Exploring Dutch Flat, the Tahoe-area town that raised Gavin Newsom

When California Gov. Gavin Newsom named his son Dutch in 2016, it wasn’t because he had some unknown affinity for the Netherlands. Dutch Newsom, the governor’s youngest, was named for Dutch Flat, for Dutch Flat, California, a tiny Sierra Nevada town off Interstate 80 about an hour from Lake Tahoe.

After his parents divorced and his father moved to Dutch Flat, Gavin Newsom grew up predominantly in the Bay Area with his mom, but he visited his dad over the summers and built a lifelong connection to the mountain town. Newsom went as far as to reportedly say if he could only spend time in one place in California, it would be the quaint Sierra Nevada village. 

But Dutch Flat, whose history is as central to California as that of Newsom’s family, doesn’t appear to share the same affinity for the governor. In fact, in 2022, the community voted against the governor by a huge margin.

Like many towns in the area, Dutch Flat was founded during the Gold Rush and boomed in the years that followed. But unlike most of those other towns, Dutch Flat has never been leveled by wildfires, meaning it looks much the way it would have in the 1850s.

The cemetery includes tombstones from before the Civil War and the community center is at least 164 years old. At the general store, which is the only place in town to buy groceries, a sign overlooking the porch lists every owner since 1854.

The most impressive of these historic buildings is the Dutch Flat Hotel. Built two years after California became a state, the hotel features nine unique rooms, stunning mountain views and a certain gravitas that comes with having witnessed some of the most foundational moments in California history.

“When you come in here, you can feel what has transpired here and all the history,” said Wendy Lowery, who purchased the hotel with her husband Leif in 2021. “To think that [former governor and university founder] Leland Stanford was here and [railroad tycoon and infamous Nob Hill resident Charles] Crocker were all trying to figure out the railroad at one time, and they stayed here. They were here.”

Given its advanced age, many take for granted that the Dutch Flat Hotel is haunted. The ghost of a young girl supposedly roams one of the upstairs rooms. (All reports say she’s friendly.) Visitors come to the hotel with the specific hope that they’ll come across the paranormal. 

Lowery described one guest who was positive they’d proven the ghost’s existence when they heard their room door lock by itself. Little did the guest know, the doors lock automatically and can be controlled by Bluetooth.

While I was speaking with Lowery about the ghosts, two guests arrived whom she had to show to their rooms. 

When she returned to the interview, she had a smile on her face. “They just asked me, ‘Can you be honest, is this place haunted?’” beamed Lowery.

Truckee is about 45 miles away on the other side of the Sierra and for most Tahoe-area tourist attractions, whiteout conditions on I-80 can be a death knell for tourism. But these conditions create an golden opportunity for the Dutch Flat Hotel. 

“As soon as the freeway closes on 80 we’re filled within 15 minutes,” said Lowery. 

When the interstate closes in both directions, travelers need to check their phones and make instant hotel reservations to avoid sleeping in their cars. At times like these, the Dutch Flat Hotel does its best to accommodate as many I-80 refugees as possible, even if some have to crash in sleeping bags in the lobby. 

Lowery and her team keep the heat on and provide meals throughout blizzards, even if they lose power and need to resort to using a generator. During last winter’s record snows, Lowery says some guests were stranded at the hotel for as many as five nights. 

Last winter’s storms weren’t the first time the hotel was used as an evacuation center. During the Mosquito Fire in 2022, the Lowerys invited friends and neighbors to shelter at the Dutch Flat Hotel until evacuation orders were lifted.

Lowery said she believes Gavin Newsom’s fondness for the place played a role. 

“They all say because of the governor, they pulled planes off [the Mosquito Fire] for [the Dutch Fire] because it’s his favorite town,” said Lowery. “I’ve figured out that a lot of people’s insurance policy is the governor.”

Judge William Newsom, known to everyone I talked to in town simply as Bill, was appointed to the Placer County Superior Court in 1975 and became a fixture in the area until his death in 2018. 

“He always gave a job to the locals. He was always just into the community, really into the community,” said Heidi Schiavone, who lives in town.

Although his father was revered in Dutch Flat, Gavin’s reputation is more complicated. 

“I think Placer County is one of the most Republican counties in the state,” Lowery said.

A Facebook group for the local Republican Party is filled with negative memes of Newsom, likening him to a communist dictator or the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Many in town are opposed to BATs (Bay Area Transplants, a local term) in general, and see Gavin as an extreme example. A resounding 67.9% of voters in the Dutch Flat precinct voted against Newsom in the 2022 gubernatorial election. Those results came barely a year after 57.4% of voters in Placer County voted for his recall in 2021. 

But the governor has supporters throughout the mountain area, including Alli Miskimen, whose family has owned the Monte Vista Inn for over 50 years. “Personally, I want him to be president one day,” she said. 

Miskimen has a personal reason to support the Newsom family, whom she counts as close personal friends. In 2019, she was in a serious car accident and through her connections with Hilary Newsom, Gavin’s sister, Miskimen saw a top Bay Area doctor. She credits this aid with keeping her alive.

“She saved my life,” Miskimen said of Hilary Newsom. “And he was the same, her dad was the same.”

Recently, members in the Dutch Flat community have dug into the past to uncover a forgotten population that was integral to starting the Sierra town.

Schiavone, who volunteers with Dutch Flat’s Golden Drift Museum, explained that there’s an effort to connect with descendents of some of the town’s lesser-known original residents.

During the Gold Rush era, Chinese immigrants made up a large percentage of Dutch Flat’s population. 

Thousands of Chinese immigrants came to build the Central Pacific Railroad and lived in Dutch Flat, forming a sizable community in the mountains. 
Few official records of these workers exist but a group of activists and historians with connections to San Francisco Chinatown are working to tell their stories. They uncovered a Chinese cemetery in Dutch Flat and are inviting descendents of Dutch Flat’s original Chinese population to visit.

“We hope to see our history rebuilt in Dutch Flat,” Ding Lee, a board member of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association and San Francisco Chinatown activist, told the San Francisco Standard in December.

“On the Fourth of July, we had an increase, a huge Chinese presence [at the community celebration],” Schiavone said. “I’m kind of proud of Dutch Flat because this redneck town just made this big push to acknowledge them.”

As I headed out on Sacramento Street back to I-80, I admired Dutch Flat for recognizing some of its most important former residents. But it’s unclear if the town will ever do the same for its local-boy governor.