Piece of Sierra Nevada history for sale in Fresno County — and comes with its own Post Office

The Big Creek General Store is for sale — but it will take the right buyer.

The building is close to 90 years old and is a historic and important part of the small, tight-knit Sierra Nevada community between Shaver and Huntington lakes in Fresno County.

It’s quaint, with a kind of off-kilter mountain charm; white with black trim and metal roof. A picket fence runs its length.

It sits on the single street that runs through Big Creek, just down from the rest of the town — a Post Office, library and school.

In its earliest days, the building served as a gas station, back when Big Creek was a bustling company town, part of Southern California Edison’s Big Creek Hydroelectric Project.

It sat empty for a time in the 1990s, as businesses in the area began to disappear. But it’s always managed to reopen.

And it survived the pandemic and last year’s Creek Fire, which started in the Big Creek drainage area and devastated so much of the surrounding community.

“The General Store has become a beacon of strength over the years.”

The General Store and Inn at Big Creek

That attribution is according to its MLS listing, which priced the .34-acre property at $475,000.

Along with the general store building, the sale includes the Post Office next door (and its running lease with the USPS) and a three-bedroom, two-bath condo known as the Inn at Big Creek.

Owners Katie and John Miller refurnished the living space when they took over in 2017.

The inn is available to locals for $99 a night, and otherwise listed on AirBnb. The space is designed for families, with bunk beds in one bedroom and a carpeted children’s play area hidden under the stairs.

There is a modern, rustic vibe to the place. It’s clean and new, but the history is evident. Some of furniture is pulled from Katie Miller’s grandmother’s house. On the wall are pictures of Big Creek as it used to be, historical photos with color accents hand-painted by Katie’s uncle.

Those will stay with the inn after the sale.

“It’s funky and weird,” Katie Miller says.

That can be a draw for those using AirBnb — “as long as you have comfortable beds, clean sheets and a good coffee maker,” she says.

The Inn typically sits at 78% occupancy, Miller says, and sees guests year-round, from China Peak skiers and snowboarders in the winter and Huntington and Shaver recreationalists in the spring and summer.

But this is not a typical investment property.

“It’s not just a building,” Miller says.

“It really takes the community to keep this thing going.”

Miller’s aunt and uncle live in Big Creek, so she has fond memories of visiting as a child. Her uncle works for the U.S. Forrest Service and had his office two buildings down from the general store, before it was taken over to provide housing following the Creek Fire.

Her aunt, Laura Rojas, actually ran the general store for several years in the 2000s and took over the lease on the store again last year. She expanded the space to include a bakery/deli with coffee drinks, beer and wine (which you can enjoy on the patio out front), plus fresh pastries deserts and breads. Her husband does an assortment of smoked meats (brisket, chicken, pork, salmon) that can be made into sandwiches, but also tacos, nachos or salads.

The bakery and deli portion of the general store is called Down to Earth, named after a week-long summer camp Rojas used to run for children with Down syndrome. Her daughter Mary has Down syndrome and reopening the store was in a way cathartic for the 22-year-old.

“I wanted for her to have a place to work,” Rojas says.

Mary is at the store several days a week with a list of her daily chores, like watering the flowers outside, busing tables and bringing people their orders. The hope would be any new owners would continue the lease and that Mary could continue her work, Rojas says.

Ideally, the new owners would also want to become permanent residents or at least split their time in Big Creek, she says. That’s what the community needs to survive, especially after so many people (both permanent and vacationers) were displaced by the Creek Fire last year.

A slice of Sierra Nevada history in Fresno County

There is a certain draw to Big Creek, something most people are missing and don’t soon forget, Rojas says. Just last week, a man came into the store who had been born in Big Creek in the 1950s. He’d long since moved out of the area, but was visiting Fresno and just had to come see the community again, Rojas says.

“People have such a connection. They want to come back here. It gets under people’s skin — or in their hearts.”

“It’s a little slice of the past that a lot of people don’t get to experience.”

Miller had reservations about selling the property, but she and her husband have day jobs and other projects and don’t have the time to see it to its full potential.

“Maybe someone can step in and do it better. Take it to the next level,” she says.

There is interest already.

Within five minutes of listing last week, Miller had her first call. She’s had a dozen since and had people drive over from the central California coast to view the property.

“Someone who is craving that stillness in their lives,” she says.

“It’s here.”

This story was originally published July 19, 2021 at 5:00 AM.