to shop.

The population grew from 2,000 two years ago to almost 3,000 today, new businesses are opening every few months, unemployment is virtually nonexistent at about 2 percent, commercial rents are so hot the rates have doubled, and tourists flock in droves.

GOOD PEOPLE, GOOD PRICES Murphys, as never before, is living up to its Gold Rush-coined nickname, "The Queen of the Sierra." And there is no end in sight. "This is the kind of place where you can take chances like the one we did, coming up here and starting a business with pretty much nothing in the bank," Cantrell said as he scraped off the grill at his Pick and Shovel eatery, getting ready for the lunch rush. "It's got a buzz on the streets. It's beautiful. Good people live here, and we all know each other.

"What more could you ask?"

Two powerful forces, mainly, have combined to ward off hard times.

One is the explosion in the boutique wine business in Murphys, which since being kick-started by Barden Stevenot in the mid-1970s has sprouted a dozen wineries within a 3-mile radius. With eight wine tasting rooms on the three- block main street, a cornucopia of high-end restaurants and chic shops have sprung up to serve the people who bring their fine tastes and fat wallets every weekend to sample the local crushes.

The other big influence has been the influx of new people -- retired folks with extra greenbacks, and Baby Boomers such as Cantrell looking to escape the city thrum and start new enterprises in a place that's remote but sophisticated.

After cashing in a house in the flatlands for half a million dollars or more, you can pick up a decent home in Murphys for less than $200,000 -- the median price listed in the 2000 census was $193,000 -- and have plenty of money left to spend in the local shops or get that sandwich shop going.

The price for a typical, fairly new house has shot closer to $300,000 in the past two years as the town's population rose from 2,061 to 2,840, but there are still plenty of bargains around, local real estate agents say. And houses are still going at a fast clip.  

"It's amazing. You think it's hit the top (in prices and population growth), but then it just keeps going up," said longtime Realtor Cynthia Trade, who lived in Piedmont before moving to Murphys in 1976. "It's the charm and friendliness of the town that pulls them in, I think, and the elevation. It's not so hot as below, and not so much snow as above. It's just right." It helps that Murphys' downtown, which essentially consists of Main Street, looks like an old-time Western movie set without the false fronts. Quaint wooden sidewalks line vintage buildings from the 1800s, some with gingerbread scallops along the rooflines, housing everything from the exotic Biga bakery to the specialty Murphys Toy Store.

Huge elm trees shade the way, and there are a dozen gourmet spots to buy either hand-ground coffee or escargots, snails worthy of Berkeley's gourmet ghetto.

A newly refurbished park sports a lacy gazebo where bands play on sunny days, and a lazy creek meanders alongside.

Retirees who caught onto the town's allure flowed up in Murphys in such big numbers over the past few years that about a third of the residents are older than 62; the median age is now 49.1 years, compared with a statewide average of 33.3, according to the 2000 census. Several developments have risen to cater to this new crowd, including the security-gated Forest Meadows golf course community.

Rich Ferrari, 68, retired as a liquor store owner and sold his house in Santa Rosa last year to move to Forest Meadows, where he bought a trim, three- bedroom house towered over by sugar pines and black oaks for $175,000. It's already gained about $100,000 in value.

"When my wife passed away and I retired, I decided I should start out again somewhere new," Ferrari said. "I looked at a lot of towns, but you come to a place like this, and you see all the beauty and the trees, and in five minutes,

you say, 'OK, this is it.' "

CULTURE AND RECREATION Angels Camp, the only incorporated city in Calaveras County, and Sonora, the only community around with a big general store (Wal-Mart), are at least a half-hour away, which is OK for routine shopping but not so hot for quick recreation. So when the older folks like Ferrari look for fun, they usually stay close to home to spend their money -- and for a rural backwater, there are an unusual number of choices. Murphys has two fine bookstores (a tiny-town rarity), the Black Bart community theater, and a continual lineup of top-drawer shows at the wineries - - Stevenot recently staged Shakespeare, and Ironstone hosted the Dave Brubeck Band and the Russian National Symphony. Hiking and skiing, from the Bear Valley resort to the Big Trees forest, is everywhere.

"Sometimes, I miss the city, but if you want to find real entertainment like a symphony, you don't have to go far," Ferrari said. "And if I want to hike, I can practically just walk out my front door."

The point of all this is that it keeps the money local and keeps the people coming to spend the money. But even more remarkable than the population boom is the economic growth that turned this town into a juggernaut.

Most people point to Stevenot as the man who started it all.

Stevenot already was a successful gold miner and developer of the Kirkwood Ski Resort when he started planting grapevines in a steep, rocky canyon on the edge of town in the mid-1970s. So he knew how to make a business work -- and work it he did.  

Stevenot's Tempranillo, Merlot and Chardonnay wines snagged national awards and quickly became one of the catalysts for the surging wine renaissance of the Sierra Nevada. Most of the other wine titans that followed in his footsteps -- including the much larger Ironstone winery, a sprawling redwood complex of amphitheaters and shops exceeding most things in Napa -- were started by people who either worked for him or have been heavily influenced by him. He continues to have a guiding hand in encouraging business throughout town.

"First, you needed to have the entrepreneurs come up here to do the businesses, then the people could come along to use them -- and these things created their own synergy," Stevenot said. "The builders got more business, the retirees came in, and the median income went up.

"Things either spiral up or they spiral down in a setting like this," he added. "And they've been headed the right way in Murphys for quite a while. The recession hasn't even been a blip on the scope here."

PROFITS IN GOLD, LUMBER, CATTLE Founded in 1848 by brother miners Dan and John Murphy, this town has always been a magnet, anyway -- just not this spectacularly, in this century at least. The Murphy brothers and their successors scoured $300 million out of the local mountainsides and rivers during the '49er Gold Rush, by some estimates. At its Gold Rush height, the population reached 3,000 and luminaries from Mark Twain to President Ulysses Grant slept at the two-story Murphys Hotel, a working hotel still preserved in rustic splendor as the centerpiece of Main Street.

After the Gold Rush, Murphys became a robust lumber and cattle town and stayed that way until the 1980s. When those industries faded, the Sierra wine boom took over. All the while, the Old West mining heritage continued to draw trickles of tourists to the hotel and antique shops.

So aside from temporary dips as the cattle and lumber industries faded off, there never was a lengthy downtime in Murphys, even as other historic towns in the foothills, such as Jamestown (Tuolumne County) and Loyalton (Sierra County), have struggled to capitalize on their heritage.

"History was our gift, and we try to preserve it to make the most of it. But we also change and grow with the times," said Mavis Morris, general manager of Murphys Hotel. "All these new businesses that settle in here, they're not competition. They're just building on what we have in Murphys."

The latest recession is a prime example of how misfortune hits a force field at the edge of town.

In the past year alone, as the recession hit its peak, town developers utterly transformed the downtown, doubling its size with a blocklong stretch of upper-crust shops and eateries called the Arbors. The storefronts are designed so that, though new, they retain the town's old-time feel so intricately that they even used "pre-weathered" corrugated tin roofs on the new buildings.

The town now has a total of 130 businesses, and half of those are new in the past five years, according to the Murphys Business Association. Because it is unincorporated, the county doesn't keep retail sales figures on Murphys -- but many business owners privately said they turned 30 percent profits in the past year. About 18 percent of the families earned more than $100,000 in 2000, significantly higher than the statewide figure of 12 percent.

The Sierra Business Council reported that since the Arbors went in, retail rents in Murphys have doubled from less than $1 per square foot to about $2 -- and there are plenty of takers waiting in line. Like Jeff and Mary Stai, for instance.

The Stais just bought two huge, early-1900s houses on Main Street. After turning one into a boutique home-furnishing store, they started converting the other into a wine tasting room. The wine, of course, will come from the Twisted Oak Winery -- the specialty winery they are carving out of caves on the edge of town, bringing Murphys' total to a dozen.

Until settling into town this winter, they were commuting to Murphys from Placentia (Orange County) for about a year as they prepared their triple enterprises. But they say they never minded the aggravation of six hours on the road.

"The people up here are so extremely friendly, so old-fashioned in a good way, that I couldn't wait to get here whenever I got on the road," said Mary Stai, gingerly arranging a line of antique lamps on the counter of her boutique shop, the Enchanted Workshop. "There's only one stop sign, and you can still get 18-ounce trout out of the creek in the middle of town. It's like 'Mayberry, R.F.D.' "

It's a common theme. Many commute to jobs more than 100 miles away, mostly in the Bay Area -- and if they're not commuting to the Bay Area, they're from it, like sandwich-maker Cantrell. And like Jennifer Wren Stoicheff, who moved her catering business from Orinda a few years ago and opened the gourmet Alchemy Market on Main Street a year ago.

"We're full every day, business is good, and I don't miss the Bay Area one bit," she said. "It seems like most people, like me, come up here for a visit, and something just happens. They want to be a part of this, and they just drive back and forth for a while until they finally decide to just move up here for good."

NOT A ONE-THEME TOWN
Stoicheff gets plenty of reminders of her old stomping grounds, though: Her husband, Stacey Stoicheff, commutes every week to his construction consultation job in San Francisco. Weeknights, he sleeps on a friend's 50-foot sloop, tied to a city pier, until returning on Fridays to Murphys.

"They seem to have done everything right in Murphys, wonderful economic development at its best," said Laura Cole-Rowe, president of the statewide California Downtown Association. "You want a sense of walkability, with clean streets, places to sit, attractive streetscapes and storefronts, events to draw people in, and that is all there."

Another secret to the success is that, despite capitalizing on its historic heritage, Murphys has managed to avoid adopting a hokey theme like some towns, Cole-Rowe said. Murphys is not purely a wine town, or a Gold Rush town, or a mountain tourist getaway -- it's a combination of everything, each aspect complementing the other.

"That's why it works," Cole-Rowe said.

Chronicle researcher Kathleen Rhodes contributed to this report. / E-mail Kevin Fagan at kfagan@sfchronicle.com.