(Click on photo to enlarge)
This is the West Side Lumber Mill at Tuolumne City This photo would have been taken between 1935 and 1952 because after 1952, the mill was modernized and was a 3 stacker (smokestacks) from that time on. The mill burned to the ground in 1961. Much of the written history of the mill deals with its rail system which was very extensive. Their railroad was narrow gauge, whereas Pickering whose mill was close-by was standard gauge. West Side logged toward Yosemite whereas Pickering logged Northern Tuolumne County and Southern Calaveras County. Thanks for the information, TCHS
(click to enlarge) clicking again will make the image large enough to read the print.
Sierra Nevada Logging Museum 
I have a small number, probably 15 photos, of operations of the Westside company. One is taken by a chap name of Gillett, others are probably by a family member. My Great Uncles worked on the line and one in the Jamestown yard, where he was killed making up a train in 1922 (Buster Halcumb). I’d be willing to mail or email them to you. 2 of particular interest would be the Bourland Creek trestle with a train carrying a camp to a new site, and one showing their #6 off the rails and an apparent attempt to right it. Please return email for contact numbers. I’d be proud to have the photos in the museum.
Patrick,
It sounds as if your photos are such that we would be proud to use them. However, a final decision on us using them will have to be made after we see them. You understand that already, but I just wanted to make sure to avoid any hard feelings.
If you have good scans, that would be fine for us. This e-mail address should work well for that purpose.
Also, sierralogging@gmail.com would also do the job.
Scans, if they are high quality, work better for us than prints in that saves us one step in using them. However, if you think we should make our own scans, we’d do that and get the prints right back to you.
Thanks for the great offer, we’re really short on Westside photos. I haven’t really approached the Tuolumne City museum, but if they are like the museum in Sonora, they want quite a bit of money for the use of their photos. Strange that applies to us as a logging museum, but that’s the way they do it.
snlm
John
Hi Patrick,
This is a follow-up on your kind offer of some photos for the web site. Is the process in the works or is there something we can do to help?
snlm
John
My dad Gene Sivori, worked at west side lumber mill and was also a tree faller. He used to take me and my brother to the mill to watch it work,seeing those big saw blades ripping through those logs as a kid was AWSOME .we also lived in the camps,Clavey and 45 during the summer in 4th and 5th grades,wouldn’t trade that experience for the world!!
Dennis I remember the great photo of the 1950 Jubilee Log with your Dad
and 3 others riding in the parade. Would enjoy talking to you about WSLC.
Email me at ed@sieckert.com. Ed Sieckert, WSLC Historian,
Tuolumne City Memorial Museum.
I live in Tuolumne and am interested in old maps of the logging camps and/or directions to the old camps located in Tuolumne County
Talk with the Tuolumne County Historical Society. They give tours of some of these camps.