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The Michigan-California Lumber Company was an early 20th-century Ponderosa and Sugar pine logging operation in the Sierra Nevada. It is best remembered for the Shay locomotives used to move logs to the sawmill.
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The Michigan-California Lumber Company was an early 20th-century Ponderosa and Sugar pine logging operation in the Sierra Nevada. It is best remembered for the Shay locomotives used to move logs to the sawmill.
In 1892 the American River Land and Lumber Company built a sawmill in Folsom, California; and a railroad to bring logs cut at Pino Grande, California, to the South Fork American River upstream of Folsom. A chute was constructed to drop logs from the railroad into the river, where an attempt was made to float the logs down to the lumber mill by log driving. Log driving techniques used in eastern rivers proved unsuitable in the steeper gradients of the American River, and log driving was abandoned about 1899. [1]
El Dorado Lumber Company built a sawmill at Pino Grande in 1901 and used the railroad to move carloads of lumber downhill by gravity. Lumber was initially lowered to the river where it floated downstream to a dam and flume for the Rock Creek Power House. Horses pulled the empty cars uphill for another load of lumber. [1] El Dorado Lumber Company soon built a 3,000-foot (910 m) steam-operated aerial tramway to move lumber 1,200 feet (370 m) above the river from the downhill end of the railroad at North Cable on the north side of the river to South Cable on the south side of the river. A 3-foot (91 cm) narrow-gauge railroad was built 9 miles (14 km) from South Cable to Camino, California crossing three summits with grades as steep as 7 percent. Trestles were built around curves in the mountains and across canyons. The narrow-gauge railroad connected with the standard gauge Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe Railroad built from Camino to Placerville, California in 1903. [1]
El Dorado Lumber Company began a series of reorganizations in 1911, producing the Michigan-California Lumber Company in 1917. Facilities were upgraded in 1928 to eliminate railroad grades greater than 3 percent, convert the aerial tramway from steam to electric power, and modernize the sawmill at Camino. The rebuilt cable supported a cage which could hold a single flatcar of lumber weighing 17 tons. At the peak of operations, narrow gauge rails included 9 miles (14 km) from South Cable to Camino, 9 miles (14 km) from Pino Grande to North Cable, and 15 miles (24 km) from Camp 14 to Pino Grande, plus about 10 miles (16 km) of logging branches. [1] Rail operations were abandoned after a lightning strike on the evening of 15 March 1949 caused a fire destroying the South Cable terminal. The railroad was dismantled beginning in October 1949. Lumber was then hauled by trucks over a route almost twice as long as the railroad and cable system. [1]
In 1965, the company was acquired by the Gonyeas, Pritzkers, Peeks, Blodgetts & John Shelk. The Gonyeas acquired the entire company in 2011. [2] New Forests acquired Michigan-California in 2022. [3]
The little locomotives that ran the rails of the Michigan-California Lumber Co. were mostly Shays, small steamers usually weighing around 65,000 pounds, but built to pull the heaviest loads. There were other types of locomotives used, but the Shay was the workhorse of the Michigan-California Lumber Company.
| Number [4] | Builder | Type | Date | Works number | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st #1 | Stearns Manufacturing Company | 2-truck Heisler locomotive | 1898 | 1014 | purchased new; retired 1930; scrapped 1942 [5] |
| 2nd #1 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-cylinder 3-truck Shay locomotive | 1917 | 2926 | built as Swayne Lumber Company #3; purchased 1942; scrapped 1951 [6] |
| 2 | Lima Locomotive Works | 2-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive | 1884 | 122 | built as Rumsey Lumber Company (Michigan) #2; purchased 1901; placed on display at Camino in 1949 [7] |
| 1st #3 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive | 1886 | 159 | built as D.A. Blodgett (Michigan); purchased 1915; crushed by a falling tree in 1929 and scrapped [7] |
| 2nd #3 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-cylinder 3-truck Shay locomotive | 1920 | 3078 | built as Swayne Lumber Company #2; purchased 1941; scrapped 1951 [8] |
| 1st #4 | Climax Locomotive Works | 2-truck Climax locomotive | 1902 | 339 | purchased new; scrapped 1942 [5] |
| 2nd #4 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive | 1910 | 2369 | built as Truckee Lumber Company #3; purchased 1940; scrapped 1953 [9] |
| 5 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive | 1903 | 797 | purchased new; scrapped 1943 [10] |
| 1st #6 | H.K. Porter, Inc. | 0-4-0 Tank locomotive | 1899 | 2049 | built for Issaquah Coal Company (Washington); retired 1915; placed on display at Camino [5] |
| 2nd #6 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive | 1911 | 2494 | built as Mountain Copper Company #6; purchased 1934; wrecked and scrapped 1942 [11] |
| 3rd #6 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-cylinder 3-truck Shay locomotive | 1927 | 3306 | built as Madera Sugar Pine Company #6; purchased 1944; scrapped 1951 [12] |
| 7 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive | 1904 | 868 | purchased new; scrapped 1951 [13] |
| 8 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive | 1906 | 1628 | purchased new; scrapped 1950 [14] |
| 9 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive | 1913 | 2662 | purchased new; scrapped 1950 [15] |
| 10 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive | 1914 | 2756 | purchased new; scrapped 1950 [16] |
| 11 | Vulcan Iron Works | 0-4-0 Tank locomotive | 1901 | 244 | built for Waddle & Fitch of Delaware, Indiana; placed on display at Camino |
| 12 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive | 1918 | 2960 | built as Mountain Copper Company #10; purchased 1931; scrapped 1950 [17] |
| 14 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive | 1909 | 2183 | built as Marsh Lumber Company #3; purchased for parts in 1940 and scrapped about 1948 [18] |
| 15 | Lima Locomotive Works | 3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive | 1923 | 3212 | built as Scanlon Lumber Company #2; purchased 1944; scrapped 1950 [19] |
Shay No. 2, the oldest engine in the Michigan-Cal line, was retired in 1951 and is now resting outside the mill in Camino where narrow gauge railroad buffs visit it often. Today, on the Georgetown Divide, the Canyon Creek Narrow Gauge Railroad Association has planned to resurrect the old Pino Grande narrow gauge railroad that was owned and operated by Michigan-California Lumber Co.
The Shay locomotive is a geared steam locomotive that originated and was primarily used in North America. The locomotives were built to the patents of Ephraim Shay, who has been credited with the popularization of the concept of a geared steam locomotive. Although the design of Ephraim Shay's early locomotives differed from later ones, there is a clear line of development that joins all Shays. Shay locomotives were especially suited to logging, mining and industrial operations and could operate successfully on steep or poor quality track.
Elk is an unincorporated community in Mendocino County, California.
The Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad (YMSPRR) is a historic 3 ft narrow gauge railroad with two operating steam locomotives located near Fish Camp, California, in the Sierra National Forest near the southern entrance to Yosemite National Park. Rudy Stauffer organized the YMSPRR in 1961, utilizing historic railroad track, rolling stock and locomotives to construct a tourist line along the historic route of the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company.
The Diamond and Caldor Railway was a common carrier 3 ft narrow gauge railroad operating in El Dorado County, California, in the United States. The 34-mile railroad was primarily a logging railroad but also operated some passenger service.
The Camino, Placerville and Lake Tahoe Railroad was an 8-mile (13 km) Class III short-line railroad operating in the Sierra Nevada in California, east of Sacramento. It was built primarily to haul lumber from the El Dorado National Forest. The standard gauge line ran west 8.05 miles (12.96 km) from a sawmill at Camino to a connection with the Placerville Branch of the Southern Pacific Company at Placerville. Loaded cars of lumber descended a 3.5 percent grade from 3,150 feet (960 m) at Camino to 1,900 feet (580 m) at Placerville.
A forest railway, forest tram, timber line, logging railway or logging railroad is a mode of railway transport which is used for forestry tasks, primarily the transportation of felled logs to sawmills or railway stations.
Caldor was a company town in El Dorado County, California. Caldor was linked to Diamond Springs by the Diamond and Caldor Railway. The community was named for the California Door Company, which owned and operated the town.
Pino Grande is an unincorporated community in El Dorado County, California. It is located 8 miles (13 km) north-northwest of Pollock Pines, at an elevation of 4022 feet.
Bucksport was a town in Humboldt County, California. The original location was 2.5 miles (4 km) southwest of downtown Eureka, on Humboldt Bay about 5 miles (8 km) northeast of entrance. at an elevation of 16 feet (4.9 m). Prior to American settlement a Wiyot village named Kucuwalik stood here.
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The Fort Bragg and Southeastern Railroad was formed by Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway as a consolidation of logging railways extending inland from Albion, California on the coast of Mendocino County. The railroad and its predecessors operated from August 1, 1885 to January 16, 1930. The line was merged into the regional Northwestern Pacific Railroad in 1907; but planned physical connection was never completed.
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The Mason and Oceana Railroad (M&O) was a short common carrier, 3 ft narrow gauge logging railroad in the U.S. state of Michigan. Organized in 1887 and in operation from 1887 until 1909, it served the counties of Mason and Oceana in the northwestern quarter of Michigan's Lower Peninsula in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
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The Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company (C&TL&F) was formed to move lumber from trees growing along the shore of Lake Tahoe to the silver mines of the Comstock Lode. Between 1872 and 1898 C&TL&F transferred 750 million board foot of lumber logged from 80,000 acres (32,000 ha) of virgin timberland.
Jack Swift Berry was a forestry expert and lumberman and then two-term member of the California State Legislature from the Republican Party.
The Madera Sugar Pine Company was a lumber company that operated in the Sierra Nevada region of California during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was known for its use of innovative technologies, such as the first log flume and logging railroad in the southern Sierra, and the adoption of the Steam Donkey engine in commercial logging. The company had a significant impact on the region, leading to the founding of several towns, including Madera, Fish Camp, and Sugar Pine, as well as the growth of Fresno Flats and the formation of Madera County. In addition, the company contributed to the agriculture in California in California through its production of wooden shipping boxes and was involved in a U.S. Supreme Court case related to employer obligations.
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