Knave - The Old and the New - Oro Fino - Miner, Inventor, Farmer - Emigrant Gap - 100 Years of Rails - 'Lots of Talk...' - Judah Gets the Nod - R Street Route - First Locomotive - Oakland Tribune, 31 Jul 1955

I'm leaving out the first few paragraphs, which deal with current politics, and moving right to the histories and stories. Click the clipping below if you want to read what you missed, here. - MF

The Old and the New

Yreka to Fort Jones, 1903 USGS map
georefernced on google maps

It was 82 years ago that Alex J. Rosborough took his first ride over the old wagon road from Yreka to Fort Jones, a distance of 18 miles. "The road wound its way up the canyon beyond the Forest House and on over the low divide to Soap Gulch, so named because of the soapstone found there," he recalls. "From here the road went down Soap Gulch to where it met Moffitt Creek, then followed down a spur of Scott Valley to Fort Jones. The creek meandered on to join Scott River. In those days, just below the summit on the Yreka side, there was a big rock beside the road known as 'Robbers Rock.' [Google Maps street view] It was a made-to-order place for highwaymen, so it's easy to understand why the stage was held up at this spot three different times. Frank Hovey was the stage driver in each instance, which accounts for: his final verdict. 'I'm gettin' kind-a used to it,' Frank said, 'but I don't enjoy lookin' down that gun barrel.' The road was steep and narrow. As soon as travel increased between Shasta and Scott Valleys it didn't take long for the travelers to demand a better road. As a result, the state took over the situation several years ago and built a secondary highway over the mountain. This eliminated the old road in the bottoms of Forest House and Soap Gulches and took travelers, instead, along the mountainside and back into all the little gulches, but crossing the divide at the same place. It made a much easier grade. Once this secondary road was completed, further work on the route hung in the files until last year when state engineers brought in heavy road equipment and sliced a cut some 50 feet deep through the top of the divide. All the rock points on the Fort Jones side were cut away, and all the little gulches filled. It resulted in a wide straightaway along the mountainside, graveled and now oiled. It seems impossible to believe, but when this beautiful piece of engineering work is fully completed a motorist can drive his automobile from Yreka to Fort Jones in high gear. As I drove my car over this wonderful new roadway the other day I looked 'way down on where that old horse and wagon road ran past Dutch Charley's wayside inn, I could close my eyes and almost see the thirsty horses drinking at the watering trough outside the inn, and the long bar inside for the hospitality of travelers. Then I awakened from my trance, and the thought came to me: 'Well, 82 years did it.' I was 8 years old when I took that first ride.

Oro Fino

"Motoring on through Fort Jones I eventually came to the spot on the river bank where Stephen Meek, one of the early Hudson Bay trappers, had lingered on,” Rosborough continues. “I remember when he had a little cabin at this location and busied himself picking up a few beaver and mink hides. I used to drop in and visit him here, listening to his tales of early times about trappers and Indians. Back at Fort Jones I had just passed a huge lumber mill where great piles of sugar pine, yellow pine and fir logs were being stacked. The lumber will soon be moved out by giant motor trucks over this splendid new highway to where the road meets Highway 99, then hurried on to supply far-away markets. I moved on in a northwest direction, where Scott Valley swings around a point and the hills hem in a smaller, narrower valley called Oro Fino, Oro Fino Valley extends north to the border on Scott River, which has swung to the west at this point on its way to the Klamath. In its early days Oro Fino Valley had its town of Oro Fino, around which rich placer mines had been developed. But because the valley was so flat and the gravel deep, a rather unique situation arose. We'll tell you something about that soon, but first meet Grant Lewis. Just at the U-bend where Scott Valley and Oro Fino Valley meet is the Grant Lewis Ranch. Grant is now 85 years of age and I stopped to have a talk with him. He has lived all his life in Scott Valley. He married Lilly Hayes in 1895 and they had two sons, Orion and Alvin, besides raising a third son whom they adopted. The latter boy and Grant run the ranch. Grant is one of nine children (five boys and four girls). His father was Jacob W. Lewis from Clay County, Ill., and his mother was from Jasper County, Illinois. They were married very young. He told me his mother celebrated her 17th birthday while on her way to California in a wagon train. They arrived in Yreka in 1853.

Miner, Inventor, Farmer

"Jacob W. Lewis and the Wayne family met when the two wagon trains delayed out on the Big Bend of the Humboldt River in Nevada, where those coming to Northern California and Southern Oregon left the road that led over the Sierra Nevadas to the Sacramento Valley. The Lewis and Wayne families arrived in Yreka at the same time and formed a partnership there. They built a long log cabin that was divided by a wall in the middle. The Lewises had their home in one half and the Waynes in the other half. Jacob Lewis and his bride joined in the rush to Deadwood and Soap Creek in 1854, and in 1855 moved on to Oro Fino Valley when the mines opened up there. However, mining was a problem. The district was overrun with prospectors and claims were subdivided into such small holdings that Lewis gave it up. Besides, the area had such deep overburden that mining was practically without profit. So the pioneer Lewis decided to gather pitch wood instead, a product he sold for a good price to the miners who used it to light up their claims at night. Water was so scarce the miners had to work right on through the night to get the full use of what water they had. It was while he worked at supplying pitch wood to the miners that Lewis began studying the hardship small mines had in disposing of their tailings. By the time the miners began to combine small holdings into larger properties, Lewis had worked out and put into operation a hydraulic gravel lift by which water, under high pressure, lifted dirt, gravel and gold up into surface flumes. This was the first of all gravel-mine elevators, and was invented right here in Siskiyou County by Jacob W. Lewis. He called it the Eastlick Elevator. A short time later Lewis and a man named Owens bought 350 acres of land in Oro Fino Valley for $300. Eventually they divided it, each taking half. But one of the halves was made up entirely of lower land which was flooded at every rainfall. Playing the game fair, they drew straws to see who got the wet half. Lewis got the short straw. Soon he began to dig drainage ditches and his land prospered. Today this property has a value of $1,000 per acre."

Emigrant Gap

The Knave: Among the earliest and most interesting names in California with which I became familiar 50 years ago were the Southern Pacific Railroad stations from Donner Summit down the Auburn Ridge. These were Cisco, Blue Canyon, Towle, Alta, Emigrant Gap, Dutch Flat, Gold Run, Cape Horn, and others. Many of these were camps for railroad officials and workers during the building of the Central Pacific Railroad. Towle and Emigrant Gap were also lumbering towns, turning out vast quantities of good lumber. Cape Horn, long since left to one side, was a spectacular piece of track that passed around a sharp, sheer cliff above the North Fork of the American River. The track was supported by great steel rods driven into the face of the rock. I remember the shock it gave me back in 1908 when my train rolled slowly around this point and I leaned out the window and found myself hanging in midair above a drop to the river below said to be 2,000 feet down.

A tunnel replaced Cape Horn about 1915. On the ridge above Emigrant Gap is a “Lookout Point” where visitors halt on the Lincoln Highway to gaze down into the depths of Bear Valley, which lies on the north side of the town. This area has both historic and geological interest. Here is one of the best examples of what geologists call "stream capture” to be found anywhere on our continent. In some ancient geological age the upper portion of Bear River cut through the dividing ridge to the north and became the headwaters of the South Yuba River. Thus cut off by a great earth movement, Bear River began anew at this point. Here at this Gap the early emigrant trains let their wagons down the steep slope into Bear Valley, crossed to the north side and went down the ridge to Nevada City, Grass Valley or Camp Far West. Many historians say that this was the route taken by the men who rescued the Donner party in 1846-47. Others insist the trail taken was the old emigrant road that followed the north bank of the South Yuba River (what was once the upper portion of Bear River) and passing near English mountain and Bowman Lake, went down the ridge by Graniteville, Relief Hill, North Bloomfield, Cherokee, North San Juan, and into the Sacramento Valley. Of course these place names were of later built towns. But Relief Hill was said to represent point of succor for the Donner remnants. Thirty-five years ago when on a camping and fishing trip to Bowman Lake, I found traces of the old Emigrant Road that crossed Donner Summit and turned northward to follow down the North San Juan ridge. Thus "Emigrant Gap” is more than a tiny village. It is an historic spot in one era of California history. - John W. Winkley. 

100 Years of Rails

The fame Theodore Dehone Judah so rightfully deserves as the builder of California's first railroad will be spotlighted by appropriate ceremonies in Sacramento on Aug. 9 a day that will mark the Centennial anniversary of railroading in the West. Historians can find no recording of shouts or bell ringing in Sacramento on Aug. 9, 1855, the day Judah nodded his head at a small group of workmen who then lifted a - length of rail and spiked it down on a stretch of wood ties. [18 Aug 1855] But here was the start of the Sacramento Valley Railroad which now stands as "the first” of the great Southern Pacific's lines in the West. And it stands as Theodore D. Judah's work. Judah had other dreams, too. Dreams of miles and miles of rails that would soon be crossing other California valleys and pushing over the rugged mountain passes to stretch vital lifelines eastward. But, "fate that brought Theodore Judah onto the western railroad scene with such high hope and inspiration, also removed him from that scene with shocking suddenness. While en route east by steamer he contracted Panama fever in crossing the Isthmus and was in such a state of collapse that he died Nov. 2, 1863, a few days after reaching skilled medical care in New York.” Those are the words that will be found near the conclusion of a booklet being prepared for distribution by researchers of the Southern Pacific Company in connection with the coming Centennial of railroading in California and the West, a celebration just nine days away. We'll turn to some of the other pages of the booklet to sketch more of this fascinating railroad history.

Southern Pacific Starts 100th Anniversary Fete, part 1

Southern Pacific Starts 100th Anniversary Fete, part 2

'Lots of Talk...'

"The discovery of gold at Coloma on the American River about 60 miles from Sutter's Fort in 1848 . . . created transportation problems that could not be met by river boats, horse trails or stage and wagon roads," researchers for the Southern Pacific's Public Relation's Department point out. "The community of 782 whites, Indians and half-breeds that was Sutter's Fort in 1847 had by 1850 become the thriving Sacramento City with 6,820 people. Stages and freight wagons rumbled through the city streets, running supplies and passengers between the busy river docks and bustling mining camps like Red Dog, Rough and Ready, Whisky Bar, Yankee Jim's, Spanish Flat, and Murderer's Bar... In summer, the roads were hot and dusty, and in winter they tạrned into bogs of mud. There could be no dependable flow of supplies and by 1852 it was evident shipping conditions were hampering the ... pace of development. Railroads were slowly fanning westward from the eastern seaboard but none had yet been built in California. However, there was lots of talk and planning among small groups of rail optimists in both San Francisco and Sacramento. Their eyes mostly were focused on the potential traffic the mines offered for a railroad that might some day become transcontinental. The Sacramento Valley Railroad Company, incorporated on Aug. 16, 1852, was the first project to get off on firm footing, even though destined to fall short of its main objective. Col. Charles Lincoln Wilson was the moving spirit of this pioneer company.

Judah Gets the Nod

"Colonel Wilson came to California from Maine in 1849 to seek gold, but had turned to operating a steamer on the Sacramento River and a plank road over San Francisco's sand dunes. Wilson became the railroad's first president. His vice president was Capt. William Tecumseh Sherman, whose memorable expletive as a Civil War general was to live in American history. Sherman became interested in the talk emanating from Congress about a transcontinental railroad and whenever his Army life permitted he used his West Point training as an engineer on surveying trips into the Sierra. Incorporators of the Sacramento Valley Railroad proposed to build east and north from Sacramento some 40 miles through Negro Bar (Folsom) to Marysville. Branch lines were planned to Coloma and Nevada City, with later extensions northward into the Shasta country and south through Stockton to San Francisco. (Editor's note: And the then sprouting village of Oakland.) It was thought that such a railroad would control all of the interior trade of California. W. B. Foster, chief engineer of the State of Pennsylvania, was to have been the railroad's first engineer, but when it was learned he could not come to California, Colonel Wilson went East to find a competent man. On his arrival in New York early in 1854 he discussed the pioneer railroad and his search for an engineer with Gov. Horatio Seymour and his brother, Col. Silas Seymour. They recommended a young engineer named Theodore Dehone Judah, a native of Connecticut, who had helped construct several eastern railroads. Principally, he had planned and built the Niagara Gorge Railroad, then considered a remarkable engineering achievement. Judah accepted an invitation to meet Colonel Wilson in New York, and. three days later wired his wife at their Niagara Falls home: 'Be home tonight; we sail for California April 2.' Colonel Wilson's primary concern was the construction of the Sacramento Valley Railroad, but Judah saw the opportunity as a step to fulfilling a long-time dream of his own. 'You can imagine my consternation on his arrival that night,' his wife recounted later. 'It was all laid out in these words: "Anna, I am going to California to be the pioneer railroad engineer of the Pacific Coast. It is my opportunity, although I have so much here." He had always talked, read and studied the problem of a continental railway and would say, 'It will be built, and I am going to have something to do with it'.”

R Street Route

"While Colonel Wilson remained in the East to make railway purchases, Judah and his wife sailed April 2 for California via the Nicaragua route, arriving in Sacramento in early May. After establishing an office on the second floor of the Hastings building at the southwest corner of Second and J Streets, Judah started his preliminary surveys. He proposed two courses: The first ran east in a projection of M St., cutting through most of the farms between Sacramento and Patterson's Station. [See this and this.] The second line, a continuation of R St., ran behind these farms. . . In his May 30, 1854, report to SVRR directors, Judah recommended the route on R St. along the north side of the American River 22-1/2 miles to a crossing at Negro Bar. The chief engineer estimated it would cost $33,000 per mile to construct and equip this first portion, exclusive of land for right-of-way. But by Nov. 24, when a contract was negotiated with the New York firm of Robinson, Seymour & Company, the average mileage cost had gone up to $45,000. In the end, the cost was about $60,000 a mile and the railroad's management was to run into continuing financial problems. Judah had traffic counts taken at the J St. city limits, also at Lisles Bridge, listing destinations of stage coaches and stage passengers, wagons and their tonnage, riders on horseback, persons on foot, cattle, mules and every possible item of potential rail business. These figures provided a basis for estimating probable earnings in a region where there had been no actual experience in railroading. 'With such a road and such a business,' Judah concluded, 'it is difficult to conceive of a more profitable undertaking. . .' The contract with Robinson, Seymour & Co. was for $1,800,000 to construct and equip the 40-mile railroad to Marysville. Of this sum $300,000 was to be paid in cash, the remainder in 10 per cent bonds and capital stock of the railroad. As a consequence, the railroad's treasury needed more money before work could be gotten under way.

First Locomotive

"Colonel Wilson launched a drive for stock subscriptions late in 1854. His enthusiastic predictions of future traffic in a region that 'will never decrease in population' brought in $400,000, more than enough to get the project started. The construction firm had sent Lester L. Robinson and his brother, John P., out West to supervise construction. . . Grading of the roadbed commenced on Feb. 12, 1855, near the Eighteen Mile House with about 100 men on the job. Other grading soon was under way within the city and at other points along the route. It was this same month that Colonel Wilson resigned the presidency, his funds having been badly affected by a bank failure. He remained active as a director, but Capt. J. L. Folsom, who founded on his property the town that was to bear his name, became the railroad's president for a few months. On Folsom's death in July, the presidency went to Commodore C. K. Garrison, steamship executive and former mayor of San Francisco. Meantime, railroad materials and equipment began to pile up on the river docks after being shipped 18,000 miles around Cape Horn. The first locomotive, 'Sacramento,' arrived aboard the 'Two Brothers' on June 26, 1855. Grading was well advanced on a number of sections all the way to Negro Bar. But the railroad's management was under harassment . . . Money troubles again developed. A dry winter and its bad effect on placer gold mining had given rise to a money panic. Many of the railroad's backers forfeited their stock through nonpayment of assessments. The San Francisco Alta California of July 30 published on editorial plea for investment in the railroad. . . But men with money to invest did not respond. President Garrison had to negotiate a modified agreement with Robinson, Seymour & Co., eliminating the section under contract from Negro Bar to Marysville." There was more excitement and much more trouble ahead for the rail builders, but this will have to wait until next Sunday when the Knave completes the story.

-THE KNAVE

Oakland Tribune, Oakland, Ca. Sun July 31, 1955, pg 67. Oro Fino, mentions Stephen Meek, Pioneer. 31 Jul 1955, Sun Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Newspapers.com