Bowman crossing and a newly found alignment of the Lincoln Highway.

The photo above, taken in the 1900s, shows the Bowman Crossing of the Southern Pacific Railroad. If you look closely, there is a person on a horse and another standing nearby. What caught my attention was the way the road makes a bend towards the photographer. If we head the other way, we will pass Machado’s Orchard on our way to Auburn once we cross the tracks. It was this photo that caused us to stop and check out this famous crossing again. We wanted to make sure our official Lincoln Highway map had the routes across the tracks marked correctly. We’ve checked out this area before but were unable to spot the old road. Recently someone has cleared out the area making it more open and visible.

The map at right will show the general area and some of the features discussed. We can see the two rail lines, the Lincoln Highway's blue line, and the crossing pictured in the historic photograph. East is to the right, west to the left. Notice how the crossing in the historic photo is actually west of our Lincoln Highway map shows the crossing. Click map for a larger view.

The same spot as the historic photo, but today. You can see our truck at the left.

In the photo below, we have moved east and can now see the road's impression at right. It appears that once you crossed the first rail line, you would take a hard right and head east. You can see Monica in the background on the road. Our truck is on the other side of the tracks at the crossing.

While the impression we were following could be the road, it would be nice to find some more evidence that this was indeed the transcontinental highway's route. We found the evidence because of the recent clearing of trees and shrubs in this area. We found a state “C” monument facing east and another just a few yards away. These markers were placed along state routes from 1914 to the 1930s. Finding these markers is a great affirmation you are on the right track.

Here we see Monica by the “C” monument. The taller metal sign has the letters R/W on it, which means “right of way.” Placer County has put these metal markers at the site of these older stone monuments. This makes finding the old monuments much easier in this county than others who don’t mark these. We found another marker just a few yards from this one, giving us the road's general route. See the map below for more detail.

Covey Rd., which we originally had our route marked on, is actually a road that crosses over Highway 80. We do not believe the Lincoln Highway route crossed where we had originally marked it. Below we have marked where we believe the route actually crossed the first tracks and then made its way towards crossing the second set of tracks. There a long-gone bridge crossed the second set of rail tracks.

Click map for a larger view.

To summarize, the Lincoln Highway crossed the first set of tracks at a different place than we had earlier thought. After crossing the first set of tracks, the road makes an immediate right, following alongside the rail line, just before where the present Bowman Road is, a sharp left, then another left to head towards crossing the long-gone bridge over the second set of tracks.

These changes to the route are sent to the Lincoln Highway Associations’ cartographer. If they agree with our findings, we will change the official map to show the newly found route.

Iowa Hills William "Seattle Bill" James, baseball legend

We have discussed the above photo in a post that can be found here. It shows the Iowa Hill baseball team posing with a couple of children sitting by a tree. All the small mining towns in the foothills fielded baseball teams, and Iowa Hill produced a player that would eventually pitch in the 1914 World Series. William "Seattle Bill" James was the waterboy for the Iowa Hill team and can be seen sitting by the tree holding a watering can! Bill was born in 1892 and looked to be about five or six in the photo, which would make the date of the photo around 1897 or 98.

William “Seattle Bill” James pitching for the Boston Braves.

William Lawrence James was the third of four children of William and Emma James. Bill's father was a gold miner in Iowa Hill, and when Bill was 11, the family moved to Oroville, where his father took a job on a mining dredge. While his parents wanted a mining degree for their son, Bill had other plans. In the three years that Bill attended Oroville high, he matured into a 6'3", 195-pound pitching phenom. When Seattle of the Northwestern League offered him a contract before the 1912 season, he left school for good. More about Bill here at the Society for American Baseball Research.

William James baseball card from 1916.

The above photo shows a baseball card with William pitching for the Boston Braves. Bill moved to the braves after playing for Seattle in 1912, where he was renowned for his fastball and spitball. William led the Seattle team to a pennant and helped guide the Braves to the championship. He was an early baseball superstar.

The photo below features James on a “cigar blanket”. I assume, because of the size of the “blanket”, that this actually sat inside a cigar box.

A “Cigar Blanket” featuring William James.

He attempted a comeback in 1918, but WWI called, so he served in the 63rd Infantry. There, his baseball arm came into use as he taught soldiers how to throw bombs. After the war, Bill played one major league game in 1919. From 1919 to 1925, he was a coach and player in the Pacific Coast League, from which he retired.

During retirement, Bill lived with his wife Harriet in Oroville. There he drove trucks and became an assessor for Butte County. He died on March 10, 1971, just shy of his 79th birthday., He is buried in Memorial Park Cemetery in Oroville.

Williams's story is fascinating as we can watch his development from a young waterboy in an isolated mountain town, Iowa Hill, to his fame as an early baseball player in the major league.

Horse team carrying sand for the construction of the Mountain Quarries Railroad

The Mountain Quarries Bridge and railroad were built in 1912 to bring limestone from the quarry to nearby Auburn. The construction that took place when animals worked alongside early 20th Century machines documented with this photo.

This photo looks like a mixed "pack train" of horses and mules. They are hauling sand for making concrete with teamster Charles Ray (on the lead horse). I counted 14 horses/mules, three men, and a dog, which can be seen in the close-up below.

A horse-mule pack train near Auburn and the Mountain Quarries Bridge, 1910. Photo from: Placer County Museums.

This spot looks familiar as we have hiked the Mountain Quarries Trail before. The concrete foundations seen in the photo are for a railroad trestle crossing, but not the Mountain Quarries Bridge. There are 17 places along the old railbed where they built trestles over canyons and sides of hills. We will try and take a photo of this spot next time we hike the trail.

Map of the area. Click to see a closer view.

Rattlesnake Bar Road and Bridge site

Folsom Lake has receded enough that artifacts the lake submerged over 70 years ago are visible once again. We have explored the site of the Rattlesnake Bar Bridge before. On this visit, we also walked the old road section that had made an appearance since the water has receded. We had wondered about the route of the road and how it made its way to the bridge. A wonderful section of the road is quite visible, as seen in the photo above. This is facing away from the bridge site, headed away from the bridge.

1873 map of the Georgetown Divide showing the bridge site and road. Click map for a larger view.

Rattlesnake Bar Road was a well used crossing of the American River all the way up to the lake filling in 1955/56. This was an easy way to cross the river and access Pilot Hill headed east or Auburn headed north west. Once the lake was filled this old crossing was inundated and the road on the El Dorado County side was changed to Goose Flat Road, still a county road, though not maintained and on now private land.

Bridge foundations on either side of the north fork of the American River. Looking from Placer County.

The above photo is from the Placer County side and shows the two foundations on either side of the river. The lake was low enough on the day we visited that the Placer County side's road is visible and shows the approach to the bridge site. The old road does not follow the present-day Rattlesnake Bar Road into the state park where the bridge stood but follows its own course, hidden from view most of the time. Below is a section we found covered with asphalt.

We have located the short sections of the road in the photo on the map below. You can also see the bridge foundation locations from this satellite photo, though the lake submerges both.

Click map for a closer view.

We enjoyed checking out the surreal landscape of a low Folsom Lake. All of the area around Folsom Lake was mined by gold seekers during the 19th and early 20th Centuries. That with the rising and lowering of the reservoir has created an otherworldly landscape with multiple levels of dirt of different colors. Quite striking and combined with the history of the area makes for a great day trip.

Below is a photograph of the old bridge. There is a man and a boy in the photograph along with smoke coming out of the bridge tenders shack. The printing above the man reads, “All persons driving or riding faster than a walk over this bridge will be fined to the extent of the law.”

The Rattlesnake Bar Bridge, 1860s to 1870s. Can you see the child in the photo?

The Quonset Hut Motel near Colfax

The Quonset Hut Motel just outside of Colfax was built right after WWII when war surplus Quonset Huts were made available to the public. They became quite popular for all sorts of buildings as they could be gotten fairly cheap and were quite portable, as the photo below shows.

Quonset Hut being installed in Japan just after the end of WWII.

Quonset is a name for a small town in Rhode Island, where the military manufactured the huts for the WWII war effort. . Quonset is an Algonquian word meaning "small, long place."

Over the years, Quonset Huts were used for many different types of business and even as homes. In this case, a motel was developed, taking advantage of the huts. The photo at the top of the post looks to be just before the later one taken below. The large Quonset in the first photo seems to be missing in the bottom photo, though the rock chimneys seem to be standing.

A different view of the Quonset Hut Motel. Photo: Donner Summit Historical Society, Norm Sayler Collection.

Map of the site. Click the map for a closer view.

Today there is only one Quonset Hut left. The site can be visited by heading north from Colfax on Highway 174. Interestingly, the Lincoln Highway, 1913 to 1927, took a course where the owner eventually placed the Quonset Huts. You can see the route on the bottom map. During the motel's existence, the newer Highway 40 passed straight in front of the site.

Quonset Hut Motel site today on Highway 174, Colfax.

Alta and the Lincoln Highway

This photograph was taken in 1916 and showed the K.V.A. Ball Team in Alta, California. While we are not sure what the initials stand for, we are confident of the location. In the background, you can see a railroad crossing, which at this date would be the Southern Pacific Railroad. The building at right is the Alta Store, which still operates to this day.

Today’s Alta Bonny Nook Road was in 1916 the Lincoln Highway, which would have brought most transcontinental drivers right through the town. What’s fun about the above photo is a Lincoln Highway logo painted on a gas pump of some type. The Lincoln Highway Logo painted on telephone poles, bridges, and any other prominent spot was to help drivers navigate the country, and it would have been a central location in town. It was interesting to note no autos in the photo, but horses and buggies were still popular in the early 20th Century.

Map of location. Click photo for larger view.

A busy day at Baxter along old Highway 40

For many years, the mountain town of Baxter sat on the main transcontinental highway from Donner Summit to Auburn. Before the present Interstate 80 was built about 200 yards from this spot, everyone crossing the Sierra on Highway 40, the Lincoln Highway, stopped here to re-fuel and re-fresh. It's hard to imagine just how much traffic passed this way. These two photos help us to see the amount of traffic this small stop catered.

The above photo showed Baxter in 1936 when this was Highway 40. If you look closely down the road, there are at least 6+ buses parked in front of the Baxter's Hotel Lunch Counter. Figuring the buses were loaded with about 50 passengers, that means about 300 people are eating inside the building!

1926 photo showing trucks parked at Baxter, Placer County. Photo:Placer County Museums

Now let’s go back ten years to 1926 when this road was the Lincoln Highway. It appears that two big rigs have decided to stop for supplies after having crossed the summit and made it down the grade. There are plenty of automobiles parked around the front of the buildings, all visiting the Lunch Counter at the hotel or buying supplies at the “Old Forty-Nine Trading Post.”

The photo below shows Baxter today, looking east instead of west, like the older photos. The concrete foundation for the gas pumps can still be seen down the road by that building. Everything else has disappeared. The building standing in the photo seems to be a supply point for trucks harvesting water from Crystal Springs, nearby.

Baxter, looking east. Not much left of the old town.

Colfax, Placer County, 1870s

This is a fabulous photo from the Placer County Museums showing a portion of the business district of Colfax taken in the 1870s, during the town's heyday.

The children of Long Valley School, Placer County, 1890

This photo from the Placer County Museums is full of personalities who once inhabited Long Valley, with a population of around 60. We see kids from the school enjoying their lunch around the school well. The teacher, looking very professorial, is enjoying a drink of that cool Long Valley water.

The fun is taking a closer look at the photo and the kids. You’ve got the older boys looking mischievous at the right while numerous younger kids look like they will burst out laughing at any moment. Be sure to check out the old-school lunch/water buckets.

One resident of Long Valley, born in 1893, was Clark Ashton Smith, writer and artist most famous for his fantasy writing along the vein of H. P. Lovecraft. You can read more about Smith here.

Long Valley was located on the Auburn Sacramento Road, a mile or so south of Auburn. Leaving Long Valley heading south on Rattlesnake Bar Road, you would have crossed the old Rattlesnake Bar Bridge, which we have written about before. Long Valley School still stands at the corner of Auburn Folsom Road and Rattlesnake Bar Road and is used as a community hall.

I’ve posted a map, The Georgetown Divide in 1873, and marked where the town was. To see the complete map go here.

1873 Map showing Long Valley and the Rattlesnake Bar Bridge site, Click map for closer view.

Verdi to Henness Pass Road on the old Lincoln Highway northern route, part 3

Dog Valley and Henness Pass Road from Verdi to Truckee is one of the most historic in California. Besides being the Lincoln Highway's original route, this was also the Dutch Flat Donner Lake Wagon Road (DFDLWR), and before that, an emigrant trail.

The first wagon train across The Sierra was the Stevens, Townsend, Murphy party, guided by Caleb Greenwood, a trapper, in 1844. They took the only way known to them, from the area known today as Verdi. They followed the Truckee River down its narrow canyon. This was a brutal passage as the emigrants often found themselves in the water working their way upstream. It may be that they were the only wagon train to use this passage as a newer, easier route had been discovered.

Sign at the Von Schmidt Obeilisk park in Verdi, at the California border line.

That newer route was the road we are about to travel on. In 1845 Caleb Greenwood, not wishing to repeat the Truckee River route, discovered the way we are venturing on. This route avoided the waters of The Truckee and used the ridge tops and not the canyons for travel. This was the same route the Donner Party followed on their way west.

Map showing both new and old routes from Verdi to Truckee. Click map for larger view.

Starting in 1864, this route was also the Dutch Flat Wagon Road, which became quite busy as travelers headed west and even busier during the silver boom in Nevada with thousands traveling east. Automobiles started using this road in 1901, and in 1913 the Lincoln Highway Association chose this way for its northern route. From 1864 to 1926, this was the main route into California from points east.

Automobile traveling west on the new Truckee River Route of the second generation Lincoln Highway, soon to be Highway 40. Photo from Lincoln Highway Traveler Newsletter.

The Dog Valley route as it was called was being prepared for it’s inclusion as the new state highway when in 1926 it was decided to build the more expensive, $889,894, and difficult Truckee River route. The Dog Valley Route would have been completed for $94,000. Apparently politics played a role in the new routes construction. After 1926 all traffic was diverted down the newer Truckee River Route, Highway 40. The Dog Valley Route was abandoned and became a county road.

Trey standing by Trail West “T” marker #24. The quote by Emigrant Isaac Wistar commented that “large pines, firs and cedars abound…some of which are fully six feet through.”

As we head up Dog Valley Road, it changes to Henness Pass Road, and we spot our first Trails West “T” marker, describing the immense trees, some 6 feet wide! The emigrant trail likely followed the present-day road's general route, though likely they used the sides of the hills for passage. In the photo above the Lincoln Highway is behind the photographer by about 10 yards.

Satellite image showing location and features. Click map for a closer view.

From this point up to the first summit, the road is quite rough, with the washboard effect very evident. Shake, rattle, and roll!