Shay grant finally coming through!
We’ve just received word that the CalTrans grant has just gotten past all the hurdles except actually being money in our account. We plan to move ahead now as quickly as weather and the grant money allow us to move. Remember that we’re dealing with several bureaucracies and the money may seem to move about as fast as our Shay is moving. Anyway, good news.
1945 International Logging Truck
arrives at Museum
A postwar era logging truck that operated during the ‘50’s in the Yosemite and Pinecrest areas has been donated to the museum. It is now on site, thanks to Sam Berri trucking, who moved it for us.
Note the trailer that carries the logs suspended from upper supports. There are other photos that show this trailer being loaded by a Cat rolling the logs under the trailer where the logs are lifted by cables and a winch system.
Click on photo for a larger image. Actually, you can keep enlarging by clicking again.
Many more photos of the truck and the lumbering operation in our “Outdoor Exhibits” section
Friend of the Logging Museum Leaves
Gift to Museum
MARJORIE JACKSON BEQUEATHS MORE THAN $5,000 TO F.L.M.
Marjorie Jackson, known as “Margie”, was born on June 18, 1928, in Yolo County, CA. She married her teenage sweetheart, Leo, in 1946; they celebrated more than 56 years of marriage before he passed away.
Although Margie and Leo were never blessed with children, they were known by everyone as being there when needed, faithful members of their lodges, wonderful neighbors. They were never wealthy, yet lived within their means; their passion was the outdoors. For more than 30 years, they traveled to the high mountains and lakes, camping and fishing for weeks on end. During the last few years Margie lived as a widow, she was a constant volunteer assistant teacher of computer science in the Senior Center of her neighborhood.
Margie’s connection with FLM began about 5 years ago when Pat & Ron Bradley (former Directors of F.L.M.) in Sacramento picked up Margie and another close friend, (close friends of Pat’s for 55 years,) and brought them to the Sierra Nevada Logging Museum. Margie was so impressed with all she’d been told about by the Bradleys for more than 10 years; the photos she took that day were made into calendars for the Museum in her computer science classroom. Immediately she joined F.L.M.’s membership and, subsequently, was so happy to get updates about the Museum’s progress and receive the newsletters.
Unfortunately, Margie was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer just about 2 months before she died in early July of 2008, shortly after her 80th birthday. Within several weeks, F.L.M. received notice from Margie’s lawyer that she had bequeathed 5% of her estate to the Logging Museum. It wasn’t until this past winter that F.L.M. received the wonderful amount of more than $5,000: the donation Margie bequeathed to F.L.M.
For many years F.L.M. has made a point of telling the public whenever the opportunity arose, how beneficial bequests are for the Museum’s non-profit organization. Financial help is badly needed to hopefully eventually allow a foundation to be created so as to sustain the Logging Museum’s existence indefinitely. For more information about making a bequest, please feel free to call the Museum at (209) 795-6782, or contact your estate planner, accountant, lawyer, etc.
(announcement and history by Pat Bradley)
Photos of first White Pines Post Office now on our web site in the White Pines Story section
You may click on the above to go directly there
Our Friend and Contributor Dies
“Hell, I was there”, he could have said many, many times.
Bruce Linebaugh, son of the legendary Doc Linebaugh, and a man of distinction in his own right, died on February 13th, 2009
Our thoughts and prayers go out to his widow, Annette, and the rest of his family.
Bruce, even after becoming ill, still furnished much of the information on this web site regarding the history of his father’s moving of the mill from Calpine to White Pines and of the logging operations that took place after the move. His community, and we at the logging museum, will miss him.
Our Spring newsletter will feature Bruce’s life story and photos. Interestingly enough, we can’t find any really good photos of Bruce in recent years. Still, it will be an interesting story.
New! History of White Pines Lake
There is a lot more here than the title might lead you to believe. This will take you from the arrival of the Blagens in 1938 through the building of the community of White Pines, to the building of the lake, to the acquisition of the lake by Calaveras County Water District. Mighty interesting stuff.
New Photos and Information About P.G.&E’s Tiger Creek Lumber Mill
We’ve added a number of new photos to the Amador County Mills section of our web site. In particular, we’ve added a lot of new photos of the P.G.&E’s mill at Tiger Creek. They used canals (ditches) to transport much of their lumber.
There is also a photo of the Mace Mill in 1889
Look in the index under Amador County, or click here.
New Photos and Accompanying Text
We have an entirely new page called Some photos and some history of Linebaugh Logging. Click on the name here, or find it on the index at the right.
There is a great new-to-the-web photo on the Blagen Mill site of a giant log being split by a couple of loggers with a two-man chain saw.
There are a couple of new photos on the Raggio Mill site showing, among other things, their camp just off the Utica Grade Road, 3 miles about Murphys on San Domingo Road.
New! Many photos and a little text about Ed Adams, Blagen Mill Superintendent
Very promising recipe offered for the first time on-line by Docent of the Year, Donna Hanan.
ELEPHANT STEW
Ingredients:
1 elephant, brown gravy, 2 rabbits, salt and pepper to taste
Cut elephant into bite size pieces. (Allow yourself about 4 months for this) Cook over kerosene at 525 degrees until tender. (About 5 months) Add salt, pepper, and cover with brown gravy. This will serve about 3800 people. If more are expected, add 2 rabbits. Do this only if absolutely necessary, as most people do not like hare in their stew.
Spring 2008 Newsletter on line !
Last item on the index to the right of whatever page you are looking at. Or click here:
2008 Spring Newsletter
New photos in “Early 1900’s Logging Photos”
Some pretty amazing photos of the Yosemite Sugar Pine logging operation, plus some photos that don’t fit the Sierra Nevada label, but were too good to not put on the web site. Some really interesting YSPL train photos.
Patrick Karnahan — Featured Artist for 2008 OSH Calendar
Great News! Patrick’s Prints now on Special Sale Reduced by 1/3 rd. !!!!
Patrick Karnahan, acclaimed railroad artist and manager of our Shay restoration project, was selected as the featured artist for the 2008 Orchard Supply Hardware Train Calendar. Thirteen of Patrick’s paintings grace the OSH calendar, with the Logging Museum’s Yosemite Lumber Company Shay No. 4 on the cover. The calendars were distributed in December to OSH store customers throughout California. We’re sorry to report that the museum does not have copies of the calendar for distribution or sale.
But, we have Patrick’s Shay Prints for Sale!
Great News! Patrick’s Prints now on Special Sale Reduced by 1/3 rd. !!!!!
In cooperation with Patrick, the logging museum is selling collector-quality prints of two of his paintings that are in the OSH calendar. All proceeds from these sales go to support the restoration of Yosemite Lumber Co. Shay No.4. The Company Store has all the details.
Tuolumne County Logging History Project
Our new project on Tuolumne County logging history is underway. We have been visiting the Tuolumne County Historical Society, talking with logging families, digging on the web, and visiting mill sites to put together a survey of county logging activities. Our first articles are a very brief summary of the period from 1849 to 1882, and the story of the Big Creek Lumber Company, a family-owned mill at Smith Station, just off Highway 120 out of Groveland. When we get back to the project in the spring, we’ll be moving into the era of Thomas Bullock and Count Andre Poniatowski, the men who created Tuolumne’s railroads and big lumber companies.
Calaveras County (and other) Mills
If you haven’t already seen the articles, our focus last year was on the many mills that operated in and around Calaveras County. The articles on McKays’ Clipper Mill, the Thornburg Mill, the Toyon Mill, and the Pino Grande cable, as well as multiple histories tied to the move of the Blagen mill to White Pines in 1938/39, were our first articles produced for the digital museum.
–John Hofstetter & Mark Johnson
