The Water Tower Limited Edition Print

This wooden water tower is fed by a mountain spring high above Christmas Valley here in Tahoe. It was built by the Vaughn family, whose riverside forest cabin was built in 1925. The tower now supplies three family’s cabins: the Brinks, Nicols, and Vaughns. Multiple generations of these families come up to stay in these beautiful homes every year, and they are preserved with love and devotion. To enter one of these forest abodes is to journey back in time, and feels like stepping into a historical archive. When the families return to Tahoe from their full time residences elsewhere, the air is full of joyful sounds and smells. Memories are shared and family histories passed on, over food and drinks on the porch overlooking the river. At dusk, oftentimes a frog’s chirrup joins the evening chorus, happily living under the overflow pipe from the tower. People and animals stop to drink the Spring water, and I often hear happy chatter out there.

On the neighboring hillside that we call ‘Meyer’s Mountain’, or ‘Balancing rock’, the Vaughn family discovered an underground watercourse in the 1920’s, and constructed a small Spring house to channel the water across the valley. During the Caldor Fire, this small structure was destroyed, so the families hiked up to replace it. From my studio I saw them walking together, tools in hand. I think their ancestors would be proud to see them all rolling up their sleeves and working together in happy conversation to preserve something as precious as clean water for their families.