Michigan-California Lumber Company Explained

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.

American River Land and Lumber Company

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

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 3000feet steam-operated aerial tramway to move lumber 1200feet 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 3feet narrow-gauge railroad was built 9mile 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]

Michigan-California Lumber Company

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 9mile from South Cable to Camino, 9mile from Pino Grande to North Cable, and 15mile from Camp 14 to Pino Grande, plus about 10mile 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]

Narrow gauge locomotives

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] BuilderTypeDateWorks numberNotes
1st #1Stearns Manufacturing Company2-truck Heisler locomotive18981014purchased new; retired 1930; scrapped 1942[5]
2nd #1Lima Locomotive Works3-cylinder 3-truck Shay locomotive19172926built as Swayne Lumber Company #3; purchased 1942; scrapped 1951[6]
2Lima Locomotive Works2-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive1884122built as Rumsey Lumber Company (Michigan) #2; purchased 1901; placed on display at Camino in 1949[7] Now (2024) on display at Turtle Bay Museum, Redding, CA[8]
1st #3Lima Locomotive Works3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive1886159built as D.A. Blodgett (Michigan); purchased 1915; crushed by a falling tree in 1929 and scrapped
2nd #3Lima Locomotive Works3-cylinder 3-truck Shay locomotive19203078built as Swayne Lumber Company #2; purchased 1941; scrapped 1951[9]
1st #4Climax Locomotive Works2-truck Climax locomotive1902339purchased new; scrapped 1942
2nd #4Lima Locomotive Works3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive19102369built as Truckee Lumber Company #3; purchased 1940; scrapped 1953[10]
5Lima Locomotive Works3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive1903797purchased new; scrapped 1943[11]
1st #6H.K. Porter, Inc.0-4-0 Tank locomotive18992049built for Issaquah Coal Company (Washington); retired 1915; placed on display at Camino
2nd #6Lima Locomotive Works3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive19112494built as Mountain Copper Company #6; purchased 1934; wrecked and scrapped 1942[12]
3rd #6Lima Locomotive Works3-cylinder 3-truck Shay locomotive19273306built as Madera Sugar Pine Company #6; purchased 1944; scrapped 1951[13]
7Lima Locomotive Works3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive1904868purchased new; scrapped 1951[14]
8Lima Locomotive Works3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive19061628purchased new; scrapped 1950[15]
9Lima Locomotive Works3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive19132662purchased new; scrapped 1950[16]
10Lima Locomotive Works3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive19142756purchased new; scrapped 1950[17]
11Vulcan Iron Works0-4-0 Tank locomotive1901244built for Waddle & Fitch of Delaware, Indiana; placed on display at Camino
12Lima Locomotive Works3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive19182960built as Mountain Copper Company #10; purchased 1931; scrapped 1950[18]
14Lima Locomotive Works3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive19092183built as Marsh Lumber Company #3; purchased for parts in 1940 and scrapped about 1948[19]
15Lima Locomotive Works3-cylinder 2-truck Shay locomotive19233212built as Scanlon Lumber Company #2; purchased 1944; scrapped 1950[20]

Artifacts

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.

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Berry . Swift . 1957 . Michigan-California Lumber Company . The Western Railroader . 21 . 218 . 7–12 . Francis A. Guido .
  2. Web site: About Timber Products | Our History, Locations & Approach . timberproducts.com.
  3. News: Adams . Larry . 2022-06-22 . Michigan-California Timber Company sold 108,000 acres of forest . 2024-03-04 . Woodworking Network.
  4. Richter . Douglas S. . 1957 . Roster of Locomotives Michigan-California Lumber Company . The Western Railroader . 21 . 218 . 13 . Francis A. Guido .
  5. Web site: Michigan-California Lumber Co. Roster . Barnhill Web Design . TrainWeb . 11 December 2017 .
  6. Koch p.448
  7. Koch p.387
  8. https://www.turtlebay.org/forestcamp
  9. Koch p.453
  10. Koch p.435
  11. Koch p.409
  12. Koch p.438
  13. Koch p.460
  14. Koch p.411
  15. Koch p.418
  16. Koch p.443
  17. Koch p.445
  18. Koch p.449
  19. Koch p.432
  20. Koch p.457