Johnson's Pass on the Lincoln Highway

T.C Wohlbrück took this 1920s photograph of the Echo Summit Lodge at Johnson’s Pass, El Dorado County. Wohlbrück was not only a photographer but was an entrepreneur as well. He was one of, if not the first person to set up what we would call today, gas station mini-marts. He called them “Cantina’s,” and he had three of them to his name. The first one built at Emigrant Gap, the second he established in 1922 at Echo Summit, and the third at Donner Memorial Park in Truckee.

The spectacular view from the lodge veranda.

In the early days of automobile travel, cars were unreliable and needed regular water, oil, and gas supplies. As more people ventured out exploring the summit areas in their autos, T. C. saw an opportunity to supply travelers with the necessities for their automobiles, food, and souvenirs. This spot, which was historic as the summit of Johnsons' Pass on Meyers Grade, made a great stop to get supplies and admire the spectacular view of Lake Tahoe. Wohlbrück offered food, rooms, cabins, souvenirs, and postcards which featured his photography.

A close up of the proceeding photograph shows the signs attached to a directional device. “Please Register at Lodge” and “Make your postcards from the top of the world, Echo Summit…”

The photograph shows the lodge as approached from the west. Immediately after the lodge, the road drops down a steep and twisting portion of Meyers Grade towards Lake Tahoe. While looking at the photograph through a magnifier, I noticed the sign on the right, which is a Lincoln Highway sign, guiding the traveler along the "highway."

When the State of California built the Highway 50 expressway, it bypassed this historic spot for the current route around Echo Summit. The business soon declined, and in 1952 The Alpine club purchased the lodge and still runs it today. There is a new Lincoln Highway sign, which still stands, attached to the building by the stairs.

A closer view of the Lincoln Highway sign.

Auburn railroad crossing gets a new addition

The bridge is newer, but there has been a railroad over-crossing at El Dorado Road and Highway 49/193 in Auburn since 1905! Monica and I spent part of Tuesday painting the Lincoln Highway "L" on both ends of the span. The California Chapter of The Lincoln Highway Association (CLHA) uses signs and these stencils to mark the path of the old road, just as it would have been done from 1914 to 1928.

Monica stands in front of the recently completed “L” at the east side of the under-pass.

The CLHA has recently painted other railroads over-crossings, including the 1910 Newcastle tunnel on Old State Highway, two crossings in Applegate, one each at Heather Glen, Weimar, Secret Town, and the South Yuba Bridge at Cisco Grove, and finally one at Donner Summit. The Stenciled "L's" goes along with our Historic Lincoln Highway signs you will notice along the old road. Be sure to check them out when you drive by.

The same over-crossing, looking west. The Wagon is headed up Lincoln Way.

Middle support facing east.

The following picture shows the same underpass but looking north from the west side.

“DANGER SLOWDOWN TOOT. TOOT.”

Where is the driver?

How can you find and follow the Lincoln Highway? Besides the signs and stencils the Lincoln Highway Association publishes a Google interactive map showing the route accross the country. Just keep zooming in until your at the area your interested in. Map can be found here.

Lincoln Highway 106 years old today!

October 31, 1913, 106 years ago today, the Lincoln Highway was formally dedicated. It was America’s first transcontinental highway, stitching together a single route across the country from hundreds of local roads. Before the Lincoln Highway, if you wanted to cross the US, you were on your own. Now, with this new highway, you could follow the red, white and blue, signs with the big “L” from Times Square in New York to the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

Looks like these guys had to dig the hole!

Eventually, the Lincoln Highway was replaced with a numbered highway system in 1926, with Highway 30 covering much of the route, and other number highways, like 50 and 40, replacing it in California. The Lincoln Highway Association, which was created to promote the idea of the road, now performed its final act on September 1st, 1928. Boy Scouts across the nation erected 2,400 concrete markers at sites along the route to officially mark and dedicate it to the memory of Abraham Lincoln. At the same time, 4000 metal signs were placed to guide the motorist.

A replica marker at Donner Summit.

“These markers were placed on the outer edge of the right of way at major and minor crossroads, and at reassuring intervals along with uninterrupted segments. Each particular post carried the Lincoln Highway insignia and directional arrow, as well as a bronze medallion with Lincoln's bust stating, 'This Highway Dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.'"

Then and now, along the old Lincoln Highway in Penryn

These photographs are over one-hundred years apart. This scene is along the 1914 alignment of the Lincoln Highway near Penryn, looking east. The old home on Sisley Drive is still there, though there is a newer home and some construction taking place on the property. It does look like the house might be preserved. The road out front is made up of that beautiful large aggregate we see in many sections of the Lincoln Highway.

Today along Siley Road.

It's hard to imagine that this was once the primary way into California carrying transcontinental and local traffic for years. Must have been quite a sight to watch all those cars driving by. Not as busy these days.

Sierra Summit-Truckee Highway

I am trying to place the location of this photograph. While I assume it’s near Donner Summit on the Lincoln Highway, the exact location baffles me. You can see part of the road below right, snaking it’s way up. Are we headed up to the auto subway under the tracks? Below is a closer view of the auto.

A close-up view of the photo above.

Lincoln Highway map of possible location.

Photo’s from: “McCarthy Album 04, Photograph 010,” California State Archives Exhibits, accessed September 30, 2019, http://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/items/show/4075.

Summit of the Sierra

A great 1915 photo from the William M McCarthy collection at the California State Archives. Titled, “Summit of the Sierras," it shows two sets of railroad tracks, which indicates this is not Donner Summit, as all the tracks there were covered. Is this the Yuba Pass area?

The fun in these old photographs is often in zooming in to see the detail. They are hard to see otherwise, but once we look more closely we can see a couple of buildings set up against the snow sheds. Must have been for workers on the railroad to enter and leave without actually going outside into the snow. Just to the left of the buildings, I have marked what appears to be an automobile subway under the tracks and snow sheds. This subway is just like the one at Donner Summit, so perhaps this will help us to identify this location. Zoomable photo here.

“McCarthy Album 07, Photograph 266,” California State Archives Exhibits, accessed September 29, 2019, http://exhibits.sos.ca.gov/items/show/9290.

Trout Creek bridge date

While visiting the Lincoln Highway in South Lake Tahoe we stopped to see the Trout Creek bridge. Located just off Pioneer and Golden Bear Trail sit’s a lonely bridge that serves no purpose other than to arouse our curiosity.

Trout Creek bridge looking west.

You must stop and park on Golden Bear Trail to see the bridge. There is also a Trails West “T” at the corner marker telling us this route was also the old Johnson’s Cut-Off Trail from the 1850’s. The bridge use to cross Trout Creek, but the creek has been diveretd and now passes under the curent bridge on Pioneer Trail.

Trout Creek use to pass under here.

While checking out the mortor between the stones we found some writing which told us the mortor was applied in 1907! There are also some other letters, “I C L A M”? Perhaps those are the masons initials? We don’t know.

Found! 1923 alignment of the Lincoln Highway.

Just past Pacific House on Highway 50 Monica and I recorded a section of old roadbed that we believed was at the old Highway 50, and possibly the Lincoln Highway. There is an easy to pull off turnout at the Eldorado National Forest sign where we started to hike the old roadbed.

Monica on the roadbed. We are facing west. Highway 50 to the right and below.

Headed east we were able to walk about 300 yards where the road drops downhill and seems to merge onto the present freeway. Across the highway, we could see where the trail again continued, so we were confident this was the old highway.

We then walked as far as we could west, to just about 50 yards past the Eldorado National Forest sign. There is a large amount of debris piled there so that we couldn't go further. Headed back down to the truck we walked just a few yards up the expressway where Monica spotted a concrete culvert going under the old roadbed.

Map showing where the alignment is, red line.

We decided to get a closer look at the culvert to see if there were any markings on it. Walking down towards the entrance, I could see numbers stamped into the top portion of the culvert. There, under some moss that had grown on the top, was the date, 1923. This road was the Lincoln Highway! The Lincoln ceased to exist as a name when the freeways were given numbers in 1928, in this case creating Highway 50.

So, all in all, it was a productive day spent looking for and finding an old alignment of The Lincoln Highway in the Eldorado National Forest.

Highway 50 at Twin Bridges

This photograph shows the newly completed road near Twin Bridges that bypassed “Slippery-Ford” and the wooden bridges that crossed the American River there. The older road use to pass between Lovers Leap and the large rock at the right, taking what was called at the time, the Swan-Henry toll road. This new road, built-in 1931 bypassed the Swan-Henry toll road, then called the Lincoln Highway in favor of passing to the right of the large rock at right. This is the road we use today.

Looking the opposite direction, towards Pyramid Falls. Title: [Horse Tail Falls]

[1930] Collection: California History Section Picture Catalog Owning Institution: California State Library Permalink: https://calisphere.org/item/fbc9e08a35e687f91d3111c5856ce3c7/

Whitehall on the Lincoln Highway

Whitehall is located just two miles east of Riverton near the American River. In the 1910s, Bert Randall owned Whitehall and boasted "the best-kegged beer on the great turnpike." That turnpike became the Lincoln Highway from 1913 until 1928, when highways officially lost their names and were given numbers, becoming Highway 50. The building had a "club room" lobby on the first floor and sleeping quarters on the second floor. Randall became the postmaster, and the stop was known as Randall's for a while.

The dilapidated "Whitehall" building we see today resulted from a remodel in 1935 by Mr. and Mrs. Virgil Jones. The fully renovated and modernized Whitehall had a new lunch and cocktail room, a large dining room overlooking the river, and a dance floor that would hold 30 couples.