Who Built The Vault?

Henry Watkins Laugenour never did anything by halves. His business interests spanned from starting a wool company, mercantile stores, a bank, touring America with his daughter who swam across the Golden Gate expanse, photography for newspapers, movie making, and being one of the youngest politicians.

In 1890, at the age of 21, Henry set his sights on the town of Dunnigan. Construction of the town's first mercantile and bank began. By January 1st, 1892, the store building and bank vault construction were completed.

The vault was built using the highest standards of the time to withstand fire and theft, with 2' thick brick walls containing the hollow interior known as dead-air along with a steel magnesium door. Henry spared no expense.

On January 15th, 1892, The Laugenour Mercantile containing one of the largest stocks of merchandise in the State opened its doors, along with Dunnigan's first bank, The Laugenour Banking Company, which began with a deposit by Henry himself for the amount of $100,000.

Shortly thereafter, in September of 1892, Henry sold his mercantile and bank to his brother, Phillip T. Laugenour, who was a well-known Yolo and Colusa County businessman and banker. He and his wife, Kate Jones, also built the Dunnigan Union Church in 1894 which stands on the same road as the vault.

Less than a decade later, on March 4th, 1898, the mercantile store containing merchandise owned by Phillip Laugenour and Mr. S. Rummelsberg caught fire. It began with smoke in a basement room that the store clerk slept in. The store clerk was Mr. S. Rummelsberg's brother, Mose.

Despite a frantic effort to dowse the flames by the townspeople, the business was a total loss. Neighboring businesses were, however, spared from the fire. Amazingly the bank transaction logbooks and money in the vault were unharmed and didn't even smell of smoke.

Today, over 100 years later, the vault stands as an anomaly in the small town of Dunnigan and is often mistaken for an oven or a jail. Despite a few crumbling edges and loose bricks, the vault is a historical testament to its builders, having withstood a building burning down all around it, and is a reminder that Dunnigan once had a business district on Main Street. 

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