OAKHURST, Calif. — Holli Martinez owns a gift shop in the central Sierra Nevada community of Oakhurst.
Her business, “7 Rivers Pickers,” is stacked floor to ceiling with hoodies, dresses, mugs and stickers.
She said it's like all the mall stores combined. There’s even an area with a bunch of guitars.
On a recent day, as Martinez hummed to music playing over the shop’s speakers, she proclaimed Oakhurst is the real “gateway to Yosemite.”
Just a 15 mile drive north, Yosemite National Park is visible on much of the merchandise in her store. Iconic images like Half Dome and El Capitan are stamped on the clothing and cups and mugs fully stocked on the shop’s racks and shelves.
Recently, a new landmark became the focus for her merchandise.
Over the last few months, locals in Oakhurst took a liking to a dirt pile that sat in the parking lot of a shopping center.
People named it “Mount Chipotle,” because it sat next to a Chipotle restaurant.
The lot’s owner, Mitch Eisner, told KVPR he had been waiting for the right weather to truck the dirt away. Eisner doesn’t know exactly how long it sat there, but he estimates at least a year.
But before he could get rid of the dirt, it had taken on a life of its own. It quickly rose to fame.
Martinez and her husband saw an opportunity, and started printing merchandise with the image of the dirt proudly displayed as a tough mountain. Orders started coming in for Mount Chipotle T-shirts from across the country.
“I was like, ‘How did you even hear about this,” Martinez said, about the phone calls. “‘Well, you didn't know? It's on, Good Morning America!’”
A legend is born
The frenzy over Mount Chipotle hasn’t ended, even as the dirt pile has been reduced back to a simple parking lot. People gave it meaning, and still think of it as something bigger than their town.
Mount Chipotle was originally born from a series of short stories posted to Facebook in early December. Larry Townsend, a longtime resident wrote the first one.
In one entry, Townsend wrote: “Now that I’m 70, it’s time to cross off some items on my bucket list. Tops is to climb the mountain… Not only was I going to climb it, but I was going to free solo it and do it with no oxygen cylinders!”
Townsend was comparing Mount Chipotle to summits like Mount Everest. He did get to climb the 20-foot mound. He even planted an American flag when he reached the peak.
After him, the idea became a sensation.
“It was like a tongue in cheek thing… and everybody got into it, and the result, the comments, were just wonderful,” Townsend told KVPR.
A Christmas tree was set up on the mound. A concert was held at its base. People took home jars of its dirt. And what’s a legend without a country song? One was written for Mount Chipotle.
Kristina McCarty took it one more step. She decided to spread her brother’s ashes when she stood on top of “the mountain.” She said he would’ve been over the moon to see it.
“My brother was very much against stuff,” McCarty said. “He was more about experiences and memories and he would have just lost his mind over this.”
McCarty has lived in Oakhurst almost all her life. She said Mount Chipotle brought back the kinship of a small town that had seemed to wither away during an election year.
“I think a lot of people are on edge, just all the time and it doesn't matter if it's a town that only has 13,000 people or a town that has 1,300 people,” she said.
A community asks: What should we take on next?
For all of the fun and special memories that were built around Mount Chipotle, the fact that it’s now gone has left an even bigger meaning.
Martinez, the shop owner, says the dirt pile sparked unity.
“Just because we have different political views, doesn't mean we're not all humans, and we all have a lot in common,” she said. “We can leave the politics behind and have a common goal and work together to achieve that.”
Martinez said she continues to sell Mount Chipotle shirts.
But she doesn’t just see it as extra revenue. She said it created a connection among her neighbors, and even tourists who visit the town of Oakhurst.
“It brought a lot of people here that had never even known we were here,” Martinez said.
Now there’s a new name for the site where Mount Chipotle once stood. Townsend said people have started to call it “Chipotle Flats.”
He wishes it could be a dog park, while others hope for a picnic area.
For now, he put a sign up that read “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch,” which sat on the lot after the mountain was taken away.
“If I find a mound somewhere that somebody's left behind, there will be a flag on it, there will be a new name,” he said.
Mount Chipotle also got something done. The huge mound of dirt was finally trucked away — and many were grateful for that. The mound was ugly.
Now people in town want to find the next thing they could beautify.
A few miles up Highway 41, there a giant green construction fence wraps around a rundown hotel.
McCarty said there’s chatter about linking padlocks to the fence, resembling the padlocks on bridges over the Seine river in Paris, France, which represent love.
Oakhurst is far from Paris. But the symbolism could be the same.
“[The] country is pretty divided,” McCarty said. “Things like this bring everybody together. There is no division on it.”
