Keddie Map

[dmac]

and some shots from the trip to Keddie, with the 28 mockups superimposed where the cabin stood:










I don't get creeped out very often by anything. This one really sucked ass. I guess you should count me amongst those that are happy the cabin has been wiped off the planet. Now we need to do the same to Bo, Marty, Spencey, Marilyn, Doug, Prince Albert, Bradley, DeCrona, all those who condoned and hid the murders.

[geegee]

This is amazing! thank you for all the hard work!

[dmac]

For years,this photo has bothered me. I've seen it on the web, and in Josh's book (page 68).



Once the map of Keddie had progressed sufficiently, I thought the photo showed the building of the new lodge after the old one burned down in the thirties. Older photos show the new lodge was built in a different location, so trying to match the photo to other known buildings became the new method. The cabins in the photo certainly had the look and feel of funky old Keddie, but where? The truck and people on the flat patch of land below seemed to be a good 20-30 feet downhill from the nearest cabins, and those cabins simply did not match my understanding of the layout of Keddie. Was this our Keddie, or lower (South) Keddie, nearly a mile south where the Roundhouse stood? The folks near the work truck certainly looked like they were working on a new development, but I could not find a single place in Keddie that matched the buildings, terrain, or POV from where the image was taken- high up, above the nearest trees, looking down. I thought it was taken from the RR tracks- so was it Keddie Flats? I had no answers, so research was ditched.

About a year later, I'm going through all the photos I took of materials in the Plumas County Museum's "Keddie File": a hodgepodge of old photos, post cards, flyers, news clippings, and letters. Again, I look at the half-dozen photos I found taken of the same area at the same time as the above photo. In fact, the above photo is a tight cropping of one of the images I collected at the musem. I was assembling them for a post asking if anybody recognized anything whatsoever in the photos. Once I had them all side by side, I began looking more closely. I recognized the stone retaining walls, the style of 'architecture' (if you dare use the term that liberally), etc., but still nothing matched Keddie.

. . . . /url]
. .

Then I looked closely at the work trucks. One of them, a truck with a water tank on the back, clearly has "Keddie Resort" stencilled on the door. OK, bingo. Looking at every building again, I noticed a tiny bit matching the rear of the lodge. Then everything quickly fell into place. I couldn't recognize the cabins in the photos because they no longer exist. This is the only instance I've seen of cabins 18-23, which lined the road behind 28, the area I've named Debris Row.

Are these photos of a contemporary development to Keddie Resort that was stopped, never completed? They evidently cleared a road from Keddie Flats southwest to the area directly below the rear of cabins 18-23, cleared the trees and leveled the land. Did they plan to build six more cabins, with this being the layout of pathways from the road to the front doors? I know the Albins wanted to develop an area for camping, and I think this is the area they had in mind, so did Mr English have plans to add more cabins in the 50s?

Notice what look like pathways to nonexistent front doorways are actually shallow ditches dug below ground level, then notice the shot of the construction area from atop what looks like a water tank. But I don't think it's a water tank. To me, it looks like a huge leeching field for a septic system, and that's the septic tank.

Anyway, I've pointed out all the structures in the photos, and added photos I took from very similar locations when I was there in April. Together, you'll get a feel for what you're looking at. And the photos that look like they were taken from the treetops? They were taken from 70, near where the retaining wall drops straight down 100 feet to the river below.


. .

These old photos confirm my belief there were 5 cabins behind 28, as well as the logic to the numbering system, etc. Again, that a hand drawn map of Keddie from several years and just as many hate-filled forums ago has again proved stunningly accurate and helpful. Here's that map, showing all the cabins around Cabin 28. It shows the cabin LE named as non-existent in 1981 (21) is accounted for across the street, behind Cabin 17. And that old photo from a resident who lived in 28 after the murders makes more sense now, too. The shot, taken from the stairwell behind the cabin, shows cabin 19 on the left and cabin 23 on the right.


Of course, this leads to the main reason for this post: With all the info gleaned from these photos, the trip to Keddie, and a new look at the aerial photos, it's time to update the Keddie Map:

[dcheryl83]

810412-0100a Connie B. leaves the B. residence to return to Quincy. Has the “weird” feeling she is being watched. [b](Is this really Connie G. from Cabin 3?)

Connie B leaves the B?? residence. What cabin do the B's live in?

[dmac]

I've been reading Marilyn's collated statements in Aus' excellent post, and it ties in with the map because Loon goes on about Randy in Cabin 27, which makes no sense whatsoever.

Here's the most recent version of the map. It highlights three major changes, concerning buildings that were in the aerial photos and in old USGS maps, and seem to account for the missing cabins between cabins 28 (Sharps') and 31 (the first cabin on the southern loop, next door to the General Store). The three buildings in question are to the right of Cabin 28, also with dayglo pink cabin numbers:



I'm guessing about the numbers, but they make sense for filling in the missing cabins. First, the one labeled '???' is right on the corner, and is the least visible in photos. It could be a utility/storage building, and has a green roof and white siding. It resembles just another white Keddie cabin, but it's too obscured in the photo to say. The next one, labeled '29', is closest to the post office and dorm. It has a darker roof, a utility shed behind it, and a light green propane tank parked nearby. Across the street to the southeast is the other cabin, also obscured. Off-color roof, white sides, very similar shape to the one marked 29.

The one marked '???' may well be 29, because it appears to have a white gas tank or trailer parked behind it, and I've also long-heard the building across the street (closest to the Depot, marked as 30) may have been used by the Railroad and was not associated with Keddie cabins or the Keddie numbers. I just don't know.

Now, here's the weird stuff from Loon, where she's talking about the mysterious "Randy M". In the following posts, she claims Randy lived right next door to the Sharps in 81. 27, of course, was rented by Seabolts- and had been for 10 years. In 81, they had five of their kids living with them. The only other cabin "next door" to 28, according to the route Loon, Bo, & Marty took was cabin 13, which had been unoccupied since 4-1-81. Well, I'll quote her collated posts (in chronological order) which mention Randy M:

Posted: Sat Jun 10, 2006 2:24 pm post subject: gypseys new revelation
I remember walking down to the lounge and stopping by to see if Sue would like to go. Marty did ask me to do that, and I did tell him that I didn't think she would. As it turned out she didn't want to go.
Thinking back, I don't think Marty was real mad, it was just excepted, we went on down to the lounge.
He did get into an argument with Jan, but that was later in the evening, just before we left. I don't remember if it was the argument that caused us to leave. It could have been. As we walked up the hill towards our cabin, there by Randy's (27) something was said, and we laughed.
I don't recall hearing anything out of the ordinary walking past Sue's. I will have to ponder on that some more.
Marty did call Jan I assume and got into it over the phone again. He hung up, and said to Bo, "she can't talk to me like that, let's go".

Fri Jun 30, 2006 6:38 pm Post subject: keddie lodge
I think I posted this before but a man and his wife lived in 27 around that time. His name was Randy M. Richard [Meeks] told me his last name but for the life of me I can't remember. Richard said he worked as security with Mr. Garrett at FRC. I don't know if this will help. Maybe Richard will at least post Randy's last name.

Fri Jun 30, 2006 9:47 pm Post subject: keddie lodge
He did live in 27 but he said he was in the Bay Area when the murders took place. I know that Marty and I went to that cabin before the incident and Marty was friends with whoever lived there at that time. They had a big bowl of rolled joints on the coffee table. I had never seen anything like that. I did not go back, but Marty remained friends.
The groundskeeper said he and Marty were friends. I think he was lying when he said he was in Oakland at the time of the murders but I can't prove it.
I do know a Randy lived in cabin 27 also. I just can't remember exactly when. I have to go by what Richard said, but I don't think he said when Randy lived there. He now lives in the pink cabin. It is the third cabin down from Keddie Resort road. That would be "kitty corner" from cabin 28's left back corner.

Thu Jul 06, 2006 4:04 pm Post subject: real suspects
What about Dee Lake? Everyone seems to have forgotten about him. He was not the same Dee back then as he is today. He wore military issued boots and camies all the time. He was involved in the National Guard and was also in Viet Nam. He was a heavy pot smoker.
How about that creepy Lynn Seavy? He said he was in Oakland but I ask you, was he? He lived in cabin 27. Maybe it was before or after Randy? I don't know. Do You?

Tue Jul 25, 2006 10:26 pm Post subject: outside the box
We left our cabin around 8:00pm-8:30pm to go to the lodge. On the way, as we were about to pass Sue's cabin, Marty said maybe Sue would like to go with us. He then asked me to go ask her. I asked him why, and he said, it would be the four of us (implying that Bo would not be a third wheel). I told him that I didn't think she would go, but I would ask anyway.
It was dark when I walked down to her front door. I knocked and she came to the door. She smiled and said "hi" then invited me in. I stepped inside the door and could see she had been working on something while sitting on the couch. She was all ready dressed for bed. I think it was a light blue bathrobe she was wearing. I asked her and she said "no". I then said "ok" turned around and left. I didn't see any kids. They must have already gone to bed or at least to their bedroom. I didn't hear any kids either. Or maybe they were engrossed in watching the Love Boat? Hard as I might, I just don't remember hearing anything in that cabin!!
The timeline doesn't match up with the Love Boat though. Maybe it was later than I recall. Maybe it was 10:00pm-10:30pm. I do know it couldn't have been any later than that though.
As I said before, when we left and walked back to our cabin, I glanced over at Sue's (for some unknown reason) and all was quiet and the cabin was dark. I didn’t even hear the dog bark next door to Sue's (cabin 27) (Randy?'s cabin) as we walked by.
I know that the late news was on when I walked into our cabin. I went to bed after Marty made the phone call to Jan at the lodge. At least it sounded like he was talking to Jan because it was the same conversation he had with her earlier that night, when we were at the lodge (backdoor bar and lounge).
To my knowledge, Marty never went out back to talk to anyone. I can't even remember what I was wearing that night.

My list of Keddie residents, made by LE after the murders, lists only cabins 1-28, not 29-45. According to Loon, Bo, and Marty, they left the Back Door Bar, walked across the parking lot, past 13, and up to their home, 26- which is the logical and most direct route from their cabin to the bar. In that case, the only cabins they passed were cabin 13 on the corner of Resort Rd and N Lodge Rd (to their left), then cabin 28 (to the left), then 27 (left), then they crossed Spanish Oaks Ln. On the corner to the left was cabin 25, where Marty's arch enemy, Jan Albin, lived with family. On the corner to the right was an old garage like structure, used for storage. 30 feet further and, on the left, is their home.

Here's the path they claim they took each time they left there cabin that night:



Seabolts lived in 27 for ten years, 13 was empty, 25 was Albins. For Marilyn to have passed Randy's house, they are all lying about the routes they took that night- yet another hole in the Loonibi, which Loon herself is still altering and supporting.

Anybody know Randy M? The Smartts lived in Cabin 25 from their arrival in Keddie (from Burney) in July of 1980 until (as Loon put it) "this incident". According to LE, the only cabins where new residents had moved in AFTER the Smartts (of cabins 1-28, the only cabins I have details on) were cabins 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 16. None of those cabins are close to cabin 218, much less close to being "next door". Nor are any of the cabins NOT on the list.

For all the people saying how lovely and charming Keddie was, this roster says otherwise. Despite it being a dirt-cheap place to live, of the 28 cabins on the list, 7 renters lived there for less time than the Smartts (10 months), 5 cabins were non-existent or unihabitable, 2 cabins had been moved out of recently, and the Sharps were slaughtered after less than six months. That's half of Keddie gone in less than ten months. In fact, only 5 cabins of those listed had residents there longer than one year, not including landlords or employees with reduced/free rent. Of those, two cabins were occupied by the Krois', and only death removed a Krois from Keddie.

As of April, 1981, only three renters had lived there longer than a year? Any bets it was a 6-month lease? These numbers should give you the best idea yet of what a lovely place Keddie was in 1981.

UPDATE: Latest version of the Keddie Map:

[dmac]

Updated map. Thanks to JK for the details / corrections / additions.

Cabin 21, behind cabins 28 and 17, is confirmed to have been torn down and removed by 1981.
Added the barn / playhouse that was between cabins 31 and 42.
Cabin 42 confirmed to be boarded up and uninhabitable by 1981.
Cabin / trailer of unknown # added (marked as 'A')

[dmac]

Bing Maps now has their version of Screwgle's Street View, including a drive through downtown Keddie. The interface is clunky, and it's a resource hog (it may cause browsers to freeze/crash), but it does allow a virtual stroll through much of Keddie.

This link lands at the corner of Resort Rd and Spanish Oaks, zeroed in on Cabin 26 (with the door still wide open) and the area where the cars were parked shortly before Dee's green wagon and the larger, green coupe left in quick succession (noon, 12 April 1981). 140° counter-clockwise is the corner where 27 stood and, just beyond, 28. While looking around, take note of Cabin 25 on the corner, immediately left of 26. Once the crowning jewel of Keddie, it is now in disrepair and appears abandoned. It was occupied in 2011, but debris in the driveway indicates it's been vacant for a lengthy time. Keddie is still shamefully mismanaged.

It's apparent in this drive-thru that there's been significant demolishing since my 2011 visit. The foundation/platform remnants of 8 has been removed, and all of 7 has been removed. Also noted is the long pile of debris from the series of cabins torn down in 2004 is finally being removed. The garage/outbuilding beside 14 has also been removed. From the areas visible in Bing Streetside, these are the only visible areas of destruction since 2011.

[dmac]

My final version of the Keddie Map, c 12/2010