The Lincoln Highway, EL Dorado County, Johnson's Pass, Part 5

John Calhoun “Cock-eye” Johnson. Photo from the California State Archives.

We continue our adventure up Meyer’s Grade near Lake Tahoe on the old Lincoln Highway. This climb was the last major difficulty for emigrants in the 1850s who had come to settle in California or gather its riches and head back home. Early automobiles would often break down under the climb's strain, and reaching Johnson’s Pass was a major relief, as it was mostly downhill to Sacramento.

Johnson’s Pass is named after John Calhoun Johnson (1822 - September 13, 1876), a native of Deersville, Ohio. Johnson was the first trans-Sierra mail carrier, who delivered mail from Carson City, Nevada, to Take Tahoe, California, and continued to Hangtown, CA (Placerville, CA). Johnson used the Truckee River Route and the Carson Emigrant Trail to deliver the mail, but these were difficult trails to travel, and he started to look for another way up and over the summit. Johnsons figured if a trail could be built starting at the north end of Carson Valley and then made to go west over the mountains to Placerville, a large chunk of the Carson River Route would be “cut-off.” Johnson built that road, and it became known as Johnson’s Cut-Off Trail, saving much time and effort for travelers. It soon became the most popular route into California for emigrants and wagon trains.

We have learned that the 1913 original alignment of the Lincoln Highway often followed these old wagon routes and emigrant trails, and this was no exception. Automobiles were still a new thing in 1913, and road construction hadn’t caught up to the new-fangled horseless carriages, so they just followed the dirt trails like this one.

T.C. Wohlbrück photo showing the building at the summit before he built onto it.

Once you reached the top of the summit in 1918, this small forest service building would have greeted you. A visionary named Theodore Clemens Wohlbrück (1879–1936), known as "T.C." was a photographer who arrived in California in 1912. He realized that the new automobile and its passengers would need supplies. TC started what he called Canteen Service Stations in three locations of the Sierra Nevada, Donner Lake, Emigrant Pass, and here at Johnson’s Pass, Echo Summit. You can read more about TC and his Canteens here.

T.C. Wohlbrück photo showing the view of the Tahoe Valley from the Summit Lodge.

The view from the Summit Lodge is famous, and TC made sure to record it in the above photo. In the lower photo, we have a modern day view from the same spot.

The view from atop Johnson’s Pass at Echo Summit, CA.

TC Wohlbrück photo showing his Canteen Service Station at Johnson’s Pass.

TC Wohlbrück arranged a lease with the Forest Service to add to and develop the cabin as one of his Canteen/Service Stations. In the above photo, we can see the enlarged Canteen waiting for customers. The sign on the right mentions there is no illegal parking on the Lincoln Highway in the Eldorado National Forest. The photos of the Tahoe Basin were taken from just below the stairs, looking east.

The view from Johnson’s Pass looking east.

Pictured below is a Trails West historical “T” Markers at Johnson’s Pass. Each marker quotes from an emigrant diary about the very spot you are standing. In the next installment of our Lincoln Highway Adventure through El Dorado County, we will look around The Johnson’s Pass area and take a rare look inside the canteen.

Trail West “T” marker at Johnson’s Pass.

Map showing location and features at Johnson’s Pass.

The Lincoln Highway, Verdi, Nevada

Monica and I took a trip to Verdi, Nevada on Wednesday, hoping to catch some fall color and experience some history. Verdi is on the old emigrant route as well as the transcontinental highway. We wanted to walk a section just outside of town that features three bridges or bridge sites, two railroad lines, the Truckee River, and of course, the Lincoln Highway.

Map of Verdi showing the 1913 Lincoln Highway in blue and the second, 1925 Lincoln, in green.

View of the first bridge site crossing the railroad. Check out the old wooden railings.

In the photo above, we can see the Lincoln Highway at the right turning left towards the first wooden bridge site that spanned the first set of railroad tracks. The photo below shows the site of the second bridge over the second set of railroad tracks. We are looking north from the roadbed. You can see the railroad tracks at the bottom. Both of these rail lines are live with trains running on them. Be alert!

Second bridge site along the Lincoln Highway, Verdi, Nevada.

Irrigation canal spillway with the Lincoln Highway.

Once the yesteryear driver crossed the second wooden bridge, they would follow the road around a horseshoe bend and ford an irrigation canal spillway, as seen in the photo above. Was this canal here before of after the Lincoln Highway? We don’t know and will have to do a bit of research to find out. Once the water was crossed, a quick left turn is made, and we head for a metal Lincoln Highway era bridge crossing the Truckee River.

Once we cross the metal bridge, the old road continues for another couple hundred yards and then merges with the second generation 1925 Lincoln Highway. While most of this walk is easy enough, there is a bit of scrambling through bushes and up some banks between the first bridge site and the second bridge site.

Below is a panorama showing just how many different modes of travel Verdi has seen come its way. We are looking east while standing on the Lincoln Highway. Be sure to click the photo for a larger view.

Click the photo for a larger view!

Below is a map showing the area and the various features we have discussed.

I searched for an image of the wooden bridges across the railroad tracks and came up with very little. However, there is a YouTube video of one of the wooden bridges, which we are told burned down on July 24, 2010, at 6:30 pm, having been struck by lightning. What a shame. Below is a portion of the video showing the old bridge. Heads up, there is music at the beginning if this video which might catch you by surprise. The bridge is 20 seconds into the video, while the music stops at 40 seconds. What a shame we missed seeing these old bridges.

This is early July showing all that we have before the bridge burned, starting with a few slides, then a refer train, and a single power move. I'm not sure i...

Aerial view Auburn at the turn of the century

We are looking west above Auburn, California, at the turn of the 20th Century. While automobiles existed, they were not common at this time, and the main mode of transportation was the horse and wagon. The canyon we see at right is known as Auburn Ravine and today is buried under Interstate 80. With that in mind, we can see the original location of the Auburn Volunteer Fire Department building, with stripes, on the far right. That building was saved and now sits at its new location.

At far left we can see the old post office building and the small gazebo building that held a drinking fountain. At the top of the hill, sit’s the white Snowden House.

In the above Google Earth photo, we can see the modern-day view of the same location. The stripped firehouse building now sits in the new location. Interstate 80 dominates the right side of the view. The Snowden House still stands at the top of the hill. The railroad trestle crossing the interstate was built by Southern Pacific in 1909 and therefore does not show up in the earlier photo.

The Lincoln Highway at Meyer's, El Dorado County Part 3

Traveling from the Trout Creek Bridge, we are headed west towards the town of Meyer’s. Along the way, our Lincoln Highway map has a small truck icon along the road. Clicking the icon, we find that this was the route used in 1919 by the US Army convoy traveling from Washington DC to San Francisco.

Click map for closer view!

This convoy was an attempt by the US Army to see if it could transport men and machines across the country on the new Transcontinental Lincoln HIghway. In 1919 it was still a novelty to drive across the country, and while the convoy made it, the trip was fraught with breakdowns, poor bridge crossing, deep mud, and sand. Along for the trip was Armored Corps representative, Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower, a 28-year-old officer, and future President of the United States.

Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Photo: National Archives

There is a video record of some of the trip at the National Archives', which can be found here. When the convoy reached Meyer’s, the pioneering Celio Family, who owned much of the small town, threw a huge celebration and BBQ for the soldiers. The convoy then made the trip up Osgood’s Grade and over Johnson’s Pass.

Looking at the map above, we can see the old Osgood’s/Meyer’s Grade up to Echo Summit is closed through traffic. It’s now a popular and very steep trail on a paved surface., where we see Monica making the climb in the photo below. This was the grade everyone used to get to the south Tahoe area for 80 years, until the 1930s when the present freeway was built.

Auto’s leaked fluids much more in days’ gone by. You can see the oil streak on the road. The Celio Ranch is marked with an arrow. This is their ranch along South Upper Truckee Road. Click the photo for a closer view.

The photo above was taken by TC Wohlbrück and showed the grade looking east. This is the same section we see Monica walking on in the photo below. TC Wohlbrück was an entrepreneur who built some of the first gasoline service stations and “rest stops” in the Sierra, which he called Canteens. He built one at the top of this grade, Johnson’s Pass, and it still stands today. You can read more about TC here. We will talk about that on our next post along the El Dorado County Lincoln Highway route.

Monica walking up Osgood’s Grade, now closed to traffic.

The Lincoln Highway in El Dorado County, Part 2, historic Trout Creek Bridge

We are continuing our California pioneer (southern route) Lincoln Highway tour, which starts at Stateline, Nevada, and now takes us west on Pioneer Trail or the Lincoln Highway back in 1913. You can read about the Stateline start of our adventure here.

Map showing bridge site, Lincoln Highway, and Stateline, Nevada. Click map for larger view.

Before Pioneer Trail was the Lincoln Highway and earlier county wagon road, it was part of the famed Johnson Cut-Off Trail, which brought emigrants and others over Spooner Summit in Nevada and into the Lake Tahoe Valley. Like later highway travelers, the pioneers were headed towards Echo Summit and over Johnson’s Pass, the final mountain obstacle in their travels.

The 1907 Trout Creek Bridge, with present day Pioneer Trail and autos above

We can see the old bridge and the modern-day Pioneer Trail Road on the upper right in the photo above. You can also see a large metal culvert in the center-left top of the photo. The Creek has been moved east by about 50 yards to pass under the newer bridge. No water passes under the older bridge these days.

Trails West “T” marker at Trout Creek.

On the opposite side of Bear Creek Road, The Trail West Organization has placed one of their historic “T” markers. On these markers is an excerpt from an emigrant diary about this particular location. We can see the excerpt from William Wirt Gilbert’s 1853 diary describing this place in the photo above. He sees the first signs of gold mining since reaching Calfornia here at Trout Creek.

Satellite photo showing bridge and surrounding features. Click photo for larger view.

In the satellite photo above, we can see the Trails West “T” Marker, the bridge, and just west of the old bridge the present day route of Trout Creek.

Bridge date, 1907 carved into concrete.

We couldn’t find any information online as to when the old bridge was built. We visited the area a second time about a year after our first visit. Walking around the bridge, we hit the jackpot, as the date, 1907, was carved into the concrete by some unknown worker or passerby. This bridge was built before the Lincoln Highway was inaugurated in 1913, so it acted as a county bridge before that era.

Below is a short video we made a couple of years back concerning the bridge site.

We will be continuing our Lincoln Highway southern route adventure, headed towards Meyer’s, in an upcoming post.

Exploring the Lincoln Highway in El Dorado County, Part 1

The Lincoln Highway was America’s first transcontinental highway in 1913. You could cross the country following local roads, but piecing them together into one grand cross-country trip was difficult. What the Lincoln Highway did was put a route that you could follow on a map, and along with directional signs, you could head out from Times Square, New York, and follow the road all the way to the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

In California and Nevada, unlike other states, the Lincoln Highway spit into two separate routes. One route entered California near Verdi, Nevada, and roughly followed the current Interstate 80 to Sacramento. The other “scenic route” entered California at Stateline, Nevada, and roughly followed the current Highway 50 through Placerville and into Sacramento. Once in Sacramento both routes followed the same path to San Francisco.

The map above, which is interactive, can be found here at the Lincoln Highway Association website. I have marked the map with the location of the two routes and their entry spots along the border between Nevada and California. A motorist back in the day would make the decision on which route to follow when they were in Reno. It’s in Reno where the road splits and follows the two different routes. Leaving Reno the motorist headed down to Carson City and up and over the mountains to Stateline and South Lake Tahoe.

The photo above was taken at Stateline sometime after 1928. We are looking into Nevada from the California side, as we can see the Nevada state line sign on the right. The red arrow is pointing at a Lincoln Highway concrete directional post. 2,436 of these posts were installed by the Boy Scouts of America on September 1, 1928 at 9:00 AM, across the country. This was the Lincoln HighwayAssociation's final act as the Highway was now numbered, Highway 50, and the association disbanded. Since we know the date these markers were placed, any photo with the posts shown is after September 1928.

In the above photo we see a couple of tired looking scouts and their marker in 1928.

In our next blog post we will be traveling down Pioneer Trail, headed west on the old Lincoln Highway. The next stop will be along Pioneer Trail at a very cool old bridge site and a Trails West “T” marker letting us know this is also the old pioneer Johnson’s cut-off trail. The original 1913 route of the Lincoln Highway often followed the older pioneer trails over the mountains of California and Nevada, making it a great road to follow and experience our amazing history.

The Yuba River at Big Bend

This beautiful scene is looking east from the Rainbow Lodge, where we can see the present bridge crossing at left, built-in 1928. This is the south fork of the Yuba River, which provides a natural passage through the Sierra Nevada mountains. The river begins near Donner Summit and flows through Summit Valley, Soda Springs, and eventually here where it makes a “big bend”.

Big Bend is a natural crossing spot for travelers starting with the native people who inhabited this land. The first pioneers to come this way where the Steven-Townsend-Murphy party and their covered wagons. Some of the party over-wintered here, and one of their party, Moses Schallenberger, was caught in a snowstorm and spent the winter of 1844 in a tiny cabin on the east shore of Donner Lake. He was eventually rescued, and the cabin he stayed in was put to use a couple of years later in 1846 by members of the Donner Party.

There are emigrant trail traces still to be found in Big Bend. Trails West Association has two of its “T” markers in Big Bend. These markers are placed on or near the original emigrant trails, and each has a quotation from an emigrant diary describing the place where the markers are today. The one pictured above is located just 50 yards north of the Lock Leven Trailhead parking (see map).

The emigrants lowered their wagons down the rocks and followed the S. Yuba River, staying on the south side, where the trail, after crossing today’s Hampshire Rocks Road, follows the Dutch Flat Wagon Roads path. Today the trial is named “Old Wagon Road” and follows the river for about a 1/2 mile.

This section of the trail on Old Wagon Road is magical as you are walking on all the trails at once. Following in the pioneers' footsteps, we cross a Lincoln Highway era concrete bridge and another creek with an old metal culvert exposed.

Metal Lincoln Highway era culvert.

Soon we reach the Trails West “T” Marker #46, which lets us know that this is where the emigrant trail leaves the route of the Dutch Flat Wagon Road and heads up the hill. They couldn’t proceed any further as the rock cliff juts into the water, making passage impossible for the earliest travelers.

In the photo below, we see the emigrant trail heading up the hill, past our bikes, while the Dutch Flat Wagon Road continues, following the river. The builders of that road used rock retaining walls so the trail could continue along the river. These retaining walls over 100 years old still support the old roadbed.

The emigrant trail goes left and up, past our bikes. The Lincoln Highway continues starlight.

We followed the emigrant trail markers for a bit, as we had heard there was a pioneer grave somewhere along the trail near here. The photo below shows the emigrant trail's view back down to our bikes leaning against the “T” marker. Once again, we are amazed at these early travelers' perseverance making climbs such as this with all their possessions in a wagon pulled by oxen.

Looking down from the emigrant trail. You can see our bikes leaning against the “T” marker.

We couldn’t find the pioneer grave and decided to head back down to the river and the road. If you follow the Dutch Fat Wagon Road/Lincoln Highway further west, you rise above the river and can admire the fantastic rock work used for this section. Check out the two photos below taken 100 years apart.

Theodore Wohlbrück photograph cutesy of the Donner Summit Historical Society, Norm Sayler collection.

Looking east on the old Lincoln Highway above the S. Yuba River, Big Bend.

The above photo is taken near the end of the old road, which was destroyed during Interstate 80. Below is a map showing some more of the features mentioned in the post. Fall is an ideal time to visit as the trees start to change color, and the temperatures make for great biking or hiking weather.

Through this narrow passage in the Sierra Nevada mountains, thousands of pioneers and later motorists passed on their way to the Golden State. Big Bend is etched into California History.

Map showing the location of certain features along the emigrant trail in Big Bend.

Big Bend, crossroads in history.

This is an intriguing photo taken by T.C. Wohlbruck of the Big Bend Ranger Station on the Lincoln Highway. We know it’s a TC Wohlbruck photo by the distinctive handwriting and numbering on each of his photos. These photos were taken with the idea of using them as souvenir postcards at his three canteen service stations located in the Sierra Nevada's high country.

Big Bend is rich in history as a resting place along the old Emigrant Trail, the Dutch Flat/Donner Summit Wagon Road, a county road , The Lincoln Highway, Highway 40, and today Hampshire Rocks Road. We see the Lincoln Highway passing by the Big Bend Ranger Station building on the left in the above photo. The road makes a sharp right-hand turn as it heads east, up the mountains towards Donner Summit.

At this time, Highway 40 was still a dream, so the Lincoln Highway followed the old Dutch Flat Wagon Road, which had been built by the Central Pacific Railroad to ferry men and supplies up the mountain for Transcontinental Railroad construction in the 1860s. Once the road was built, the Central Pacific opened it as a toll road, which was very popular. Once the railroad was completed, much of the traffic took the train instead of the wagon road, and the railroad turned it over the counties it passed through. In this case, it became a Placer County Road until 1913 when it became part of the Tranconental Lincoln Highway.

In the above photo, we are standing in the same spot 100 years later. In 1932 Highway 40, the predecessor of the Lincoln Highway was completed through Big Bend. As we can see, the road cut straight ahead, bypassing the sharp right turn the Lincoln Highway made. The Ranger Sation in the older photo has been replaced by a larger Fire and Ranger Station set back a bit from the road at left. We can barely see the old Lincoln Highway turn just past the no-parking sign at the right.

Once you make that right hand turn these days, you will come upon this scene, where we see Monica riding her bike on the old road. There is a large red building along this stretch, but we don’t know what it was used for back in the day. It does appear to have been a barn at one point in its existence. Check out the narrow pass between those large rocks. Between those two rocks traveled the thousands of gold-seekers, emigrants, railroad workers, and transcontinental travelers that used this section of road between the 1860s and 1932.

In the above photo, we are looking west just past the two large rocks.

We see Monica on the old road in the photo below, having just passed by the red building while walking east. The old road eventually curves back out and reconnects with Hampshire Rocks Road, where it would follow the same path until reaching the Hampshire Rock Campground, about a quarter-mile away.

The Big Bend area is a historians dream location. So many old trails pass through here, with stories of survival from the early days. This was the place where the Steven’s-Townsend-Murphy Party spent the winter after having been the first wagon train to cross the Sierra in 1844, even before the ill fated Donner Party’s attempt. An entire day can be spent enjoying and exploring this amazing place.

Below is a map of the area showing the key features.

Map showing key features. Click map for larger view.

Robert Fowler and his airplane

Pioneering aviator Robert Fowler’s crumpled airplane in 1911, after it crashed in Alta, California, in the Sierra Nevada mountains. He was trying to fly across the country in an attempt to win $50,000 that had been offered by William Randolf Hearst for the first person to fly across the country. In addition to strong mountain winds, a spark plug wire came loose, and he lost power, forcing him into a crash landing. What a marvelous photo with the dapper Fowler and what appears to be an ad hoc welcome committee of residents in front of the crumpled machine.

Fowler had taken off from San Francisco’s Golden Gate Polo Fields on September 11th and managed to land in Auburn, where the next day, he resumed his attempt. He managed to get close to Donner Pass, but the headwinds from the mountains and mechanical problems forced him to crash land into pine trees, where he was temporarily caught in his plane. The machine was taken to Colfax, where the local rod and gun club members helped repair the plane. There is a plaque in Colfax, right by the train station, mentioning this aviation history.

On September 23rd, after 10 days of repair to the airplane, he took off from Colfax to continue his journey east. He reached an altitude of 5000 feet until he reached Blue Canyon where he increased his altitude to 6000 feet. He attempted to cross the summit for two hours but could not get the speed or altitude and had to return to Colfax.

Fowler and his airplane taking off in Colfax.

On September 24th, Fowler again took off headed for Donner Pass but found the winds that day even more treacherous than during his previous attempt. On this attempt, he reached an altitude of 7500 feet but was forced to turn around and land at Carpenter’s Flat at Emigrant Gap. Below we can see the plane with a group of people enjoying what looks like a picnic around the flying machine. Imagine how exciting it must have been for these mountain folks to witness this historic event taking place in their little corner of the mountains.

Fowler’s plane at Carpenter’s Flat, Emigrant Gap

Fowler made a third attempt on September 25th, where he reached an altitude of 8000 feet when he was again confronted by fierce winds between Cisco and Tamarack and was forced to turn around and head back to Carpenters Flat, where he broke a landing skid.

Below we see some cowboys and others checking out the newfangled flying machine.

Fowler eventually made the cross country trip, but it was done using a southern route from San Diego where there were no mountains as high as the Sierra to contend with. His cross-country flight was completed on February 8, 1912, in Jacksonville, Florida after the deadline, and the prize expired without a winner.

Despite not having won the prize, Robert Folwer’s attempts to cross the Sierra Nevada have gone down in history as one of aviation’s great feats. In 1918, Robert Fowler established the Fowler Airplane Corporation, located on Howard Street in San Francisco. He died in 1966 in San Jose, California, at the age of 81.

The map above shows Carpenter’s Flat, which is just behind the buildings along Laing Road. This area is historic as Laing Road was the Overland Emigrant Trail, The Lincoln Highway, and eventually Highway 40. Today it’s a lonely exit off Interstate 80 with a restaurant, post office, and a ton of history out back.

All photo’s used with permission of Norm Sayler, Donner Summit Historical Society.

A 1923 alignment of the Lincoln Highway found

Traveling east on Highway 50, just past Pacific House in El Dorado County, is this welcome sign for the Eldorado National Forest. You can see in the background a frontage road that seems to disappear into the present freeway at both ends.

In the above photo, we see Monica walking on this frontage road, headed east. You can see our truck off in the distance parked next to the welcome sign.

The above map shows the Lincoln Highway in blue, or at least where we thought it went. In red, we have drawn this newfound route. You can see Peavine Ridge road at the left and to the right Bridal Veil Falls.

What makes finding these “lost alignments” fun is when there is some way for us to ID the exact date when the road was finished. We lucked out here as we spotted a culvert passing under the found road. We check these culverts closely as the sometimes are dated, and this one was! You can see 1923 imprinted upon the top portion of the culvert. This likely means the section of road we are looking at replaced the original alignment of the Lincoln Highway developed in 1913. We will head back and see if we can find the original route, likely tucked into the hill.

We will submit this newly found route to the Lincoln Highway Association cartography department so they can update the official map.