Strawberry House, there were two locations.

Driving up to Lake Tahoe on Highway 50, the Strawberry Lodge has been greeting visitors since Fred Baumhoff built it in 1939. What about the Strawberry House that greeted earlier travelers along the Swan-Henry Toll Road? Where Mr. Berry built the first Strawberry House has been a mystery to me. Perhaps someone in this group has the answer?

The third Strawberry House built in 1939 next to the present day Highway 50. UC Davis photo, Eastman collection:

The present Highway 50 was built in the mid-1930s, bypassing the old Swan-Henry toll road, which also saw service as the first state highway, The Placerville-Lake Tahoe Wagon Road, then as the Lincoln Highway from 1914 to 1928, and finally an early version of Highway 50. It was along the old road that Irad Berry built the first two incarnations of the Strawberry House, the second after the first burned down. It was along this route that travelers would have to cross the fabled "Slippery-Ford" across the American River at TwinBridges. Once you forded the river, the next stop was the "Slippery Ford House," past Hank Monk Rock, and finally Strawberry House.

The Strawberry Valley House along the Swan-Henry Toll Road.

Where was the first Strawberry House located? Looking at a couple of older pictures, we see the sight appears much closer to "Lovers Leap" than it sits today, which makes sense since the old road passed directly under the famous cliff.

Here is a map showing the new and old roads up to Twin Bridges. The new Highway 50 of the mid-1930s is the blue line, which is the same route we follow today. The red line is the old road, which followed a course next to Lovers Leap.

The following map is a close up in satellite view. As you can see, the old road, red line, emerged onto the area that is present-day Highway 50. The question I have is, did the old way follow the green path down Strawberry Lane, crossing the river further downstream, or did it follow the pink line, crossing the river before the Strawberry House?

Close up of the different roads.

The photograph below shows a series of small cabins that were part of the Strawberry Resort during the Lincoln Highway era. Where were these cabins located along the road?

1920 Mc Carthy Photograph showing the cabins at Strawberry. Photo from: Calif. State Archives.

The photograph below is from 1903, showing a stagecoach leaving Strawberry. Notice how close Lovers Leap is in the background. Where was this located along the old road? Where was the original Strawberry House? The only clues I have are the new 1939 building was built closer to the new highway, at least a few hundred yards west of the original.

1903 photograph shows an open stagecoach with "Lake Tahoe Placerville" printed on the side, men and boy standing in front, barn or stable in background. Photo from: California State Archives

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.'"

The Pioneer!

A rare photograph of The Pioneer statue being unloaded or loaded into a rail car. The DeRome Foundry in San Francisco was hired to do the casting, transporting, and placing of the figure for $11,000. The statue still stands at the Donner Memorial State Park in Truckee.

Here is another hard to find photograph of the pedestal, built by J W Woods, who used local rock from Donner Lake to build the 22 1/2 foot base. Here we see the base without the statue, and the cornerstone that had been placed at the spot s a few years before. No one knows what happened to the cornerstone.

The men that built the pedestal.

That statue took 5 days to lift by rope, block, and tackle to the top of the pedestal. It was in place by May 25th, with a dedication on June 6th attended by 3,500 spectators.

We see the finished monument on the left, while T C Wohlbruck builds his park office building or “canteen service station” to the right. T C Wohlbruck was a pioneer in his way, by creating some of the first auto stops where one could get fuel and provisions. He acted as a caretaker of the property until the State of California took it over in the mid-1930s.

All photographs from Donner Summit Historical Society, Norm Sayler collection.

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.