Truckee Donner Railroad Society Digs into Truckee Springs History

The following article, written by Historian Nelson Van Gundy, appeared in the Truckee Donner Railroad Society’s newsletter recently highlighting Truckee Springs’ history:

George Schaffer and Joseph Gray constructed Truckee’s first saw mill in 1866. This locomotive was part of Schaffer’s private railroad line, which hauled logs from the logging camps to the mill.

Across the Truckee River from downtown Truckee is an undeveloped 26-acre parcel known locally as Truckee Springs.

The Truckee Donner Land Trust is now under contract to purchase the property, with the intention of preserving and opening this previously inaccessible land forever as natural open space for public enjoyment.

According to The Washoe Tribe’s oral history, their ancestors camped across the Truckee River from the present location of downtown Truckee for hundreds of summers. Shortly after the Gold Rush, an influx of emigrants began using the area, and Coburn’s Station, as Truckee was then known, was established on the north side of the river.

Coburn’s Station grew, both as the last stop for the climb over Donner Summit, and as a base for the logging industry which was growing to meet the demands of the Comstock Lode in and around Virginia City. In 1866-67 a sawmill was built on the south side of the river by George Schaffer and Joseph Gray, utilizing the Truckee River for power. The mill and yard gradually expanded until the entire property on the south side of the Truckee River was occupied. A wide variety of local loggers brought timber to the mill, first by animal-power and later by railroad.

The inclined grade on the hill directly south of this property is all that remains of a line from Martis Valley to the mill. Over the next forty-plus years, a majority of the transcontinental Central Pacific Railway’s ties, bridge timbers, and snowshed lumber were logged locally, milled here, and then shipped to locations all along the Central Pacific Railway.

The mill’s market for railroad materials expanded across the West, with the location providing similar materials for a number of other railroad lines located in California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon. Toward the end of this period the Truckee Lumber Company provided the right-of-way for the Lake Tahoe Railway and Navigation Company to build a three-foot narrow gauge line from Truckee to Tahoe City, in exchange for a favorable rate for log delivery to the sawmill.

There is a fascinating discussion regarding these financial arrangements in The Swayne Lumber Company by Beckstrom and Braun. The mill property was sold in December of 1909. In 1913, Truckee’s grandest ice palace was constructed on the site, but was only used for two seasons before it burned to the ground.

Over the more than one hundred years since then, a wide variety of development schemes have been proposed, but none have been realized. The Truckee Donner Land Trust’s proposal is a brilliant solution for Truckee, providing a uniquely gorgeous park, with great historical value, directly across the Truckee River from downtown for all to enjoy!

[Thanks to Beckstrom & Braun for the Truckee Lumber Co. history in their Swayne Lumber book, and to Dave Myrick for his seminal Railroads of Nevada and Eastern California!]

Nelson Van Gundy, Historian Truckee Donner Railroad Society