Merrill John Bates

1928 - 2025

Merrill John Bates

Dec. 18, 1928 July 03, 2025

On July 3, 2025, Merrill Bates, age 96, died peacefully in the California Hot Springs home in which he was born.

He was the youngest of eight children, five girls and three boys.

Merrill's father, Earl Bates, purchased land and moved the family from Delano to California Hot Springs in

1922 where he started his Mountain Home Dairy business. Merrill remembered working alongside his father

at the age of 4 years and continued to be a lifelong hard worker. He often spoke of getting up at 3:30 a.m. To milk cows before high school and then milking again at night finishing his day about 7pm.

During his sophomore year of high school, Merrill was sent to the principals office for throwing a spit-wad.

The principle said, Merrill, I am glad to see you. Here is a Drivers Training Book. Start studying. You will be

driving the school bus next year. This was during World War II and the older boys and men were off to war.

Merrill was only sixteen and too young to drive in town but he drove the area rural students into Terra Bella

where they transferred onto a bus driven by a pretty girl who was a few years older named Mary Lou Hart.

At age 18, he married that pretty bus driver and soon started a family. In addition to milking cows and

irrigating the pastures, Merrill worked at the local tungsten mine on Deer Creek in the Hot Springs area. When the tungsten mine close he obtained a TD9 Alis Chambers bull-dozer as part of his back wages. He began working for local ranchers building fire breaks, ponds, and roads.

Merrill's father died in 1961 and Merrill soon sold the 85 dairy cows. In the early-to-mid 1960s, the U.S. Forest Service hired Merrill to clear the local ridges. He also cleared winter snow from the county roads in his community first with a Ford Tractor, then with a Scout pickup truck with blade and eventually with a

Caterpillar motor grader.

In 1967, Merrill joined with Robert Leslie of Porterville to create a partnership named Bates and Leslie

Construction. Bobs sons and relatives became the heart of the work crew as did Merrill's nephews. The

partnerships first project was to rebuild many roads in Tulare County that washed out during the big flood of December 1966.

It was about 1969 that he built the roads for the Forest Service Uhl station at Pine Flat. Merrill built the roads in the Pine Mountain development of the nearby community of Pine Flat. Soon, he began contracting with the U.S. Forest Service

Sierra Forest Products lumbermill in Terra Bella contracted with Bates & Leslie to create roads in Sequoia, Sierra, Stanislaus, and El Dorado National Forests in preparation for harvesting of trees for lumber. A relationship with Glen Duysen at the lumbermill resulted in over 35 years of road-building in our local forests.

Work for the mill was performed on a handshake and verbal agreement such was the trust between them.

After partner and dear friend, Bob Leslie, died, Merrill partnered with his own son, Dan Bates forming Bates Construction. His deceased partners family, especially Bob, Jr. and Andy Leslie continued to be essential to the operation. Bates Construction built campgrounds, trail heads, bridges and other forest infrastructure in addition to other public and private contracts until retiring the business in 2019 when Merrill was age 91.

Bates & Leslie, and later Bates Construction, had completed projects from east of Escondido in the Cleveland National Forest to east of Sacramento on the El Dorado National Forest, and in the National Parks from Death Valley to Kings Canyon.

In 1989, Merrill and Dan Bates built a hydroelectric facility on the California Hot Springs ranch. They sold

power to the Southern California Edison public utility for 30 years.

Merrill' s wife, Mary Lou, was an important part of his business success. She preceded him in death in 2009.

Merrill and Mary Lou's oldest daughter, Linda, also predeceased him as did his siblings Velma Clark Baxter, Altha Martinez, Rogers Bates (who died in infancy), Mattie Brooks, Carl Bates, Earlene McBride and Alice Dent

Clayton. Daughter, Helen and husband, Allan Hambleton, live on the Sunshine Coast in Australia. Daughter, Janice and husband, Jon Fike, live in North Carolina and son, Dan, and wife, Debbie Bates, live at California Hot Springs, California. Merrill lived to see great-great grandchildren.

Merrill loved the mountains. He enjoyed operating the bull dozer, big wheeled loaders, backhoes, and excavators. He was especially adept with the excavator. Like many of his peers, he did not attend college, but he was a natural engineer. He was gifted with being able to think outside the box and find solutions for

difficult engineering problems.

The family learned from Merrill to work hard. He had a philosophy of doing whatever needed to be done immediately, never putting things off for a rainy day. But he did make time to travel to Canada on fishing trips with friends. He and Mary Lou traveled to Australia, New Zealand, and Canada and cruised through the Caribbean Islands and the Panama Canal as well as sailing to the San Juan Islands off of Washington State.

Merrill Bates had a long and productive life. He will be missed by his family and friends.

To sign Merrill John Bates online Register book or leave a message of condolence go to

www.portervillefuneral.com. For additional information, contact Porterville Funeral & Cremation Center at

(559) 784-6485.