Then and now: Spooner Summit a logging mecca
Oxen bring logs out of the forest in the 1800s. Historic photos/Lake Tahoe Historical Society
With beasts and steam power, Lake Tahoe was raided for wood from the 1850s to the 1890s to build booming Virginia City and its mines.
Glenbrook was once a bustling lumber town.
Trains played a huge role in transporting lumber during the Comstock.
Lumber from the mills at Glenbrook traversed upward by rail to Spooner Summit where a flume then floated it down Clear Creek Grade to roughly the area where today’s Carson City Costco building stands on Old Clear Creek Road.
A flume at the top of Spooner Summit in the late 1800s.
From there the lumber was wheeled to Virginia City.
Old Clear Creek Road was the original Highway 50 route over Spooner Summit to Lake Tahoe until today’s four-lane highway debuted in the late 1950s.
Flumes eased the transport of logs.
Spooner Summit in 2014. Photo/Bill Kingman
— Bill Kingman
We always appreciate your snippets and photos of Tahoe history, Bill. Keep them coming.
Love it. Love it. Love it.
Hi Bill! Excellent photos and story! I’ve got the same picture of the steam locomotive hanging here in the house.
I’ve got a few of those old timbers that were cut here in Tahoe that I salvaged from one of the old mines down in Silver City, which was later used as a framework for the hearth for the woodstove next door.
Gotta keep history alive Bill, and you are doing your part!
Now lets save the Barton house!!! Old Long Skiis
Wonder where the water used in the flumes ended up.
great photos. Looking back, what a different time. Thanks for sharing.
Bill or anybody,
Do you have any photos of the old Al Tahoe Post Office of 1965. It was on the corner of H50 and Al Tahoe Blvd where Denny’s is now. I think I remember parking straight in and then backing out onto H50 when leaving. And no light at that intersection. The good old days.
Mr. Wright I couldn’t find a picture of the old Post Office on 50 and Johnson blvd. but I do recall it at tha location. I think it was removed when the Bijou P.O. went up on the corner of Takela and Sandy way which was right across from “Tarantinos” restaurant.”Fine Dining!”.
Mr. Wright you were my P.E teacher in the 8th grade at the Intermmediadte School back in the 60’s, and I don’t have to run laps around that damn track no more. Just a slow walk around the block suits me just fine these days. Bad knees dont’cha ya know.
Hope your’e doing well, Old Long Skiis