The rest of the story

Not to long ago I wrote about the history of Silverline Ranch and ended the letter asking the question, “Why did the President of In-N-Out Burger visit El Dorado Springs.

Many years ago, during the late 70’s and the early 80’s, I was a General Engineering Contractor in Baldwin Park, CA, (a suburb of Los Angeles) specializing in site development. I was privileged to have been the exclusive site developer for In-N-Out.

In-N-Out Burger at that time had their own building crew, which required a  “B” General Builders contractors license. They had this type of license to do the concrete slab and build a building.

They could not do site development, which required an “A” General Engineering contractor’s license.

With an “A” license I could build a Hoover Dam but not a dog house.

That said, I was doing a large site development job for Richie Snyder, President of In-N-Out Burger,  for his personal new house lot, doing some demo work, site clearing, and building him a dirt pad  for his crew to build him a new home.

One day, Richie drove up to the lot to check on the progress. I told him I was going to take a week off to go on vacation. He asked where I was going. I said Missouri. He then asked, where in Missouri. I said El Dorado Springs. To my surprise he said “I’ve been there.“

He, on occasion, visited a long time family friend and former neighbor in West Covina, CA, the late Dr. Finch (who later moved from El Dorado Springs to Arizona).

That’s why the President of In-N-Out Burger visited El Dorado Springs, MO.

As Paul Harvey use to say, “And now you know the rest of the story.“

Loren Wells