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Editor's note: This is the final column in a four-part series on the Sierra Nevada Wood & Lumber Company.
The Sierra Nevada Wood & Lumber Company began its life as a small lumber mill in 1873 in the mountains east of Lake Tahoe. By 1900 they had built the town of Hobart Mills five miles north of Truckee.
Saloons were banned in Hobart Mills, as were liquor sales at the company owned Overton Mercantile, but across Prosser Creek was Klondike, where first J.B. Welton, then Sophie McLeod, ran a small roadhouse on one of the few properties not controlled by the company. Still, those who overindulged were met with stern warnings and then dismissal if they persisted on excessive drinking.
When the woodsmen came in from the logging camps, they weren't as concerned about being civilized, so they went on to Truckee where they had their choice of saloons and red light district entertainment. Hobart Mills remained so well behaved, that for the first decade, the townspeople found no need for a Constable or a Justice of the Peace.
While there was no church in Hobart Mills, worshipers attended services in Truckee, or at times the Truckee Methodist ministers and Catholic priests would hold services at Hobart Mills.
Management's goal was to keep the working men too busy to drink or pray.
The town was originally built for 1000 people, almost as large as Truckee was in 1897, and with additional housing, grew to house over 1500 at peak season. It cost over $250,000 to build the town and the lumber plant, with the improvements and property worth $2,000,000 in 1900 prices.
For employee accommodations, SNW&L provided a clean place to live with good meals, for a reasonable price. Single men stayed in the hotel, bunkhouses, or in the boarding house. The married men and their families lived in well kept houses on the neat streets, with children playing in the yards. The company persuaded as many men as possible to get married, raise families, and made sure they were rewarded for living a productive sober life.
Even with plenty of wood framed houses for those who held the better positions, two suburbs of Hobart Mills grew with the town. Ragtown, just to the southwest was named that because it was a tent city in the summer, but after a long summer, some of the white tents looked more like rags. Flumeville, named for the remains of the nearby abandoned lumber flume, was built by scavengers ripping apart the flume and building shacks out of the lumber.
In 1898 the Overton School was built on the northwest side of town. A time capsule was placed in the rocks of the foundation. This was recovered during 1967 by Pat McKendry, who in 2006 donated it to the Truckee District of the Tahoe National Forest. It contained various newspapers of 1897-98, descriptions of Hobart Mills, documents that listed the schoolteacher, 20 students, and the school board trustees. There were many clubs for the women and children and they welcomed Hobart people.
W.S. Hobart believed in hiring the best people available, and building loyalties that would last for generations. One example is Charles Barton, who started as a logging contractor for SNW&L in 1883 at Incline, and was logging in the Hobart Mills forests by 1899. He brought along his sons Charles Jr. and Oren, who was a locomotive engineer for several decades.
Barton would continue logging until 1907, then went on to run Corey's Station, a small company owned roadhouse located about five miles north of Hobart Mills.
Hobart Mills continued as a town, a society, and a lumber mill until 1936. With the virgin pine timber cut off, the buildings were dismantled over the next few years, ending over 60 years of the Hobart lumber empire. The Hobart Mills forests, still thriving with second growth trees were sold to the US Forest Service, and the 21,000 acres of Lake Tahoe timberlands were sold to George Whittell. The forests of Lake Tahoe and Truckee provided the lumber needed to develop the West for 60 years. As time goes by, the scars of this enterprise vanish and only the history remains.
Gordon Richards is the historian for the Truckee Donner Historical Society.
The Sierra Nevada Wood & Lumber Company began its life as a small lumber mill in 1873 in the mountains east of Lake Tahoe. By 1900 they had built the town of Hobart Mills five miles north of Truckee.
Saloons were banned in Hobart Mills, as were liquor sales at the company owned Overton Mercantile, but across Prosser Creek was Klondike, where first J.B. Welton, then Sophie McLeod, ran a small roadhouse on one of the few properties not controlled by the company. Still, those who overindulged were met with stern warnings and then dismissal if they persisted on excessive drinking.
When the woodsmen came in from the logging camps, they weren't as concerned about being civilized, so they went on to Truckee where they had their choice of saloons and red light district entertainment. Hobart Mills remained so well behaved, that for the first decade, the townspeople found no need for a Constable or a Justice of the Peace.
While there was no church in Hobart Mills, worshipers attended services in Truckee, or at times the Truckee Methodist ministers and Catholic priests would hold services at Hobart Mills.
Management's goal was to keep the working men too busy to drink or pray.
The town was originally built for 1000 people, almost as large as Truckee was in 1897, and with additional housing, grew to house over 1500 at peak season. It cost over $250,000 to build the town and the lumber plant, with the improvements and property worth $2,000,000 in 1900 prices.
For employee accommodations, SNW&L provided a clean place to live with good meals, for a reasonable price. Single men stayed in the hotel, bunkhouses, or in the boarding house. The married men and their families lived in well kept houses on the neat streets, with children playing in the yards. The company persuaded as many men as possible to get married, raise families, and made sure they were rewarded for living a productive sober life.
Even with plenty of wood framed houses for those who held the better positions, two suburbs of Hobart Mills grew with the town. Ragtown, just to the southwest was named that because it was a tent city in the summer, but after a long summer, some of the white tents looked more like rags. Flumeville, named for the remains of the nearby abandoned lumber flume, was built by scavengers ripping apart the flume and building shacks out of the lumber.
In 1898 the Overton School was built on the northwest side of town. A time capsule was placed in the rocks of the foundation. This was recovered during 1967 by Pat McKendry, who in 2006 donated it to the Truckee District of the Tahoe National Forest. It contained various newspapers of 1897-98, descriptions of Hobart Mills, documents that listed the schoolteacher, 20 students, and the school board trustees. There were many clubs for the women and children and they welcomed Hobart people.
W.S. Hobart believed in hiring the best people available, and building loyalties that would last for generations. One example is Charles Barton, who started as a logging contractor for SNW&L in 1883 at Incline, and was logging in the Hobart Mills forests by 1899. He brought along his sons Charles Jr. and Oren, who was a locomotive engineer for several decades.
Barton would continue logging until 1907, then went on to run Corey's Station, a small company owned roadhouse located about five miles north of Hobart Mills.
Hobart Mills continued as a town, a society, and a lumber mill until 1936. With the virgin pine timber cut off, the buildings were dismantled over the next few years, ending over 60 years of the Hobart lumber empire. The Hobart Mills forests, still thriving with second growth trees were sold to the US Forest Service, and the 21,000 acres of Lake Tahoe timberlands were sold to George Whittell. The forests of Lake Tahoe and Truckee provided the lumber needed to develop the West for 60 years. As time goes by, the scars of this enterprise vanish and only the history remains.
Gordon Richards is the historian for the Truckee Donner Historical Society.
