Site search
sponsored by
Home
News
A new trail from the west side of Olympic Heights under the Highway 267 bypass and on to Donner Pass Road is a good example of local backyard history. The Stockrest Spring Trail is being built by the U.S. Forest Service and the Truckee Trails Foundation to replace the access cut off by the construction of the 267 Bypass.
The name of Stockrest Spring refers to a set of springs in the meadow between 267 and Interstate 80.
It was used by emigrant wagon trains traveling on the Truckee branch of the California Route of the Overland Emigrant Trail.
This trail saw its busiest times from 1847 through 1852, as thousands of wagons loaded with California bound emigrants and their possessions passed through the Truckee River basin.
The route avoided the Truckee River Canyon, instead running through Dog Valley, Stampede Meadows and Prosser Creek Valley before dropping back down to the Truckee River. Several different threads of trail were used to go from Prosser Creek southwest to the river, this route being one of the easiest ways to get wagons down the steep bluffs.
A very identifiable segment of trail runs along the eastern edge of Stockrest Meadow, before dropping down through the low gap along the bluff.
The view in 1850 would have been of an undisturbed wilderness of pine trees up to four feet in diameter, with meadows lining the Truckee River. Later in 1864, the Dutch Flat Donner Lake Wagon Road would use a more direct route going directly up the bluff at Gray's Station, the predecessor of Truckee.
The first major development was the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad down the Truckee River in 1868.
This section of track was built before the Donner Pass tunnels were complete. All of the rails and rolling stock were hauled by wagon over the summit.
Double tracking of the transcontinental railroad in this section occurred in 1907.
The railroad also started the quarry that cuts into the bluff on the western edge of the property.
The railyard and sawmill needed fill dirt as they developed, and this was a convenient site with little rock in it to fill and level the site. The 1901 construction of the fill over Donner Creek and Highway 89 also used dirt from this site, hauling it on rail cars.
Truckee's history is full of lumber - and railroad-related topics.
The area that the trail runs through was stripped of its trees by 1871.
Being close to the river, the trees were cut first for railroad ties, bridge timbers, and lumber for western towns along the railroad.
A second cutting of the smaller trees produced fuel wood to supply the steam locomotives of the Central Pacific, as well as the steam boilers of the Comstock Lode of Virginia City. Charcoal was burned in nearby sites by Chinese workers in the area, as well.
The road that runs through Stockrest Spring Meadow is actually the grade of the Hobart Southern Railroad.
It was built 1896-97 as the Sierra Nevada Wood And Lumber Co. built the Hobart Mills sawmill. It moved from Incline at Lake Tahoe as the timber was cut over there.
This standard gauge line ran from the Truckee railyard through Stockrest Spring Meadow, to Alder Creek at the upper end of Prosser Creek Reservoir, over Prosser Creek and onto Hobart Mills.
This line carried all of the cut lumber and factory products from 1896 until the mill closed in 1936.
The tracks were re-laid in 1946 as the Fibreboard Company built a second sawmill at Hobart Mills and used until 1952.
During the late 1800s, the Truckee Basin was the summer range of dozens of herds of dairy and beef cows and sheep herds.
These herds would use Stockrest Spring as a stopping point on their way from the Sacramento Valley to the rangelands to the north of Truckee.
Truckee's dairy industry was a booming business in the 1880s.
Thousands of pounds of mountain butter were made each summer and shipped in wooden tubs by wagon to town and transported by rail throughout the region.
The sheep herds would arrive in the spring traveling from meadow to meadow grazing on the grasses that grew on the areas that had been cut over in the first round of logging in the 1870s.
In the summer, they would shear the wool off of the sheep in places like Stockrest Spring Meadow close to the railroad.
It would be bagged and shipped to wool mills below, and made into wool clothing.
Some of it eventually made it back to Truckee keeping Truckee people warm in the winter.
As the automobile era dawned in the 1910s, the route east of Truckee followed the old Dutch Flat Donner Lake road up past the Truckee cemetery out through Prosser Creek and Dog Valley.
The road over the ridge east of Stampede Valley was impassable during winter due to heavy snow, so the push was made in the 1920s to develop the road through the Truckee River Canyon.
The current Glenshire Drive was built first as a local wagon road to go along the tracks to the small sawmills, wood camps, ice ponds and ranches along the north side of the river.
In 1926, need for a year-round route east of Truckee to Reno resulted in the construction of this segment of the Lincoln/Victory Highway.
It ran past Boca and Floriston which already had roads built to them, and pushed down the canyon to Verdi, which had only the rail line through it.
The name was changed to Highway 40 in 1928, as the nation's highway system came under federal control.
Evidence of this route being used by wagon and early auto travelers is found in the area.
Painted billboards on rocks were installed by Truckee businessmen to advertise hotels and gas stations.
Truckee had lapsed into a decline in the first three decades of the 1900s, as the lumber and railroad industry lost jobs.
The tourists and highway travelers were encouraged to spend their money in town, a trend that continues today.
The western portion of the trail traverses an area that was used by Truckeeites as a town dump for several decades.
The town had no organized dump until the 1950s, so any area close to town that wagons and trucks could get to ended up being a town dump site.
This link in the Truckee Trail system is one of many that has several links to local history, much of it found in our own backyards.
The name of Stockrest Spring refers to a set of springs in the meadow between 267 and Interstate 80.
It was used by emigrant wagon trains traveling on the Truckee branch of the California Route of the Overland Emigrant Trail.
This trail saw its busiest times from 1847 through 1852, as thousands of wagons loaded with California bound emigrants and their possessions passed through the Truckee River basin.
The route avoided the Truckee River Canyon, instead running through Dog Valley, Stampede Meadows and Prosser Creek Valley before dropping back down to the Truckee River. Several different threads of trail were used to go from Prosser Creek southwest to the river, this route being one of the easiest ways to get wagons down the steep bluffs.
A very identifiable segment of trail runs along the eastern edge of Stockrest Meadow, before dropping down through the low gap along the bluff.
The view in 1850 would have been of an undisturbed wilderness of pine trees up to four feet in diameter, with meadows lining the Truckee River. Later in 1864, the Dutch Flat Donner Lake Wagon Road would use a more direct route going directly up the bluff at Gray's Station, the predecessor of Truckee.
The first major development was the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad down the Truckee River in 1868.
This section of track was built before the Donner Pass tunnels were complete. All of the rails and rolling stock were hauled by wagon over the summit.
Double tracking of the transcontinental railroad in this section occurred in 1907.
The railroad also started the quarry that cuts into the bluff on the western edge of the property.
The railyard and sawmill needed fill dirt as they developed, and this was a convenient site with little rock in it to fill and level the site. The 1901 construction of the fill over Donner Creek and Highway 89 also used dirt from this site, hauling it on rail cars.
Truckee's history is full of lumber - and railroad-related topics.
The area that the trail runs through was stripped of its trees by 1871.
Being close to the river, the trees were cut first for railroad ties, bridge timbers, and lumber for western towns along the railroad.
A second cutting of the smaller trees produced fuel wood to supply the steam locomotives of the Central Pacific, as well as the steam boilers of the Comstock Lode of Virginia City. Charcoal was burned in nearby sites by Chinese workers in the area, as well.
The road that runs through Stockrest Spring Meadow is actually the grade of the Hobart Southern Railroad.
It was built 1896-97 as the Sierra Nevada Wood And Lumber Co. built the Hobart Mills sawmill. It moved from Incline at Lake Tahoe as the timber was cut over there.
This standard gauge line ran from the Truckee railyard through Stockrest Spring Meadow, to Alder Creek at the upper end of Prosser Creek Reservoir, over Prosser Creek and onto Hobart Mills.
This line carried all of the cut lumber and factory products from 1896 until the mill closed in 1936.
The tracks were re-laid in 1946 as the Fibreboard Company built a second sawmill at Hobart Mills and used until 1952.
During the late 1800s, the Truckee Basin was the summer range of dozens of herds of dairy and beef cows and sheep herds.
These herds would use Stockrest Spring as a stopping point on their way from the Sacramento Valley to the rangelands to the north of Truckee.
Truckee's dairy industry was a booming business in the 1880s.
Thousands of pounds of mountain butter were made each summer and shipped in wooden tubs by wagon to town and transported by rail throughout the region.
The sheep herds would arrive in the spring traveling from meadow to meadow grazing on the grasses that grew on the areas that had been cut over in the first round of logging in the 1870s.
In the summer, they would shear the wool off of the sheep in places like Stockrest Spring Meadow close to the railroad.
It would be bagged and shipped to wool mills below, and made into wool clothing.
Some of it eventually made it back to Truckee keeping Truckee people warm in the winter.
As the automobile era dawned in the 1910s, the route east of Truckee followed the old Dutch Flat Donner Lake road up past the Truckee cemetery out through Prosser Creek and Dog Valley.
The road over the ridge east of Stampede Valley was impassable during winter due to heavy snow, so the push was made in the 1920s to develop the road through the Truckee River Canyon.
The current Glenshire Drive was built first as a local wagon road to go along the tracks to the small sawmills, wood camps, ice ponds and ranches along the north side of the river.
In 1926, need for a year-round route east of Truckee to Reno resulted in the construction of this segment of the Lincoln/Victory Highway.
It ran past Boca and Floriston which already had roads built to them, and pushed down the canyon to Verdi, which had only the rail line through it.
The name was changed to Highway 40 in 1928, as the nation's highway system came under federal control.
Evidence of this route being used by wagon and early auto travelers is found in the area.
Painted billboards on rocks were installed by Truckee businessmen to advertise hotels and gas stations.
Truckee had lapsed into a decline in the first three decades of the 1900s, as the lumber and railroad industry lost jobs.
The tourists and highway travelers were encouraged to spend their money in town, a trend that continues today.
The western portion of the trail traverses an area that was used by Truckeeites as a town dump for several decades.
The town had no organized dump until the 1950s, so any area close to town that wagons and trucks could get to ended up being a town dump site.
This link in the Truckee Trail system is one of many that has several links to local history, much of it found in our own backyards.
