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Empire by Mark Steven Francis Tuolumne County Timber industry W/ DJ
Empire by Mark Steven Francis
The development of the timber industry in Tuolumne County, The Standard Lumber Company and its railroads 1850-1920
Hard Cover with Dust Jacket
420 pages + Appendices A 55 pages, B 56 pages, C 26 pages, D 20 pages, E 14 pages, F 14 pages, G 15 pages
Copyright 2011
CONTENTS
DEDICATIONvii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi
INTRODUCTION xv
CHAPTER 1: THE ROAD TO EMPIRES, 1850-1899 1
CHAPTER 2: NEW CENTURY AND NEW EMPIRES, 1901-1904 51
CHAPTER 3: MOVING TOWARD THE FUTURE, 1905 87
CHAPTER 4: A YEAR OF TRANSITIONS, 1906 103
CHAPTER 5: GROWING THE NEW EMPIRE 123
CHAPTER 6: SECURING THE EMPIRE 141
CHAPTER 7: COMPLETING THE MOUNTAIN EMPIRE 171
CHAPTER 8: THE MOUNTAIN MILLS - BEGINNING OF THE END203
CHAPTER 9: THE MOUNTAIN MILLS - THE ALMOST END231
CHAPTER 10: "BUSINESS SHATTERED" 261
CHAPTER 11: THE LOOMING CRISIS, 1914-1915 289
CHAPTER 12: CONTINUING CRISIS/RENEWED AMBITIONS, 1916-1917 309
CHAPTER 13: CLOSE OF THE ROBBINS ERA, 1918-1920 333
ENDNOTES CHAPTERS 1-13 349
ABBREVIATIONS 399
GLOSSARY401
BIBLIOGRAPHY409
INDEX413
MAPS/ PLAN
TUOLUMNE COUNTY, 1907 [PARTIAL]FRONT END PAPER
CALIFORNIA COUNTIESopp. xv
REHM'S BIRD'S-EYE MAP OF SONORA10
SONORA SANBORN MAPS 1898 11-12
JOHN WALLACE MAP OF LYONS FLAT CIRCA 1857-185927
QUARTZ JUNCTION/SIDING98
DEPOT GROUND AT GUERNEY'S 100
SIERRA RAILWAY 1905 101
SONORA SANBORN MAP 1908 149
PORTION OF EMPIRE CITY RAILWAY RIGHT-OF-WAY159
STANDARD LUMBER COMPANY TIMBER SALE 1912 179
NEWELL'S PROFILE MAP OF LYONS DAM TRACKAGE184
EMPIRE CITY RAILWAY 1912 200-201
TIMBER SALE, SECTION 11, T3N, R17E, MAY 23, 1912 239
SUGAR PINE RAILWAY TRACKAGE AT CAMP SEQUOIA273
SUGAR PINE RAILWAY TRACKAGE AT LYONS DAM274
DEER CREEK TIMBER SALE 1912 283
RAILROADS OF TUOLUMNE COUNTY, CIRCA 1913 287
FOREST SERVICE MAP OF DEER CREEK RAILROAD EXTENSION 1916 319
FOREST SERVICE MAP OF TRAMWAY LOGGING AREA 1916320
STANDARD LUMBER CO. SAWMILLS 348
EMPIRE CITY RAILWAY, EMPIRE HOIST TO LYONS HOIST 1913-1917B18
PLAN, WAGON BRIDGE ACROSS LYONS CREEKBACK END PAPER
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A: HENRY B. BROWNE, TUOLUMNE COUNTY PIONEER A1
APPENDIX B: EMPIRE CITY RAILWAY COMPANY, 1906-1917 B1
APPENDIX C: SLC INVENTORY - EMPIRE MILL 1910 C1
APPENDIX D: SLC LICENSE APPLICATIONS - STORES AND SALOONSD1
APPENDIX E: U.S. CENSUS OF 1910 - TUOLUMNE COUNTYE1
APPENDIX F: LOCOMOTIVE ROSTERS - ECRY AND SPRYF1
APPENDIX G: ANNUAL REPORTG1
DUST JACKET INTRODUCTION:
The great Sierran forests - filled with Sugar Pine trees (pinus lambertiana) from the Oregon border to where the deserts begin in southern California - remained virtually untouched until the Gold Rush of 1849. Mining and miners needed plenty of water and plenty of wood to maintain their operations and their personal well-being. The two would become inseparable. In the earliest years, wood could be obtained from the remnants of the Argonauts migration and timber growing in close proximity to the mining camps in the Sierra foothills. Primitive milling technologies developed from logs laid over a pit to be hand-sawn to water and steam powered mills. The value of sawn wood made the substantial investments in milling a wise choice for entrepreneurs among the immigrants. It would not be long before the timber at hand was logged off requiring loggers and millers to move eastward into the higher mountains. The difficulties of transport of both logs and lumber by wagons pulled by animals over rough and dusty roads encouraged the use of railroads to achieve greater production and profits. Railroad construction was an expensive business requiring capital beyond the resources of most small scale mill owners.
By the end of the 19th century, well-financed individuals and companies - many moving west from the depleting forests of the upper Midwest states - brought their money and bought their way into local areas. In Tuolumne County, California, domestic and foreign capital produced the West Side Flume & Lumber Company, re-incorporated in 1897. Four years later, the Standard Lumber Company would be created with similar sources of capital. Both companies would construct railroads to reach into the timberlands. But they would initially follow different paths to success. The West Side company constructed a single sawmill in the town we now call Tuolumne and built a narrow gauge railroad into the vast timberlands it owned east of the North Fork of the Tuolumne River. In contrast, the Standard Lumber Company bought up four of the small independently owned sawmills already existing in the mountains above Sonora. While accumulating timberlands from numerous owners and snaking contracts with the U.S. Forest Service for stumpage it spent several years toiling with outmoded means of transport before it constructed two narrow gauge and one standard gauge railroads. More years later, the company would emulate the path of the West Side with a single mill in Standard City fed with logs hauled by its subsidiary, the Sugar Pine Railway.
The history of the West Side Flume & Lumber Company and its successor the West Side Lumber Company along with the company's railroad, the Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite Valleys Railway have been the subjects of numerous published works. The Standard Lumber Company and its railroads are less well-known. The author has attempted to bring better balance to the equation with this extensively documented history of another Tuolumne County empire.
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