Lonely Grave in the Sierra - Nature Friends Clubhouse Revisited

I paid another visit to the Nature Friends Clubhouse on November 17, 2008. The main reason for the visit were repeated rumors about a photo album allegedly containing pictures of Anna and Konrad Rettenbacher somewhere in the Clubhouse. I also wanted to see if there were any notes or addresses related to the mysterious "Mrs. J. H. Fox", the only American relative of the Rettenbachers at the time of the accident. Finally, I wanted to know if Jules Eichorn, or any other Eichorns, were members of the Naturfreunde, which could then shed new light on why Jules was in the Minarets area at the time of the Rettenbacher search in 1934.

On all three fronts, the results were negative. Oliver Steinfels, who takes care of the Clubhouse, discovered several photo albums, but none was from the right era. Nobody with the name Fox was registered in the main membership ledger, and similarly, no Eichorns were among past or present Club members.

But one of the notebooks in the Clubhouse library contained handwritten minutes of the Nature Friends official meetings in the period between the two wars, and it proved to be a mine of information about the Rettenbachers' accident and the trauma that it caused. Nature Friend members needed a closure, and found it in organizing a large gathering at the Rettenbachers' grave in the year following the accident. Here are paragraphs from the notebook related to Konrad and Anna.

Minutes of the Nature Friends meetings, 1934-1935

Executive Meeting of [Monday] Aug 13th 1934

New Business (page 119 in the ledger)

President Bernard Schmidt explained the plight of two of our members, Mr & Mrs Conrad Rettenbacher, lost in the vicinity of Thousand Islands. Unfortunately, the Club heard nothing about their being missing until Friday [Aug 10], but a rescue party headed by Wm. Heidelmann was immediately formed.

Monthly Executive Meeting held February 12th 1935

A suggestion [is put forward] that the L. Angeles, Oakland and S. F. [branches] be united to participate in a two or three week trip to the High Sierras, starting around July 4th, when bronze tablets will be placed over the graves of Conrad and Anna Rittenbacher[!], deceased members of the Tourist Club. Details should be gotten and brought up at each meeting to create enthusiasm amongst members.

Executive Meeting held May 14th 1935

Report of Hiking Committee

Emphasis was made that any member taking the High Sierra trips from July 13th to 27th should start hiking every Sunday to become accustomed to the strenuous hiking of the big trip.

Executive Meeting held Tuesday July 9th 1935

Report of Hiking Committee

There are 31 or 32 participants and 6 children leaving on the High Sierra trips Saturday July 13. There will be one main camp and besides fishing, hiking and swimming entertainment has been planned... The Sierra trip members are going to meet the Wm Hiedlemann[!] party and place the Rittenbacher[!] tablet.

Quarterly Meeting held July 28th 1935

A brief resume of the High Sierra trip was given by Aug[ust] Rohmann who also reported that services and the placing of the tablet over the Rittenbachers[!] grave was attended by the High Sierra hikers as well as by Park rangers.

Other notes about the Rettenbachers' accident

I also found two notes about the Rettenbachers' accident in the brochure by Erich Fink, "History of the San Francisco Branch of the Naturfreunde" (no date), available in the Clubhouse Reading Room. Some legends made it to those paragraphs, like the statement that Anna and Konrad were newlyweds (when actually they had been married for almost 12 years), but there are also some new bits and pieces that I didn't know before. Here is the Rettenbacher material from Erich Fink's brochure:

[page 22]:

As reported earlier, in 1934 a tragedy occurred on one of [Sierra trips] when members Konrad and Ann Rettenbacher were killed by a rockslide[?] on Mt. Banner. Heidelmann, Dick Rynders, Walter Olson, and August Rohmann helped in the search. The bodies were laid to rest on a high mountain meadow between Banner and Davis peaks.

[page 14]:

August Rohmann in the 1930s took a group to Mt. Banner. There is a photo of the hardy climbers gathered around a metal plaque embedded in granite at the foot of Mt. Banner from which a year earlier [1934] two young Nature Friends members fell to their deaths just a few weeks after they had been married[!]. Konrad and Ann Rettenbacker[!] are two Nature Friend mountain climbers buried in the High Sierras. Several dozen Naturfreunde stood at the gravesite. Bernard Fischer played his cornet and the gathered group sang the old German songs in memory of the two young alpinists who found themselves suddenly in a grave in the mountains of California far away from their homeland.