|
Return to Press Releases Sierra Valley 4-H A new 4-H year is here! Enrollment will be opening soon for new and returning members to join 4-H for the 2023-2024 enrollment year. Our area has several clubs available, which offer many different projects and activities. Members will develop important leadership, citizenship and life skills, strengthen friendships and community partnerships, and have fun while doing it! 4-H is an amazing opportunity for kids from 5-19 years old. There are more than just animals in 4-H - everything from Arts and Crafts, Cooking, Community Service, Photography, and more! 4-H is a fun program that teaches important skills at the same time. Members have the opportunity to be a part of leadership roles, such as committees and club offices. Members also have the ability to develop skills like public speaking, giving back to your community, and teamwork. 4-H has fun events throughout the year where members get together for recreation, too, and they can also enter to compete at events such as the Plumas-Sierra County Fair! We would love for you to join our club, Sierra Valley 4-H in Vinton/Chilcoot, but also would be excited for you to join any club in Plumas and Sierra counties! Our club offers the following projects: Beef, Swine, Sheep, Dairy Goat, Market Goat, Rabbit and Cavy, Poultry, Dog, Photography, Sewing, Cooking, Advanced Cake Decorating, Arts and Crafts, and Food Preservation. Some of these projects are shared with other groups too (like Dog!). That means if there's something a member wants to learn that isn't offered through Sierra Valley, they can still join our club and may be able to take the project through another area club anyway! Eastern Plumas County Club Enrollment Meetings: • Sierra Valley 4-H - Tuesday, September 5th, at 6:30 p.m. in Vinton. Contact Jane Roberti for more information at (530) 249-4036 • Las Plumas 4-H - Tuesday, September 19th at 6:00 p.m. in Portola. Contact Holly Taylor for more information at flamingoholly@yahoo.com • Echo 4-H - Monday, September 11th at 6:30 p.m. in Loyalton • Treasure Mountain 4-H - Monday, September 11th at 6:30 p.m. in Calpine. Contact Jennifer Kennedy for more information (530) 250-7308 If you have any questions about 4-H, please reach out to one of the contacts listed above. We hope to see you in one of the many 4-H events in 2023-2024! For more information about 4-H, please visit the Plumas-Sierra County 4-H website at https://ucce-plumas-sierra.ucanr.edu/4-H/. Callie Steffanic Communications Officer Sierra Valley 4-H CLOSED: All Sierra County Solid Waste Sites are closed for Labor Day, the first Monday in September. Jan and Nichole, I was reading through the latest Sierra Booster and saw the aerial photo of Williams Loop. Hal flew over it so many times until he was able to get a whole train in the photo. The loop is impressive especially if you see it for your self. Back in the mid eighties I was working as an excavator on the Feather River fiber optic project part of a coast to coast network. Fiber cable was installed along the Railroad right of way from Hallelujah junction to Lake Oroville. There were designated locomotive's to moving the heavy equipment, when my backhoe was loaded onto the train I decided to make the trip seated and buckled into the seat of the John Deere tractor. Traveling over trestles, bridges, tunnel was cool then going around the loop I could see through the trees and meadow the same train I was riding on. I would like to purchase a copy of the photo to put along side another Hal Wright photo he gave me years ago. While flying high above Newman point and the old Pasquetti Ranch and my home for 38 years he took A beautiful picture of the Sierra Valley. The grass was green the tributaries were blue and full. Thanks to Hal I see the valley every day here in Clarkdale Arizona. Jack Johnson Hi folks! Back in March I ordered and received a photo of the Williams Loop with a train going over itself - in winter!!! Beautiful picture and will eventually get framed and put up on a wall.I may have talked about my interest in the early days of the WP and more importantly about the various lumber companies that sprang up to utilize the WP to transport lumber to distant markets. I have collected several books which deal directly with both the lumber mills and their respective railroads the owners utilized to bring the logs in from the woods. I am a model railroader and hope to someday build a layout which represents the Massack Timber and Lumber Co. but I've run into a question of accuracy. I obtained a copy of Railroads of Nevada and Eastern California by David F. Myrick. I may have another of his books as well. He seems very thorough except I believe he has written something regarding Massack that is not correct. I am not a critic but I want to be as historically correct when designing and building my layout. Myrick states (Page 211 of book mentioned) “When August came, the very short and narrow line was ready, with track laid for 1.5 miles with a thirty six inch gauge.” A Shay engine and 10 log cars completed the railroad. He dates this to 1915. My issue is, according to information gleened from the Shay locomotive website Massack's first Shay purchased from the Feather River Lumber Co. out of Delleker was the #3 engine and standard gauge. Further records show (from Myrick's book) that in 1923 M. J. Scanlon took over the company and purchased a second Shay (the #2 fresh from the Lima factory was narrow gauge). This leads me to believe that the first 8 years of the railroads' existence was a standard gauge line all the way out to the WP right of way. However, in Logging in Plumas County by Scott Lawson and Daniel Elliott on page 100 is a hand drawn sketch by one of the workers as he remembers it. He's dated the sketch on Map 1917-1921. It shows all dual gauge track a little into WP's right of way (siding). The dates don't line up!!! I can only surmise that his memory was a bit off regarding the dates. Scanlon would not have purchased the 2nd Shay in the 36 “configuration” unless like the sketch shows, it was in place (the 36” track inside the standard gauge). Perhaps the owners (original) planned to get a second engine in narrow gauge, but started running out of money and sold to Scanlon. Scanlon also enlarged the mill when he took over in 1923. What's left at the site are the old formed concrete blocks that the mill was built on. My brother and I have mapped out the basic location of the mill over Massack Creek. There is a large poured in place base for the steam engine which ran the mill and all around it are what's left of the brick boilers; 2 or 3 of them. Scanlon (according to Myrick) also introduced a dual band saw floor plan to increase efficiency of the mill. The terrain around the mill is very steep on both sides and description of the railroad has switch backs to get up the mountain to get to Dry Taylors Creek. There is a photo of a steam donkey operating a hayrack loading system near the end of the line. With no pictures to prove it, I will probably go with dual gauge track all the way. Although there is no physical evidence left I will also have to assume that there were at least a couple of trestles as the line went up the hill heading west to above Chandler Road. Thank you for reading my letter. If you know someone who has more knowledge on this subject I'd love to get in touch with them I also have a picture (somewhere) of my brother and me standing on top of a trestle built for the Spanish Peak Lumber Co. located alongside of Snake Lake. Alan said the Forest Service let it decay and fall into the ravine it crossed over. I wish we could preserve more of the old structures and equipment. Steve DeWolf Walnut Creek, CA Submitted: 09/01/23 Article By: Sierra Booster |