New, at least to us at the logging museum
Editor: I looked at Lee Roger’s Camino/Blair Mill website but didn’t see any reference to this video. I find it quite remarkable. Take a look at this wonderful 16 mm film of the mill.
Back to the not-quite-so-new.
Editor: These photos and text were sent to us by Lee Rogers who grew up at the mill. Some of the photos are of poor quality and the page may only be of interest to those, like me, who had spent time in Pacific House or that area. The museum thanks Lee for sending these along.
There are more comments and history of the Blair Mill on the Eldorado County Logging page. It looks on the menu as a category, but it is also a page with history, lots of history
(click to enlarge)
This is Phil Tuma who came to the museum recently and left, on loan, this display board with photos of the Blair Mill. We’ll have it on display until early Fall.
Lee says:
I was Born in The Placerville Sanatorium 8-52…My Father Worked for Blair Brothers Lumber Co. and we Lived in one of the Small Houses Below the Saw Mill, up behind Pacific House…We Lived in 3 Places, while at Blair’s… We Moved out of Blairs When they Sold Out to Michigan Cal Lumber Co. About a yr before the Ice House Fire.
To Get to Blair’s Mill, you Turned off of 2 lane Hwy 50 at Pacific House, dropping down a dirt Road to The Blair Bridge, Crossing the South Fork of the American River.
Original Blair Bridge…..Crossing below Pacific House …
This was Part of the Original Carson Wagon Road…Up on Top of Telephone Ridge, to White Meadows Rd, that Comes out at Riverton, and Continues up the Canyon…
We Lived at Blair’s year Round, and kids Had Lots to Do….
Kids Playing in Snow Up Behind Our House… Not Sure Who The Kids are….
Looking West, Toward Pollock Pines ……
Looking out Our Gate…Truck Shop, below our House….
The Edge of the Truck Shop and the Company Office Center…The Smoke Stacks for the Boilers, Right of Trees
Our Car, Out in Front of the House…
Our Front Yard, Car and the Truck Shop
My Uncle Frank Baker, up for a Visit in his Dodge
Our Next Door Neighbor, (Phyllis Tuma, see the comment further down), her Husband Drove the Ambulance, and took me to the Hospital when I was Poisoned…This Became Our 3rd and Final House at Blair’s…There’s a Tree…Growing Through the Back Porch…We had Oil Heat…Electricity…And the 1st TV…At Blair’s Mill…One Night, after Dad got off work, Swing Shift, he said he had turned on the TV, and Picked up Oaklahoma City…..On The Skip…..
Yes…We Had our Own Dump, Below the Mill…..and we had Bears Too…..
A Rare Cinnamon Bear, in the center of Picture, in the Dump….
Last One….Load Leaving one of the Landings, Headed for the Mill…
Blair’s Lumber Yard In Placerville
Old Topo Map Of Blairs
Thanks for the pictures Lee. Brings back memories of Blairs mill. Looking at the pictures makes me think that I could have been there when you were born. The house that you lived in, just above the shop, was inhabited by a young teacher just out of college. Her name was Miss Knight and she taught us for one year in the newly built Big Bend schoolhouse. There were three teachers that taught us during the time we lived there and our school was during the summer months as the snow prevented winter classes. The grades were 1st. to 8th grades.
That hill where the kids were playing in the snow was the same place we rode scoop shovels and toboggans. Our house would have been up the hill and to the right of your house. It was on the same level as the schoolhouse which was just a short walk to the west. We had two wood sheds but had to turn one of them into a bunkhouse for me and my three brothers. The two girls got to sleep in the house. We had two out houses, one close for winter an one up the hill away from the house for summer use. We finally dug a septic pit and installed a flush toilet. My mom cooked on a wood range and our heat was a pot bellied stove in the living room.
As for the dump site, as I remember, it was west of town on the logging road between the camp and the Van Fleck corral. When we had visitors from the city, we always took them out to the dump at dusk to show them our bears. A short distance past the dump was a place called “Indian Hattie’s” Art Blair told us about an old woman that built a ceder bark shelter and lived there like her ancestors had. There was a single shelter there all the time I lived there.
The mill site was built on the site of an Indian village. We found grinding rocks where acorns had been milled. Under the lumber drying trestle, you could find arrowheads after each storm. The dripping water from the trestle would placer mine the dirt below and expose the arrowheads.
I could go on forever but perhaps would be boring everyone to death.
George Sisemore
Didn’t bore me, thank you George.
Not Boring Anyone George….My Dad Bought me a Full Set of Tonka Trucks and The Hosiers and rest of the Kids, we would Sit on them and Ride them down the Hill Between the Houses….There were 3 Houses where you were talking about Hosiers lived in the Center House….At the Head of the Log Deck was a Big Stump, and the bank was Adobie Clay….we used to Make Clay Figures and set them on it to Dry…There is still an old Coupe Sticking out of the fill, that was the Log Deck, where Pevine and white Meadows Roads come together….What I always thought was a 20-30 ft bank as a kid….was only about 8′, when I saw it around 1974….
Check out my FB Page Lee Rogers …To see the Pictures I took of the Area Sept 2013…..It ALL Burnt up Last Fall, in the King Fire…..
Your ninth picture includes my mom taken about 1954 or so after the house was remodeled. We moved there in 1948 and I believe mom took a picture of all the kids attending my birthday in 1949 and there must have been at least 5 Sizemore brothers in it including both Ron and Bill Blair. You had to be in it George. I may also have picture of your father Lee holding or propping up the cookhouse bear shot while raiding the garbage. Your comments and pictures are really cool George and Lee. I was talking with Bill Blair during the King Fire and he sa[d he thought he saw the chimney of his old house in an aerial news clip so the area must have really fried.In 2003 one could see the shop floor from the chimney. Last spring one could not see three feet from the chimney due to the vegetation. Thanks for for all of your efforts here ‘Sierra Nevada Logging Museum
Phil: I remember you and your parents very well. you were just a small tyke when we lived there. We sold our place when we left and I am not sure who bought it but it sold for only about $400. Your dad was a good man and I remember when I had a problem with a bad tooth that had to be pulled. He volunteered to take me to Placerville to visit the dentist and have it extracted. After it was pulled, he took me to Max Jumbo’s soda fountain and bought me my first malted milkshake. I loved watching him work in his gun shop. We always wintered in camp while most of the families left because of the snow. I had the job of feeding and watching after the animals that were left behind by many of the families. I would snow shoe to each house and open cans of cat or dog food to feed the pets. Most paid me in the spring when they returned. Your dad gave me the choice to take money or a gun. Of course I chose the gun. It was a Stevens Crack Shot 1919 22 cal. single shot that your dad had replaced the firing pin. That gun about decimated most of the grey squirrels, wild pigeons and quail in that part of the country. I still have the gun.
You’re welcome. Thanks to all of you in Eldorado County who have contributed so much history by way of your comments to the web site.
snlm
James Lee Rogers Says: April 30, 2015 At 12:45 Pm | Edit
The Woman in the Picture, in front of the Cabin, Is Phyillis Tuma, Married to Bud Tuma, who drove the Ambulance … We Lived Next Door to the Right of the Cabin Pictured, and then Into this House, after they Moved Out …
My Mother, Donna Rogers passed away March 6,2016… She did get to see the movie, that you Posted, and all the Comments on the Blair’s Saw Mill page on Face Book… i think she was the Last of our Parents, from the Blair’s Mill Family…
My dad, Leo Lewin (everyone called him Pinky) was the camp cook. From 1952 until 1956 we lived at Blair’s Mill, in the cook house. We had two rooms and a bathroom, 7 people. What a life we had, we all look back on those times as golden, tinged with gold, the best time to live in America. We would come up there after we got out of school in Placerville (dad would go up in May to get things started.) and we’d spend the summer, most times returning to Placerville in September or October. So, we’d take the school bus to Pollock Pines Elementary. The glorious sour smell of pine wood drying. The crunch through your toes of dried dust after the water truck had been through. The cold cold water from the underground spring. Dad killed a bear, I think the first year we were there.
I’m watching this film loving it. Bill Blair is talking about things I remember. Ron Blair and my brother, Bob, were great friends. George Lucas or Lukas, every Tues. night the kids at the Mill would go to the old school house and George would tell stories from the bible, and as he would tell these stories he’d draw pictures of all the characters he was talking about, using butcher paper. Wish I had some of those drawings today. The swimming hole, Lord, that was a place to be during the summer. Had to climb down to the hole, occasionally someone would kill a rattler and there the body would be beside the path. Great swimming hole. Sharon Tuma and I were great friends. More friends were the Tucker girls, Bonnie and Becky – their dad was there first then he brought the family out.
Hello Cynthia. I am an older sister of Becky And Bonnie Tucker. You may remember me as one year I lived with your family in Placerville so I could go to school.
I have enjoyed reading your memories as I have so many of the same.
I regret to tell you that Becky and Bonnie as well as the rest of my family have passed away. I am the only one left.
Cynthia Lewin … I have a Face Book Page Called, Blair’s Saw Mill… Stop By and View all the Pictures Collected and Share Your Stories and memories, and I will add you to the Page
Lee Rogers
man oh man!!!! what a great video of the Blair Bros. lumber co….I really enjoyed it ..Brought back a lot of memories of stories my relatives and mom and dad and my own experiences as a kid..my folks met at Blair’s old mill when it was in Pollack Pines and my mother and grandmother and aunt were the cooks and my dad was a cat skinner. Tom Moran in the movie skinning cat is my uncle.. looking forward to see again!!
Tom Stowe, Did your Family Move down to 5 mile Terrace after Blair’s Sold Out ?? You have a Younger Brother, Tim ?? If So, we were Class Mates at Camino since 3rd Grade and EDHS, Class of 70..
that is us Lee..I am curious about one thing mentioned in the movie and that being a name of the sawyer and saw filer they called Emmet Smith…I had an uncle named Emmet but the last name was Houston…He worked in a lot of milles throughout Eldorado and plumas county and I think he worked at Blairs..I would like to know if that could possibly be him..Any help from anyone would be great..thanks
Tom…. I have a History Page on Face Book, called, ” Blair’s Saw Mill” , You and Tim are Welcome to Come and Join…. Tell Tim Hi For Me, There is also the Camino History Page, and Camino School Page …..
A Lot of the Kids, who Grew up at Blair’s visit…. There are a Lot of Photo’s There…
….I was so surprised to find these photos and your Dads motion picture film…My brother had a friend in the Navy that took him home with him to this logging camp where he met his sister and future wife…their names were Tucker..He brought her back to Illinois to temporarily settle…My very first trip to California was with them to her folks home…I was 16y/r olds and have so many wonderful memories as we went back and forth to their log home several times…I remember the swimming hole and Pacific House also her Dad, Dick Tucker would take me with him at night down to the saw mill . He was a nite watchman….I also can still smell the trees and cut logs…I’m 71 now and those visits took place in and around the mid 1950s…
. Thank You so much for sharing, what a treasure this is….Ray Allen
.
….I remember the Tucker family Gabe, Vivian, Joy, Bonnie , Becky and young Dickie…Their mother was gracious to us and a wonderful cook….I fell hard for Joy, my first real love but had to leave her to go back to Illinois to finish my schooling…my first heartbreak 😊 B. Allen
Raymond Allen,
If you go on Face Book…. Search, ” Blair’s Saw Mill”
You Will Find All Those People There….
The Movie, and all The Photo’s My Folks Took ….
My great uncle and grandfather worked at Blair’s Mill in the 1930’s – 1940’s. …. sometime in there, anyway. Mom was living there when she 3 or so. Mom had just passed away, and it brought back memories of her stories.
My grandfather was Jack L. Owings and my
great uncle was George Lucas.
Hello Lee Rogers,
We were childhood and family friends! We also lived at the mill and visited your family after you moved to P’ville. Give me a shout, would be great to chat about the olden times.
Do you remember the Hosiers? Barb and my brother Pete!
Hi Barb…. I do…I had a Friend try and Look up Your Family and Steve about 10 yrs ago, to No avail…I pulled My Lee Rogers account on FaceButt….. But I still have a couple of Back-Door accounts…. James Rogers and James Lee Rogers, I think….Dad Passed away in 06, and Mom was the Last surviving Elder from Blair’s until she passed in 2016…Face Butt pulled all of my Pic’s from the Blair’s Sawmill page, but there were a Pic of Us, together at a Camp ground Table, I think taken at Big Silver…I went back to BLair’s site in 2013, and documented the trip, even found our Car, that was Crushed by a Big Pine Tree, During the Big Storm in the Movie….And Hoot, throwing me out in the Snow, for Following him and Steve’s tracks, over to Your Place on Easter Morning to see if the Easter Bunny had showed up there….We were one of the Few People who took Pictures at the Mill, The Blair Family Lost all of their Family Photo’s in a House Fire… Always Wondered what Happened to You… Last I had heard, You were Traveling the World, on tramp Steamers….
mrmom852@gmx.com
Hi Lee,
Had a nice walk down memory lane after reading your post and watching the movie about Blair’s Mill. I was 5 or 6 when we moved to Camino, so my memory of the Mill town is sketchy. My brother Pete has a more complete memory. My Mom, Bobbie passed in 1986, sister Paula in 2007, Dad Hoot in 2010 and brother Steave in 2013. Pete lives in Santa Rosa and I’ve been in Alaska since 1979.
I remember your family fondly and have always wondered how you were all doing. Your Mom painted a picture of Spider Lake which our family enjoyed for decades. My Dad “Hoot” requested we spread his ashes in that lake.
That was quite a nice hike for his kids and grandkids!
Barb
I Found the Picture of Us, sitting at a Picnic Table, and will Post it at the Blair’s Sawmill Face Butt Page, along with some of the Other Pic’s of Blair’s, Request to Join the Page and I’ll add you…