Alas, I do not have dates for these two pics.

Very old photo of Caspar

Probably one of the first pictures of the Caspar Mill

What is a “Demonstration Forest?” A Demonstration Forest is timberland that is managed for forestry education, research, and recreation. It demonstrates innovations in forest management, watershed protection and restoration, and environmentally sensitive timber harvesting techniques. In such a Forest good forestland stewardship is shown by management for a sustainable timber production. At the same time, the Forest is open to the public at no charge. Demonstration State Forest timberlands are publicly owned by the State of California. They are managed by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CDF). As a group, they are financially self-sustaining due to the value of timber harvests.

If you traverse Route 20 between Fort Bragg and Willits you will see a sign that says, “Jackson Demonstration State Forest.” Jackson Demonstration State Forest is the largest demonstration forest operated by the State of California. The forest is entirely located within Mendocino County on land formerly owned by Caspar Lumber Company along California State Highway 20. Logging of the area began in 1862, and intense industrial logging has taken place for many decades. There have been several generations of harvests and replantings. The 48,652 acres that make up the forest were purchased in 1947 and the demonstration forest was created in 1949. Coast redwood is the most common type of tree in the forest, but there is also Douglas fir, grand fir, hemlock, bishop pine, tanoak, alder, madrone and bay myrtle. The elevation of the land varies from 80 to 2,200 feet. Precipitation near the coast averages 39 inches per year, but the average is 70 inches per year inland. The temperature reaches a low of 25 °F (−4 °C) and a high of 100 °F (38 °C). The name Jackson comes from the name of the man who bought the Caspar Lumber Company from its first owner. The buyer was Jacob Green Jackson.

This map shows the extent of the forest.

Map of Jackson Demonstration State Forest

If you want to know just how twisty Route 20 is just run your finger along the red line. Allegedly there are 312 twists in the road between Fort Bragg and Willits.

A couple of blogs back I said that I had trouble identifying two pictures I had been sent. I finally identified one as the CSF&ERRCo #3 a 3 2-6-2t. Well serendipity has struck and I now have three more photos of said loco!!!! See below:

CSF&ERRCo) #3 a 3 2-6-2t

CSF&ERRCo) #3 a 3 2-6-2t

CSF&ERRCo) #3 a 3 2-6-2t

Nothing like a bit of luck if you are a historian!

It’s great when someone more knowledgeable than me writes about the Mendocino Coast Logging operations. Martin Hansen has certainly done that in a recent blog on his site, “Steam in the Woods.” With no further ado here is is his post:

“Just 5 miles south of Ft. Bragg on the California Coast, lies the little town of Caspar. This coastal town today only has a handful of buildings left. However, in 1870 the town boasted a large sawmill and the beginnings of a logging railroad that never connected to any other rail line. Originally the railroad was animal powered and built on wooden rails. By 1875 steel rails replaced the wooden rails and a small second-hand 0-4-4T built in San Francisco in 1869 was added as the first steam power. The railroad by this time was known as the Caspar South Fork & Eastern RR.

By 1885 the mill was prospering and the railroad had been extended some 5 miles from the mill to the cutting areas. This prompted the Caspar Lumber Company to call on Baldwin to build a new locomotive for the young railroad. Here is what they got.In June 1885 Baldwin shipped C/N 7558 to San Francisco where it was knocked down and loaded onto the schooner “ABBIE” for the trip up the coast to Caspar. Once in the harbor, she was unloaded and barged to the dock where she was then hauled up the hill to the small enginehouse for re-assembly.

The engine was name Daisy when ordered from Baldwin and that name lasted her entire career. In the first photo we see Daisy when she was still new and in her factory paint. You can see the pride her crews took in her in this portrait. Daisy served very well for decades on the CSF&E and was still in service in April 1938 when she was spotted for pictures during the only railfan excursion held on the CSF&E as shown in the second photo.

While larger and more powerful engines would follow and replace Daisy on the mainline run in later years (including a pair of 2-6-6-2 Mallets) Daisy was still the pride of the CSF&E when the line quit in 1945. Because of her popularity she became the only one of the 7 CSF&E locomotives to be saved. She was originally put on display in 1948 at Camp 20 and later she was moved to Ft. Bragg where she is on display today.”

She is on display in the Museum Deli opposite the Skunk Train Depot.

These three photos were loaded with the above text:

Daisy when she was new

Daisy after years of hard work

Daisy’s Manufacturer’s badge

Thanks Martin

We know from a movie the club has that most of the Caspar Lumber Company’s milled products were shipped to Pittsburg (a town on the southern shore of the Suisun Bay in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area.) There the Caspar Lumber Company had a controlling interest in a box making factory. Boxes ranged from crates to cigar  boxes and everything in between. There was a great need for crates to ship, among other things, fruit from the Central Valley all over the USA. What we/I do not know is whether one of the “partners” was the Fruit Growers Supply Company.

Knowledge of the Fruit Growers Supply Company has eluded me to date. However this post in Martin Hansen “Steam in the Woods” blog provides an excellent background on the Company:

FGS #5, a big Lima 3-truck Shay

“When a large group of Southern California fruit growers banded together in 1907 to form a cooperative association to guaranty they would have a steady supply of wood to make box shook for their packaging, they formed the Fruit Growers Supply Company. This organization marketed their products under the Sunkist Brand name, familiar to most of us.

One of their main missions was to accumulate enough timber land to provide a steady and economical supply of box shook. They acquired many large timber holdings until ultimately they became the largest private owner of timber land in California. One of their timber holdings was in Northern California near the Oregon border where they formed the town of Hilt. It was at Hilt that they operated a mill and logging railroad system to supply the wood for the company.

In the late 1930’s famed logging photographer Clark Kinsey traveled to Hilt to photograph the operation for the company. Here we see FGS #5, a big Lima 3-truck Shay as she unloads her log loads at the mill pond in Hilt. This ritual would be repeated day in and day out for many decades until the logging railroad was finally abandoned in the early 1950’s.

The mill finally closed and the company town of Hilt was leveled in the mid 1970’s so that there nearly no sign the mill or town was ever there. Fortunately for us, Shay #5 lived on as she went to a new logging line out of Cochran, Oregon for a number of years before being sold in the 1940’s to Pickering Lumber Corp. where she became their #7. Today she is on display at the Sierra Ry roundhouse in Jamestown, CA.”