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In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of Lake County this year, Lake County News is publishing a series of historical stories about the county, its people and places. This week the spotlight is on Henry K. Mauldin, Lake County's first official historian.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – Henry Mauldin died nearly 30 years ago and, while his name might not be as familiar as it once was, his legacy as the county’s first official historian endures.
As we read the Lake County stories published for the sesquicentennial, one of the stories worth telling is the story of Mauldin and the Lake County stories that he spent 40 years collecting. Without his work, many of those other stories might have been lost.
In 1906 Joel and May Mauldin moved from Idaho to Lake County with their children, including 6-year-old Henry.
The Mauldins settled on a prune ranch near Kelseyville, where Henry grew up. Except for a couple of years away from the county in his youth, Henry Mauldin lived the rest of his 80 years in Lake County.
Mauldin made his living as a pear farmer and also took an active role in numerous civic and agricultural organizations. He served as county supervisor from District 5 from 1940 to 1952.
Mauldin died on Sept. 2, 1981, when a car hit him as he crossed Soda Bay road near his home.
Mauldin’s pursuit of Lake County history began in 1940 as California prepared for the centennial of the Gold Rush and statehood.
He served on the Centennial Commission, collecting Lake County stories for the event, and continued collecting and writing for Lake County’s centennial celebration in 1961.
In 1955 Mauldin was one of the organizers of the Lake County Historical Society. The society began issuing a publication, The Pomo Bulletin, in 1956, which is still published three times a year.
His interest in local history became a passion that gripped Mauldin for 40 years, as he collected nuggets of Lake County history, page after page, until the data filled 50 binders – 10,000 pages – typed in quintuplicate, and all indexed, a collection now called the Mauldin Notes.
Mauldin collected information on thousands of topics: people, places and events in Lake County. His interest extended to both the pioneer and the Pomo history of the area. He incorporated news articles, letters, memoirs, city directories, interviews and other writings into the Mauldin Notes. The typing alone took years as high school typing classes and historical society volunteers typed pages.
The Mauldin Notes are now available to researchers at Lakeport Library, 1425 N. High St.; the Old Courthouse Museum, 255 N. Main, Lakeport; Redbud Library, 14785 Burns Valley Road, Clearlake; and the Lower Lake Schoolhouse Museum, 16435 Morgan Valley Road, Lower Lake. The Lake County Historical Society also owns a set, currently stored at the Nice Clubhouse.
The Mauldin Notes have their own Web site, http://mauldinnotes.lakecountycahistory.com, which includes an introduction to the notes and an index of subjects that appear in the notes. The notes themselves have not been digitized.
Mauldin wrote five books of local history: History of Lake County: Your Lakes, Valleys and Mountains; Mountains & Pioneers of Lake County; Lake County in the Beginning; Two Indian Legends of Lake County, California and History of Clear Lake, Mt. Konocti and the Lake County Cattle Industry.
His byline appeared on numerous articles in local newspapers and other publications. Mauldin contributed Lake County history information to other works, including the “Knave” section of the Oakland Tribune and to Erwin Gudde’s book California Place Names. Mauldin often drew on his vast knowledge in extemporaneous talks about Lake County history.
