What Is Emandal?
In 1908, Em and Al Byrnes opened up their home to friends and acquaintances in the Bay Area who wished to vacation on the magnificent Eel River and get away from the everyday hustle and bustle of city life. (Yes, there was hustle and bustle in 1908!) All the fruits and vegetables served in their dining room were grown on the farm, as were the meat and eggs. Em baked all the bread.
Since 1946 the Adams family has continued the tradition of country vacations with farm grown and home cooked meals. Today Tamara Adams, following in the footsteps of her in-laws, Clive and Jessie Adams, and her late husband, Clive Adams, Jr., operates Emandal's Family Camp in the summer months, Environmental Education for school groups in the spring, and hosts special events, groups and weddings at various times throughout the year. Her children and their partners/spouses, Buffalo Adams and Claudine Williams, Zarya (Adams) and Mike Plessas, Kashaya Adams, and Malanyon Adams and Sarah Steerman, return periodically, to augment year-round and seasonal staff with various projects and special events.
But Emandal is more than a place on the map, a destination to which families journey in the summer. Admittedly, there are redwood cabins beneath towering Douglas firs and mighty madrones, complete with cozy down quilts, a large light-filled commercial kitchen, lovely young folks working diligently, a flower infused vegetable garden, farm animals, chairs in the shade of the old apple trees, hammocks in which to lie, star studded night-time skies, shapely rocks on which to enjoy the summer sun, or from which to jump into the cool clear water of the Eel River, and colorful lines of laundry along the fence, waving in the afternoon breeze.
Emandal is an attitude. Emandal goes beyond playing in the river or putting on campfire skits or triumphing in Trivial Pursuit. It's community... it's sharing the load of everyday life... acknowledging the struggles and pitfalls, embracing the joys and the milestones. Generations of families... generations of friends, have been coming to Emandal each summer for over 100 years, always learning just a bit more about the other, finding out, perhaps, why we are the way we are.
(Please see 100 Things We Love About Emandal)
