Echoes of the Past
Celebrating Heritage Days in Burney Falls…
On October 12, McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park will fall back in time to the 1800s when the area’s inhabitants made their own candles, sawed their own heavy wood logs without the use of electric machinery, and pressed their own apple cider, all while the 129-foot cascades continued to dispense 100 million gallons of water over the rock crest each day.
Hosted by the McArthur-Burney Falls Interpretive Association, Heritage Day has been going on since the 1980s, working with local entities to celebrate the area’s history and unique geology.
Long before Samuel Burney and the McArthurs settled near the Pit River, the band of Ilmawi people called BurneyFalls home. They were the first anglers of the area, pulling salmon and trout out of the creeks and nearby Lake Britton. The Ilmawi also gathered and hunted food by building pits and driving larger game into them, hence the name “Pit River.” Today, the Ilmawi and ten other autonomous bands of people make up the Pit River Tribe.
European fur trappers began encroaching on Burney Falls in the early 1800s, and by the 1850s American settlers had started homesteading. Writing with feather quills, embroidery, making dolls out of corn husks and using Dutch ovens to cook food became the way of life. Burney Falls stayed rugged until the early 1900s before PG&E started buying up land and water rights. John and Catherine McArthur’s sons bought 160 acres of landaround the falls and deeded the property to the State of California. It became an official state park in 1926. A historic cabin and Diablo stone stoves built by the Civilian Conservation Corps are still there.
McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park Ranger Blair Pubols has been with the park since 2020 and says thousands of people come out for Heritage Day. About a dozen Interpretive Association volunteers help with the event, along with the Burney Lions Club, Rotary Club and students from nearby high schools.
“This is a celebration of the park, the area, and a fundraising effort for the association,” Pubols says. “The core of the event is the variety of interpretive stations of things found in the late 1800s,” he explains, adding that the most popular stations are the branding, apple press juicing and pioneer games. Attendees also tend to hang around the Dutch ovens, waiting for apple crumb pies to come out. “It’s darn popular for obvious reasons,” Pubols says.
A local gentleman gives horse and carriage rides, and local Indigenous dancers come out, which is one of Pubols’ favorite aspects of the event, along with the fiddlers. “I really appreciate the music at the park,” he says.
But most of the attendees are drawn toward the food. “They like the results of the Dutch ovens,” Pubols says with a smile.
As volunteers walk around in period costume and kids assess their strength slicing through timber with a misery whip saw, attendees learn and acknowledge Burney Falls’ past.
“In house we call it a Big Tent Day because it celebrates the entire Burney Falls area, its history and all the people that make up this area, from the early settlers and Native Americans to the logging industry, Civilian Conservation Corps, PG&E and park folks. We look at it as a celebration of all the people who’ve made Burney Falls great throughout history,” Pubols adds. •
Heritage Day 2025 • October 12, 2025 • Admission is free
McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park • www.burneyfallspark.org
