The Real Cameron Park, California

In the 1960s, a developer named Charles Cameron bought 5700 acres of land in the Gold Country between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. With a somewhat dubious vision of “build it and they will come”, Cameron created a bedroom community along the north side of Highway 50 that included an artificial lake, golf course and private airport. Cameron Park was simply too distant from Sacramento to attract the affluence that Cameron likely envisaged for the community, but it certainly had a unique charm for the folks who raised families (like ours) there in the 1970s and 80s. 

Cameron Airpark Estates

One truly unique attribute of Cameron Park, to this day, is the private airport integrated directly into a residential neighborhood. Designed specifically for aeronautical enthusiasts and pilots at Sacramento airport, the neighborhood allows residents to land their small planes and drive directly off the runway onto streets designed to accommodate Cessnas—including very wide lanes and low stop signs. I recall at least one home had a giant “lazy Susan” in the elbow of a driveway, to make parking easier. Several homes back up to the air strip, and each has a hangar/garage for parking a plane.  Check this out: https://www.cameronparkairport.org/photo-gallery

Sam's Town

I can’t exaggerate how important Sam’s Town was to the Sierra Nevada foothills in the 1970s and 80s. From 1967 to 2000, millions of people stopped at the 30,000 square-foot Sam’s Town off Highway 50 during their trips from the Bay Area or Sacramento to Lake Tahoe. Part restaurant, part gift shop, part bar, and part arcade, the Old West / gold rush themed building was iconic for adults and children alike (the site of the gold discovery that prompted the California Gold Rush is only a few miles away).

It’s been more than four decades for me, but I still remember the Lillian Russell Room full of portraits of naked ladies; the mix of sawdust and crushed peanut shells that intentionally covered the floors; the exhilarating blend of pinball machine, SkeeBall and video game sounds; and the randomly featured wagon cage that trapped Charlton Heston in “Planet of the Apes”. My high school girlfriend’s father was a bartender at Sam’s Town, where he once served such celebrities as John Wayne.

BMX Heaven

As children, riding our bikes all around Cameron Park, we had a shortcut under the airport runway to get to our favorite deli, where my best friend had the high score on the Dig Dug video game. We also frequented the lake, where we would rope-swing off a high bank on our BMX bikes. And we found trouble on the golf course, in an abandoned Victorian mansion, and in various creeks and trails, always managing at least one case of poison oak per summer. 

Despite the small airport and golf course, Cameron Park was not an upper-class community, especially compared to El Dorado Hills to the west. Into the 1990s, the population grew but the demographics declined, with Cameron Park never realizing its original master-planned potential and becoming a hotbed for drug-related crime. But it was a great place to be a young boy on a bike in the late 70s/early 80s. And an excellent setting for a horror movie.