Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Owners Of Ono Store Property Lament History, Way Of Life Lost To Zogg Fire

Andre Byik

Lennie Copeland and Tom Smith, owners of the property that used to be the Ono Store and International Café, are facing something that is becoming more and more familiar to residents of the North State.

 

“Not much is left,” Copeland said. “What didn’t burn melted. I see devastation. I see everything we ever had is melted or broken or twisted and not repairable. A lot of it is not replaceable. This was a historic store and a lot of this stuff dates back to the gold rush days. That’s irreplaceable.”

 The Ono Store was a local hangout until Copeland and Smith turned it into their residence about five years ago. They kept much of the store’s collection of historic items — almost all of which were destroyed in the Zogg Fire.

 

“People keep saying, ‘Oh that’s replaceable, that’s replaceable,’” she said. “Well it’s not, unless you have lots of money. And we don’t have lots of money.”

 

The Ono Store and International Café was a piece of living history. Copeland thinks it opened around 1947.

 

“It was a place where the gold miners came, lumber people, agriculture. This wall here, actually 2-3 walls and the ceiling, was covered with antiques from those days,” she said. “There were gigantic saws from the lumberjacks, pans for panning, all kinds of antiques are now gone. And everybody from around here came to the Ono Store, drinking beer, eating our famous hamburgers. It was a getting-together place for everybody in this community.”

 

Smith and Copeland say their cat, Meow, perished in the fire. They don’t know what comes next, except that they don’t plan to rebuild where the store once stood.  

 

“I’ll tell you the worst part of it is not the loss of stuff, but the loss of a way of life — a familiarity, a routine,” she said. “Every day we’d wake up and we had our routine, play with the cat, have orange juice and muffins, let the cat out, water the yard, one thing after the other was our routine and now we don’t have a way of life anymore.”