Little Sweden (Sundance drama location) demolished

ieure

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I'm new here, so I wasn't around for this epic Sundance insanity, but while I was chasing some dead links on that thread, I found this:

February 06, 2012 09:08 pm

Abandoned buildings at Little Sweden on Highway 108 east of Long Barn were demolished Friday.

The area was long ago abandoned but remained a popular Highway 108 stopping point for sledders. County officials deemed it a safety hazard.
Officials found the old restaurant building had one of the main walls ripped off by a four-wheel-drive vehicle and trash had been spread around outside, including broken glass, metal and nails. The site became an immediate health risk with the broken glass and metal.

"We had to do something," Oliver said. "In the interest of public safety we had to move quickly."

Oliver said county officials had to move quickly before it snows, to prevent people who go to Little Sweden from getting injured on unseen hazards under the snow.

The County Counsel's Office deemed it as an immediate nuisance, Oliver said.

The Little Sweden site included a restaurant with a few sleeping rooms, a smaller house building and a detached structure with pit toilets, Oliver said.

The county hired a local contractor to clean the site up, including removal of the old tow rope and control station at the bottom of the hill, Oliver said.

The property owner, Donald Williams, who has a post office box in Mi-Wuk Village, was contacted and notified the structures would be demolished, Oliver said.

A summary abatement hearing with the county Board of Supervisors will determine if the county can reclaim the costs of the demolition from the owner, he said.

Oliver said he did not know what it was going to cost to demolish the site and did not return a request for the bid amount.
Little Sweden has been a popular snow play area since the 1920s.

Over the years, it has been a nuisance for the California Highway Patrol, as there is no official snow play area there, but people park along Highway 108 illegally despite "No Parking" signs.

Little Sweden was the county's first ski resort, built in 1921, and a rope tow was added by J.R. Mills in the late 1920s.
It was the popular place to go sledding and skiing until 1950, when Dodge Ridge opened.

Mills eventually sold the land and lodge to five women, who sold it to Williams in 1976.

People will likely always go to that area for snow play, Oliver said.

"At least now, it'll be a lot safer," he said.

Sounds like it got even worse and they couldn't contact the owner.
 
sounds like jehuie did the world a favor by grabbing that game, and i still say the only thing he did wrong was to announce what he was up to on a public forum...
 
Canada looks nicer and nicer every year

I love how the county gets to just decide what to do with someone's private property just because the "public" is loitering illegally and possibly injuring themselves.

I'd be sittin' in my shanty with a shotgun, just waitin' for dem silly sledders to try 'n' squat on my land so they can catch a hot load of buckshot in their trespassing, vandalizing, burglarizing asses. County employees and arcade thieves included :D

Of course, the REAL reason they did it is because of that nice fat paycheck Mr. Williams received from his ill-gotten property - and the county wants those duckets (for fielding all those phone calls from you a-holes).... And then probably the land, in some other kind of bullshit legislation.

America the.... Free?
 
That's California for Ya...

The "prototype" experiment for the rest of the country. Run by kooks who want to enforce their authority over the masses while slowly taking away your liberty one small step at a time. The sad thing is, no one has the balls to take a stand against those who are in power. The government is getting more and more comfortable with over-stepping it's authority, and it will only get worse unless some TRUE change happens. The sad fact is, the vast majority of Americans have absolutely no clue what is going on...
 
Next up, the county is going to bring in bulldozers to make the hills less steep... This will be safer for the trespassing sledders.
 
I've heard very little about the "stolen sundance" but know nothing else about it, and I don't have time to sift thru 130 pages of posts. Will someone please put up the cliff notes version?
 
Game found in a rotten building by urban explorers. A picture was taken. Since it was a rare game there was a race to contact the owners and get there. A KLOVer went and got it, to protect it from the elements or vandalism or whatever. The KLOVer then posted on here that he has it and will hold it until the owners can be contacted. Other KLOVers were pissed off saying it was stolen, etc. Owners were finally contacted, were pissed about the situation- even though that game had been in a rotten vacant buidling for 20 years or more. Through Greg McLemore's help the KLOVer who had the game was able to avoid legal trouble, someone paid the owners for the game. Game is now in the hand of a collector who paid very well for it and not the KLOVer who first grabbed it.

That's sorta it.
 
Last edited:
cliffs notes, based on skimming the first and last 15 pages of that thread:

jehuie stole/rescued (depending on your perspective) a sundance from the abandoned building.

Several others were trying to get in touch with the owner to buy the game. Someone looks to have reported jehuie to a local paper, but the links are long since dead.

Eventually the owner was tracked down, jehuie wasn't able to buy it, mclemore did, and 130 pages of drama came to and end.
 
I've heard very little about the "stolen sundance" but know nothing else about it, and I don't have time to sift thru 130 pages of posts. Will someone please put up the cliff notes version?

Someone (non-KLOV) explored an abandoned ski lodge, took photos, and put them online. KLOVer bwiklem saw and started a thread here. Attempts were made to contact the owner to arrange a purchase, since it is a very rare machine. jehuie rolls up and takes it home, and posts to the thread saying so and photos. Thread goes insane for about 100 pages. The police are involved, the property owner is located, the game is returned to him and sold to mclemore.
 
I love how the county gets to just decide what to do with someone's private property just because the "public" is loitering illegally and possibly injuring themselves.

I'd be sittin' in my shanty with a shotgun, just waitin' for dem silly sledders to try 'n' squat on my land so they can catch a hot load of buckshot in their trespassing, vandalizing, burglarizing asses. County employees and arcade thieves included :D

Of course, the REAL reason they did it is because of that nice fat paycheck Mr. Williams received from his ill-gotten property - and the county wants those duckets (for fielding all those phone calls from you a-holes).... And then probably the land, in some other kind of bullshit legislation.

America the.... Free?

I actually think the county is legit - the owner isn't doing squat to deal with the problem, and if some noodlebrain gets a hide full of nails and has to be pulled out by ambulance, then that's out of the county budget. (911 calls do NOT get ignored, even when the caller is a trespassing idiot. And even if they later bill the idiot in question, that's still time away from other emergencies)

I'm thinking that all the demo costs should go to the owner, of course, as he's the one that let it go in the first place.
 
...and let's add.....Said owner of shithole building (and thus, said game) didn't give a fuck about said game until other sour garpes collectors realized the game was gone......and started touting how they'd give 4-figure $$$ to said owner. Only then did said owner come out of hiding, complaining he'd been robbed.

Edward
 
...and let's add.....Said owner of shithole building (and thus, said game) didn't give a fuck about said game until other sour garpes collectors realized the game was gone......and started touting how they'd give 4-figure $$$ to said owner. Only then did said owner come out of hiding, complaining he'd been robbed.

Edward

Yep.........
 
Actually, the owner was not pissed at me when I talked to him. He sold me the game and then backed out later after getting a better offer. And there was never any real risk from the police. Nobody "helped" me avoid trouble with them. If anything, the constant pestering from others just complicated things for me.

It's all over now though. The owner got his money. The game is in a safe place. I shouldn't have taken it in the first place probably. Etc. Etc.
 
Actually, the owner was not pissed at me when I talked to him. He sold me the game and then backed out later after getting a better offer. And there was never any real risk from the police. Nobody "helped" me avoid trouble with them. If anything, the constant pestering from others just complicated things for me.

It's all over now though. The owner got his money. The game is in a safe place. I shouldn't have taken it in the first place probably. Etc. Etc.

It was so long ago, and posts like the following led me to believe this.

Greg VVVVV
October 20, 2010:

http://www.uniondemocrat.com/2010102...or-Oct-20-2010

Sweden' treasure

To the Editor:
In response to "Treasure Found at Little Sweden" that ran on Oct. 12 on the front page. The headline should be "Treasure Stolen at Little Sweden."
Mr. Huie did enter private land and take private property without permisssion of the owner. Refer to California penal code trespass and grand theft felony. It seems that Mr. Huie committed a few crimes no matter what his reasons or excuses. If he gets away with this will others be able to use this reasoning to avoid prosecution? Will our district attorney give his opinion? Did Mr. Huie come forward after the crime to avoid prosecution?
P.S. Keep up the good work Union Democrat.
Roy Jueal
Twain Harte

You VVVV

I got to have fun and possibly face charges still. But otherwise, not really.


And McLemore vvvvv

The owner isn't happy his building isn't intact and he is dealing with this but was nice to me on the phone and would rather have the money than this non-working game.

Re: civil and criminal liability and the owner. I have spent enough time on the phone with the owner to begin to gauge his personality. Additionally I have encouraged the owner to drop the matter which I think is likely to happen. And I have advised John on my strategy for making sure the owner doesn't pursue any action. If any action were to happen at this point, it would likely be the result of an emotional response on the owners part (so John...don't poke him).

John asked for a written assurance before releasing the game from the owner that he isn't going to pursue action. Such a written assurance obviously isn't going to happen (and asking for such rubed the owner the wrong way) and I think the words 'cooperation' and 'respect' towards the owner are the best way to make any potential trouble disappear.

While the unknown isn't as assuring as a written release, every day that passes makes action further unlikely and eventually the matter is truly dead because of the statue of limitations both from a civil and criminal matter.


You VVVV

Apparently I made some mistakes after that. His attitude toward me changed and we have not spoken in quite some time. I have nothing against the owner at all. He believes that I did him wrong and there's nothing I can do about it at this point other than apologize and try to make this transaction go as smoothly as possible. So I'm trying to make sure that happens.


And I was going off memory. I wasn't talking out of my ass though, it's just with the amount of posts in that thread, and some of the information and misinformation by people, it's hard to tell exactly what went on.
 
I've heard very little about the "stolen sundance" but know nothing else about it, and I don't have time to sift thru 130 pages of posts. Will someone please put up the cliff notes version?

All that needs to be said is that I never got a T_shirt.








BTW I hope someone knows im joking about the shirt. I wont let it ever die though.:)
 
Whats funny is you know the sundance would have died with the building.

Good thing jhewie saved it. He still has it right?

Oh wait, it was basically strongarmed away from him.

Oh well. at least it made it to cax right?
 
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