Northern California pioneer Levi Tower holds a peach tree branch from his orchard.

Levi H. Tower came to northern California with the rush of 49ers looking for gold in the spring of 1850. His interests strayed from gold and he claimed a parcel of land at the confluence of four streams where he built a three-story 21 room hotel. The Tower House hotel became well regarded for its accommodations, in part due to the fresh food provided by the extensive vegetable gardens, grape vines, and orchards planted by Tower. The orchards were reported to have over 1,000 trees including apples, pears, plums, cherries, nectarines, and the first peaches planted in California north of Sacramento. By the late 1850s the Tower House had become a California Stage Company stop and was regional center of transportation, communications, and politics. The area's importance waned with the arrival of the mainline California-Oregon Railroad in the nearby city of Redding, and the hotel would be lost in a fire in 1919. Today, the Tower House site is part of a Historic District in Whiskeytown National Recreation Area. Several historic structures remain including the Camden House, which was built by his sister Philena's husband Charles Camden in 1852, and an extensive network of water ditches that were used for both mining and irrigation. One of the original ditches is still in use today and delivers water to fruit trees that continue to persevere in the historic orchard. Today, visitors can still sample an heirloom apple from a tree over 100 years old during Whiskeytown National Recreation Area's annual harvest festival.