Snagfaller’s Ball
Sponsored by
Friends of the Logging Museum
Independence Hall
White Pines near Arnold
Saturday, Nov. 5th
Social Hour 5:00 pm
Home cooked dinner 6:00
Dancing 7:00 to 10:00
Tickets at the door $15 for one, $25 for two
Tickets also at the museum, or Ginny Kafka 795-1226 or Pat Bradley 728-1407
Steve Johnson and Danny Elzig of the Renegades
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Bill Wakefield Dies
On August 18th, 2011 Bill Wakefield died at the age of 84. Bill was a valuable source of information for this web site. We have stories that he told and we have stories about him. One of our first museum post cards, which we still sell, shows Bill and Carl Fields ripping a huge log into two halves that would fit into the mill. Great photograph. Unfortunately for the museum, Bill was one of the last of the Blagen Mill/ Linebaugh Logging era lumberman who could give us history, tell us stories, and correct our (my) mistakes. He will be sorely missed, especially by this editor who was his first cousin, more like a brother.
Click to enlarge
Bill and Carl with a Mall chain saw, maybe the one we have on display
New Exhibit at the Museum
As you probably know, we have a Shay Locomotive on display outdoors. This locomotive was used in the Yosemite area and we’ve been interested in a special operation it was part of. Near El Portal our locomotive and others like it brought logs to the top of an incline where the logs on flat cars were lowered down to be taken by another rail line to Merced Falls. Our new exhibit models this operation and is accompanied by a wonderful piece of film showing the actual system at work. Model maker, Stu Heller, has once again out done himself putting together this exhibit. Mike Skenfield did the early conceptual work after John Hofstetter got hooked on the idea after seeing the film. President of FLM, Ginny Kafka, and the rest of the FLM Board of Directors enthusiastically supported the project and authorized the money to put it together. We recognize with gratitude the owner of the film, Warren Haack who let us use it for this exhibit, Our model maker, Stu, adds this detail as to whom we owe special thanks: “At the new display, a four minute video is played over and over, custom made by filmaker Warren Haack, using footage owned by Don Olsen (we have his written permission for use) and we thank them both for allowing us to use it and really make this display special. The footage came from a longer DVD entitled Sierra Shortlines Vol 2, made by these same two men, and available for purchase online – see the website = http://www.catenaryvideo.com/sierra_shortline.html#Anchor-VOL-47857
come see it!
stu (model builder)”
Some historical still photos of the incline can be found on this web site by clicking here: Incline at El Portal
Ron Bradley Dies
On January 4th, 2011, Ron Bradley died in Parker, AZ.
Ron was an integral part of the origins of the museum, and as executive director for many years was responsible for every aspect of running the museum. His family and friends celebrated his 80th birthday a few months ago. He died quietly and quickly after ailing for some time. Ron’s wife, Patricia, was the moving force in making the museum a reality, but Ron was responsible for taking care of the details that created, maintained, and improved the museum. He will be sorely missed.
The Museum In Winter
or why we don’t open in the winter
Click to enlarge (Note how early in the year this is)
Our International Logging Truck
If you go to its story on this web site, you’ll see that it worked in lots of snow
All of these photos were taken by Ginny Kafka, FLM President, who if she was as tough as her husband Bill, would have gotten close-ups.
The Museum Driveway
White Pines Lake Brrrrr
Three Interesting Photos
on our Home Page
Go to our Home Page and look at “Three Cool Images” located there.
Short article about the Jones Mill at Brice Station
Great Photos of the Pino Grande Mill and Tram on the American River
We had wanted some good photos of the Pino Grande Mill because the piece of cable that we had from the tram had piqued our interest.
Click on the headline to go there.
Monte Wolf, logger, photo now on our web site.
(Click here to get there quickly)
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.
Update as of May, 2010. We just received news that we are going to receive the money soon. That’s the same news as we’ve gotten a number of times before.
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
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.
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.
This page has the following sub pages.
Awesome
Do you have old tractors on display in the museum – my friend (a real tractor buff, especially Cats) and I will be traveling to Calaveras County the 2nd week-end in Oct. What days of the week and what hours are you open?
We have three Cats of different eras on display with information about them. Lots of other equipment too.
We’re open Thursdays through Sunday from 12 noon to 4:00.
We’ll be happy to see you in October.
snlm
John