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Rabbit Hill
Rabbit Hill and Chaparral Preserve, a total of 9.5-acres, is located in Middletown, a small rural community in
Northern California's Lake County. Owned and stewarded by the Lake
County Land Trust since 1999, the Trust first held several cleanup
days to remove several years of accumulated trash and the debris
created when the restrooms on the site were destroyed by vandals.
Using funds donated to the Land Trust for Rabbit Hill, in September
of 2001, the Land Trust purchased a sturdy picnic table from the
County of Lake whose crew delivered it to the top of the hill.
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A volunteer at
Rabbit Hill clean-up
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This same year, an old nuisance water tank was removed with the
help of the California Department of Forestry. In its continuing
efforts to maintain the property to the standards requested by
the donors of the property, the property is currently monitored
on a regular basis by several local residents and periodic
checks by the Trust's board of directors. An effort to gather an
oral history of the property is underway. |
Rabbit Hill was first turned into a nature sanctuary by Juanita "Skee"
Hamann and Hugo "Huck" Hamann in the 1950's when they retired to
Middletown from Los Altos. In November of 1966 the Hamann's were
devastated when their daughter, Joan Hamann Dole, was murdered at
her home in nearby Anderson Springs and they decided the nature
sanctuary should be a tribute to her memory. In 1968 the property
was deeded to the Madrone Audubon Society although the Hamanns
continued to live on the property caring for the birds using the
feeders and birdbaths they had developed on the property and growing
vegetables in fifty-five gallon drum halves. The Hamann's also used
stones on the property to construct restrooms and a shelter for
their trailer. In the summer they slept outside on a screened
platform.
Huck Hamann died in 1975 and Skee continued to live and care for the
property until 1980 when she moved to a Mrs. Spooner's house on Hwy.
175. Reports state that by 1983, when Skee Hamann died, much of the
work they had put into the property had fallen into disrepair and it
wasn't until the early 1990's that work began to find a local
steward for the land. Madrone Audubon deeded the property to the
Lake County Land Trust in April of 1999.
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Volunteers planted
daffodils at the Rabbit Hill Park.
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Rabbit Hill is
located at 21281 Steward Street, on the west side of Middletown,
CA. Turn west onto Callayomi Street off of Highway 29, then
turn left on Stewart.
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