Editors note: Funny how things work out. I just recently found out that I’ve not been pronouncing the name of the mill correctly. Being a Californian, I gave it the Spanish pronunciation. Come to find out, it was pronounced Pie no Grand. Who’d have known if Steve Polkington hadn’t told him.
Photo of our piece of the cable on display
(click on image for larger and clearer image)
The Museum has a piece of cable that was donated to us that is very interesting and historic.The cable we have was used by the Michigan-California Lumber Company to move lumber across the American River from the Pino Grande Mill on the north side to the Camino mill on the south side of the river.Briefly, it was installed in 1901 and was in operation until 1949. The distance of the cable over the river was 2,650 feet and it was about 1,200 feet from the the cable to the river below. The narrow gauge railroad took the rough cut lumber to a tower on the north side where the carriage was loaded, moved across the gorge and unloaded in a tower on the opposite side onto the narrow gauge railroad which took it to the mill in Camino. There is a very comprehensive history of it in a book published in 1984 by Steve Polkinghorn called “Pino Grande: Logging railroads of the Michigan-California Lumber Co.”The mill that operated for about 50 years at Pino Grande started out as the world’s first all electric sawmill at Folsom, CA. Prisoners from Folsom Prison had built a dam and put in an electrical generation plant that operated the saw mill as well as the trolley system in Sacramento. The mill operation at Folsom was never a success, with a number of different problems, most of which had to do with what they were trying to do with moving and storing logs on the river. In 1901 the mill was taken to the top of the mountain at Pino Grande and a steam plant furnished the power for the saws and other operating gear.The mill at Pino Grande worked well, with the big problem being getting the rough cut lumber down the mountain to be finished and shipped out. A system of railroads and the cables, of which our museum has a section, ended up successfully getting cars loaded with lumber down the mountain and over the river to where they could be moved by locomotives to the mill at Camino.The Pino Grande mill no longer exists. However, the Camino mill is now owned and operated by Sierra Pacific Industries, and there is still a road called Cable Rd in Camino that dead ends at the American River where the south tower of the cable was located. There are also some remnants of the mill and dam at Folsom.Thanks to the Eldorado County Historical Museum and the Polkinghorn book for this information. Pictures to be added as we get them.
I went accross the old cable in 1927 with my family on the way to camp 9, where my father was working. Some years later, perhaps 1934 I went accross the new cable (not as scary) on my way to camp 11. The tramways were some great engineering feats.
I recently drove down toward the South Fork north out of Pollock Pines, and at one spot, if you know where to look, you can see a scar where the North cable was located.
2-17-08
George Parker
George,
Amazing that you talk about riding the old cable at Pino Grande. My mother had several family members who worked at the mill and talks about riding that cable as a youth too. Her uncle, Bill Gibbs, was a forest ranger and worked closely with the folks at the mill. Her uncle, Willard Farris, was a saw filer and her other uncle, Clarence Saylor was the paymaster at Pino.
All my life I’ve heard stories of her family working various lumber mills. Her grandfather, Edwin Starr (Ned) Foster, was the millwright at the Caspar mill.
Small world.
Small world, indeed. About two weeks ago, the beginning of August, 2008, a woman came into the museum. She had a lot of family involved in the Pino Grande operation. She remembered the cable ride as something that became routine for her family regardless of how scary the first ride must have been.
Having previousely published a book (now on sale at the Placerville News, the museum at the fairgrounds and the Chamber of Commerce called Roads to Mosquito) I am now writing a book called Saw Dust & Gold Dust about the lumber mills in El Dorado County. I wish to obtain personel accounts and photographs and will give full credit to each contributor. Please contact Jim Gunn at jagunn90@hotmail.com.
I’ve always been fascinated by our local history. I have several old pictures of the Pino Grande mill. I was looking at maps, and notice there is a “Pino Grande” and an “Old Pino” listed. It appears that Pino Grande on the map is nowhere near the American River, so is Old Pino the actual location of the old saw mill?
Joannie,
Just read your letter about the cable and Pino Grande. I spent most of my summers in the camps where my father was timekeeper (one man office). I so often heard him phone Clarence Saylor in Pino. He had to forward all the food orders that had to come from Camino.
I started working summers there when I became 16. Steel gang, section crew, bridge crew, loader, limber, choker setter, brakeman, fireman, etc. It was good to make 60 cents per hour.
I have written a few stories about that life on:
http://www.trainweb.org/foothill/micalmain.html
if you are interested
George Parker