Kilkenny Family, Inc. (aka Kilkenny Hunting Club, Inc.) is a non-profit corporation which was formed to maintain family ownership of 791 acres of undeveloped land in the Mendocino National Forest in remote northern Lake County. It has no other assets than those related to this property. Shares/memberships are owned exclusively by direct descendants of Anthony and Catherine Kilkenny who farmed and raised their nine sons in rural Solano County. He died in 1886 and she died in 1921.

 

The Property

 

The Lake County property is known as Big Squaw Valley and was purchased in 1907 by Catherine Kilkenny for a ten dollar gold piece. She acquired it as a place for her 30 year old bachelor son, Martin, who had tuberculosis, to live away from the bad air of the great valley. He died there the next year. The property was retained by the family although its occasional rental as a place to graze cattle did not always pay the taxes. As transportation improved it was, on occasion, used as a deer hunting camp. In the 1930’s such use increased to an annual basis. It now is visited 20 or 30 times a year by a variety of family members and their friends. The one-room cabin on it and the greater part of the whole area burned in a 1944 forest fire. The facility was rebuilt over the following ten years to the state it is in today. It is a rustic camp without any utility hook—ups to the outside. It is comprised of a two-room cooking and eating cabin, two one-room sleeping cabins, and two outside sleeping porches. It has a spring-water storage tank and service from it to a single shower and flush toilet, and to the cook shack. Its rustic nature has been deliberately maintained over the years.

 

Ownership In 1949 the remaining sons of Anthony and Catherine, the oldest being 79 years old, incorporated ownership as a non-profit entity so that the property could be retained and used for recreational purposes. Forty nine (49) shares/memberships were created with 7 going to each of seven sons or their families that remained at that time. Because of the growing size of the family the shares were split four—for—one on two occasions – once in the 1970’s and again in 1994. As a result of that there are now 784 shares/memberships owned by 103 living family members with an estate pending that will increase that number to approximately 190. The number of eligible family members is 200+ and growing. Shares are only transferable to other descendants of Anthony and Catherine. Since the 1960’s, shares have been transferred only by gift or bequest. The By—Laws permit transfer by sale at a price of no more than $100 each to an eligible family member. The only transactions where shares were transferred in this manner involved three shares in the 1960’s.

 

Until 1955 costs of ownership were met by the efforts and contributions of the users plus an occasional rental of grazing rights. In 1955 the rights to take the timber were sold for about $12,000 and the timber was cut in 1960. Those funds and the interest and dividends were used for camp maintenance and costs of ownership in the years that followed. An annual assessment against ownership shares was first made in 1974. The rate in terms of the number of shares today (784) was $ 0.50 per share. The rate was increased to $ 1.25 per share in 1978, to $ 2.00 in 1988, and to $ 2.50 in 1995. At $ 2.50 per share a total of $ 1,960 per year is raised. In 1989 a professional forester was hired to oversee a timber cut and to develop a forest management plan. In 1990 approximately 50% of the marketable timber was cut for a gross return of $ 88,000 ($ 80.000 in 1990 and $ 8,000 in 1991). Also, the forest management plan was completed in 1990. As recommended in the plan thinning of the remaining growth on selected parts of the property was accomplished with the final unit being completed in 1994/95. The development of the plan and the thinning were accomplished under a program managed by the State of California whereby the State paid 75% of the costs. Total costs of this work was $ 46,670 with the State paying $ 34,419 and KFInc. paying $ 12,251. In addition to this amount, the proceeds of the 1990 timber out have been used in the following three ways: (1) to pay the costs of the timber cut, $ 11,072 for the forester’s commission and $ 2,308 to the State as timber tax; (2) for maintenance of the property, $ 5,243 for existing roads (gravelling and 2 culverts), $ 7,500 for purchase of a used replacement tractor for road maintenance, and a total of $ 6,287 in materials related to ten maintenance and replacements projects on the property in the five years of 1990 through 1994. None of the above projects has changed or upgraded the rustic nature of the camp and roads. The third use of funds was for investment, $ 15,000 in a mutual fund and the remainder in certificates of deposit which generate interest income. These savings and the income from them along with annual assessments against ownership shares and the contribution of time and effort by family members and their friends are intended to cover the costs of camp maintenance and ownership over the years until another timber cut (30 years between the two previous cuts).

 

No funds of the corporation have been or will be used for the benefit of any individual family member nor have any of these members ever been reimbursed for their services. The corporation has not had nor does not have employees nor does it hire services from anyone other than those cited above in relation to the timber harvest and thinning work.

 

Prepared by Thomas Harding, April, 1996