Welcome to the online home of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows of California’s only official degree lodge, Richard Brouse #190.
Sometimes called “the cave degree” the site known as the Pythian cave sits about 12 miles southeast of the town of Yreka, with a view onto Mount Shasta. The Independent Order of Odd Fellows have been performing live degrees at this location since 1940, with only a few short interruptions.
Named for Richard “Dick” Brouse, our lodge honors a former Department Commander of California for the Patriarchs Militant (an IOOF side order), and long-time champion of live degrees at the cave. Since his retirement, the cave was passed from Yreka #19 to the Grand Lodge of California, which, together with the generous donations of many Odd Fellows throughout the state, has restored the cave and prepared it to hold degree work once again. We believe that it’s exactly what Dick Brouse would have wanted.
Degree work began at the cave in 1925 under the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal order that originally used the cave as their meeting hall before they set up a building in Yreka proper. The KoP eventually permitted the Odd Fellows to use the cave for their own degree work, and in 1962 sold it and the surrounding acres of land to the Odd Fellows for a sum of $10, with the arrangement that the Knights could continue using it each year for their own degree work. The site gained further fraternal activity when the Masons were permitted to use it for their own degree work as well.
The 2026 degree weekend will go from Friday September 25th through Sunday September 27th. All four Odd Fellow degrees will be offered, along with other events, including an “Odd Ball” dance Friday evening, the Rebekah Degree, an Encampment Degree, and other activities to be announced as we get closer to the event. Itinerary is on the registration page.
Each year in the summer, the Odd Fellows arrange a degree weekend here near the California-Oregon border. The Initiatory and first degrees take place indoors at the Yreka #19 lodge building, and then the second degree is conferred from the cave itself. This ceremony happens at a different date each year, timed to coincide with the moon’s rise over Mount Shasta, bathing the degree candidates in moonlight as they learn the sacred teachings of the second degree, also called the degree of brotherly love. The following morning, the third degree is conferred on qualified candidates, and then everyone heads home, newly taught in the principles of our Order.
In 2024, our new degree lodge was formally chartered, and the cave’s reconstruction celebrated, in a special ceremony on Friday August 16th.
The first degrees for Richard Brouse #190 were conferred on the weekend of August 17-18. Moonrise was Saturday August 17th at 7:15PM. The air was recently cleared of smoke, thanks to an unexpected shower a few hours earlier. Roughly an hour later, with the moon almost directly above Mount Shasta (though hidden by lingering rain clouds), Odd Fellows from California and Oregon began filling the cave. With total darkness held at bay by our electric candles and artificial stage lights, we performed the second degree much like the Odd Fellows have been doing since 1940. 22 Candidates received their second degree that night.
Since then, we’ve held additional degree weekends in September of 2024 and September 2025. In 2025, we decided to call the degree weekend “Odd Con”, with the idea that beyond the degrees themselves, we can take advantage of the talents of our members to do even more special experiences with the people who take the time to join us in this magical place. In 2025, our Odd Con included a dance (appropriately named the “Odd Ball”), member training sessions, degree work in the Rebekah and Encampment degrees, and even a live episode of the Three Links Odd Cast by our member Toby Hanson.
For 2026, we’ll be bringing back the dance, the Rebekah Degree (hosted by Philotesian Rebekah Lodge #145), the Encampment degree (hosted by Barnes Encampment #77), and adding in some new things we’ve never tried before. We’re still learning what Odd Con can be, and we’re eager to welcome members and lodges to participate with us in one of the most impressive and exciting traditions of California (and Oregon) Odd Fellowship.