Donner Pass and the Sierra Nevada Mountains

Last week I had an opportunity to travel to Donner Lake, which is located in the mountains of Tahoe National Forest. Along the way, I stopped at a couple of vista point “exits” off of Interstate 80 and took a number of photos of the mountains.

This view is from one of the vista points located along Interstate 80.

I stopped in Soda Springs for lunch. Soda Springs originally was called Summit Valley; the name change occurred in 1875. It is located 3 miles west of Donner Pass. The elevation here is 6,768 ft.

The Tahoe National Forest was originally established in 1899 and named Tahoe Forest Reserve. In 1905, the name was changed to Tahoe National Forest and controlled of the National Forests was changed from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service; President Theodore Roosevelt was in office during this time. His presidency consisted of pushes to conserve our Nation’s natural resources. President Roosevelt, actually established the US Forest Service, signed into law the creation of five National Parks, and signed the 1906 Antiquities Act, which created 18 National Monuments.

This is a view of some of the mountains along Interstate 80. This is the view from on of the vista points along the interstate. Maps are unclear but I think this view is looking at the general location of the Donner Pass. The elevation of Donner Pass is 7,056 ft.

The Tahoe National Forest includes parts of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. The mountain range has been created by a geological activity called plate tectonics (movement of plates that make up the crust of the Earth). In particular the creation of these mountains was caused by a “subduction zone,” where one plate moves beneath another plate and as that happens magma is created from movement, that slowly cools down and the magma rocks created at the zone build up to create these mountains. It takes a very long time. The plates that helped make the Sierra Nevada Range are the Pacific and North America plates. This geological activity began somewhere between 400-130 million years ago but the range as we know it, really was created until between 20-5 million years ago. That means the Sierra Nevada Range would have been around when dinosaurs walked around North America. Parts of the mountains have also been created by the weight and movement of glaciers during the ice ages; “U” shaped valleys are a geologic indicator of this. I just want to give a shout out and thank you, to my basic 9^th grade Earth Studies class, where I learned geology….oh, and I guess those geology courses I took at SUNY Potsdam.

This marker was at the second vista point I stopped at along Interstate 80.

This is the view from that second vista point! It was really pretty!

So that’s some real brief history of the Tahoe National Forest and it’s geology. There’s a lot more that could be added but let’s keep it simple and move on to the juicier stuff.

Next up. Cannibalism!

Sooooo, Donner Lake and Donner Pass are named after a very, very, very ill-fated pioneer wagon train that tried to cross through Donner Pass in 1847. Let’s back up a little bit before 1847, to 1846…not that far back in comparison to 1847… when nine families left Springfield, Illinois in April of 1846 to head west to California. The families were organized by James Reed and George Donner was the captain of the wagon train. The nine families met up with other families headed west creating a large wagon train. Everyone stopped at Fort Bridger, which was located in modern day Wyoming, to resupply and get ready for the long haul to California.

While at Fort Bridger, 87 members of the much larger wagon train decided to set off on their own to travel a new route through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This group is known as the Donner Party and consisted of the group first organized by James Reed and headed by George Donner. Reed had learned of a new route through a pass in the Sierra Mountains near a lake (known today at Donner Lake). With that information, Reed assumed that if the Party took this route, they would arrive in California sooner.

James Reed got some real bad information.

The Donner Party arrived at the summit of the mountains at the lake around October 28, 1846. By that time, there was already 6 feet of snow and this stopped the Donner Party dead in their tracks. The different families set up camp around the lake using their wagons and other materials for shelter. The families technically were trapped by the snow- they couldn’t go forward or even back the way they had come by late fall. In the middle of December a group of 15 people left the encampment to travel the rest of the way to California in the hopes of getting help. Only 7 people survived the trek into California and reached Sutter’s Fort, where they were able to get much needed help. During that time the Donner Party went through most of their supplies and livestock. People starved and froze to death, and some of the survivors turned to cannibalism to survive. There was a total of four rescue parties that went to Donner Lake from Sutter’s Fort. Of the original 87 pioneers that got stuck at Donner Lake, only 48 survived and made it to California.

Donner Lake is located in the Truckee, California. Donner Pass is located about 9 miles in this general direction.

This information sign is located at that gravel “parking lot”/extended shoulder.

This is a view of mountains and Interstate 80 from a “parking lot” right next to the Donner Memorial State Park.

At the Memorial State Park, there is a statue for the Donner Party. The State Park actually preserves the site of where the Donner Party camped. It’s located towards the eastern point of Donner Lake.

Obviously Donner Lake and Donner Pass are named after the Donner Party. Donner Pass through the Sierra Nevada Mountains has been used in a series of different transportation routes starting with the California Trail (wagon trail). Eventually the pass was incorporated into the route of the Central Pacific Railroad for the First Transcontinental Railroad. More recently, in the age of the automobile, there has been a route through the pass for U. S. Route 40 (the Lincoln Highway), which was the first road across the United States and then the pass was indirectly used by Interstate 80. Interstate 80 was the route I took to get to Donner Lake.

So there you have it! A very brief history on the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Donner Party.

If you have any questions or comments, let me know in the section below.

Thanks for reading!

Sources and Further Information:

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/donnerparty.htm This website has a detailed narrative about the Donner Party and includes some diary entries from a member of the Donner Party.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Pass Wikipedia has a number of great visuals to check out about Donner Pass.

Soda Springs General Store: http://sodaspringsgeneralstore.com/

Tahoe National Forest:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/tahoe

http://www.tahoefund.org/about-tahoe/tahoes-environmental-history/

https://www.nationalforests.org/our-forests/find-a-forest/tahoe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahoe_National_Forest

Tahoe National Forest History: http://www.foresthistory.org/ASPNET/Publications/region/5/tahoe/contents.htm

Sierra Nevada

https://geomaps.wr.usgs.gov/parks/province/pacifmt.html

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/science/profiles/erwin_0609geology.php

Advertisement

What is This Jargon!?! Art Deco and Streamline Moderne???

Last week I was in downtown Sacramento for a chocolate tasting with co-workers and I had an opportunity to walk around 9^th and 10^th Streets in between J and K Streets- basically a square around the block.

I took a number of photos and wanted to share those images with you….and tell you about some jargon!

Art Deco.

Streamline Moderne.

They’re jargon and they’re architectural terms. Art Deco is a style that appeared in Paris in the early 1900’s in the construction of two different apartment buildings. The architects were Henri Sauvage and Auguste Perret. The apartment buildings were constructed of reinforced concrete- used for the first time for residential buildings in Paris. The architectural design of the buildings consisted of clean lines, rectangular forms, and there were no decorations on the facade. The term applies to not only architecture but to visual arts and design. The name, “Art Deco” comes from Art Décoratifs a phrase used during the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts that was held in Paris in 1925. In general Art Deco is associated with luxury and modernity; expensive materials were used with superb craftsmanship. Streamline Moderne is an architectural term used for a later styleof Art Deco seen during the 1930’s. Below are lists of the features seen in both types of styles.

Specific Features:

Art Deco:

Smooth Wall Surfaces

Stucco, Stone, Metal, Polychromy

Simple, Geometric Forms and Motifs

Vertical Emphasis

Rectangular Forms

Streamline Moderne:

Curved Forms

Stucco, Fluted/Pressed Metal, Ribbon Windows, Glass Block Windows

Long Horizontal Lines

Nautical Elements

Horizontal Emphasis

Curved Walls

Flat Roof lines

The following are images that I look around the Blocks of 9^th and 10^th Street, in between J and K Streets. They are in the order of which I took the photographs, where I started on 10^th Street, walked up Kayak Alley, arrived on 9^th Street and then eventually walked down J Street back to 10^th Street. There were only a few buildings I could find information on; one building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; other information came from historic photographs of the streets and from the Pacific Coast Architectural Database created by the University of Washington. 

This is the Forum Building. It was constructed in 1911. It definitely has Art Deco detailing around the main entrance and the general vertical feeling of the building. In 2000, rehabilitation work was done on the facade to preserve its wonderful details!

The front doors of the Forum Building.

The blue building is the Ruhstaller Building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was constructed in 1898 for the business man, Frank J. Ruhstaller. The building is eclectic in that in combines a number of architectural style features including Queen Anne, Romanesque, and even Art Deco motifs.

Another view of the Ruhstaller Building. The building was used by Frank J. Ruhstaller for his business offices, for the Buffalo Brewing Company/ SPace was rented to doctors and other business. For a time the Elks Club has space in the building. The tall building seen behind the Ruhstaller Building is the California-Western States Life Insurance Company headquarters.

A view of the California-Western States Life Insurance Company headquarters and its immediate neighbor.

Looking up at the California-Western States Life Insurance Company headquarters. The building was designed by George C. Sellon and built in 1926. The building is 14 stories tall.

Sources and Further Information-

Sacramento Buildings: http://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/19942/

http://sacramento.pastperfectonline.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search_criteria=10th+street&searchButton=Search

Rahstaller Building: https://npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/82002237.pdf

Architectural Styles: All of these links have wonderful photos of significant buildings that are designed in these architectural styles, check them out!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Deco

http://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/worlds-most-beautiful-art-deco-buildings

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streamline_Moderne

https://architecturestyles.org/art-deco/

 

Portrait of a Building: The Crocker Art Museum

Currently for work, I am living outside of Sacramento, California in Rancho Cordova. I have the weekends off, so I’ve been using those days to explore cool places in California. This past weekend, I visited the Crocker Art Museum, which is located on O Street in Sacramento. The streets in downtown Sacramento are named either by a letter or a number- it’s really interesting!

The Crocker Mansion can be called a number of things: Italianate, Italian Villa, and can even be said to be inspired by Mannerism of 16th Century Italy. Mannerism in architecture is characterized by visual trickery and unexpected elements. The exterior facade is constructed of weathered stucco over-coating.

The Crocker Mansion that makes up part of the museum complex was constructed in 1853 for pioneer banker, B. F. Hastings. The home was designed by Seth Babson. The original style of the home was classical in style.

In 1868, Judge Edwin B. Crocker purchased the property, which included the home and out buildings. Judge Crocker, was a judge for the supreme court for the state of California. When the home was purchased Judge Crocker and his wife, Margaret, had an extensive art collection that had been started by a trip to Europe. The Crocker family commissioned Seth Babson to renovate the home that he had designed originally in the 1850’s. The new plans included changing the style of the home into an Italianate Villa mansion and to add a gallery for the art collection to be displayed. These renovations were completed by 1872. The following images show the interior of the home:

 

This view is of the ceiling seen upon entering the Crocker Mansion through the front doors.

Looking up towards the ceilings on the first and second floors of the Italian Villa.

Walking through the front doors of the Crocker Mansion brings you into a foyer where there are double staircases leading to the second floor. This is a view of one of the staircases.

There’s a ballroom…..it’s huge and located on the first floor. The space is used for events. When I was there, museum staff and volunteers were preparing for a kids art activity!

This room is within the historic building but is connected directly to the new modern structure (you would go through the hallway to the right to get to the new building). In this photo you can see how ornate the rooms of the Mansion are.

This wall safe is located in the old office room on the second floor!

Look at that door knob. All of the doors in the historic building were beautiful and these style of door knob was on a number of doors!

The Crocker family were also keen on supporting social and civil causes in Sacramento. By 1885, Edwin had passed away and Margaret worked to establish an art museum from their collection. The museum was originally named the “E. B. Crocker Art Gallery” and was given to the city and placed in “trust for the public.”

This plaque can be found on the first floor of the historic building near the original front doors.

In 1887, Margaret moved east to New York, to be closer to her adult children. The E. B. Crocker Art Gallery happened to be the first public art building founded in the Western United States. The following are images of artwork I saw at the museum. The Museum allows non-flash photography throughout the galleries. All rights to the artwork are of the Crocker Art Museum:

 

This is a view of some of the beautiful Oceanic artifacts the Museum has in their collections.

This large painting was completed in 1911. Mathews was a well known for his murals and is credited for creating, “California Decorative Style,” which combined elements of European Art Nouveau, Classical, and California flora, fauna, and locals.

During the San Francisco Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Stirling had created a “Colonnade of Stars,” which consisted of 95 Star Maidens of plaster. After the Exposition, the plaster versions of the Maidens were cast in bronze in 1914.

This is a Japanese suit of armor called “tosei gusoku,” which means modern equipment. It dates to the Edo Period of Japan and is from the 17th century. This style of armor is lightweight, flexible, and a key part of a Japanese warriors identity.

Aspara are celestial nymphs or spirit of the clouds or water in the Hindu and Buddhist religions.

McCormick painted this scene around 1893. It is one of here earliest paintings of California. She was inspired greatly by French Impressionism.

Painted in the 1890’s, this painting depicts one of the Greek Muses. The painting dates to a period of art in the United States called the “American Renaissance.”

The painting was painted in 1962 and is oli on canvas. This piece of art is considered Pop Art!

This piece of art is part of the exhibit, Turn the Page: The First Ten Years of Hi-Fructose. The exhibit marks the 10th anniversary of the art magazine, Hi-Fructose.

Sometime after Margaret passed away in 1901, the building was given to the Fairhaven Home for Girls and then basically abandoned. It remained vacant until 1911, when the City of Sacramento purchased the property with donated funding from a Mrs. Sloat Fassett….Mrs. Fassett actually was Jennie Crocker, one of the daughters of Edwin and Margaret!

In more recent years the art museum has continued to flourish. In 1970, the Crocker Art Gallery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and became a state historic landmark.

1989, saw the building go through a number of renovations. The main home and the art gallery were connected and the historic facade was completely restored. In 2000, plans were started to construct a new addition to the historic building and within 10 years, the Teel Family Pavilion was opened. This new space basically tripled the square footage of the museum, allowing for more room galleries, administrative offices, and educational spaces.

Sources and Further Information:

https://www.crockerart.org/about

http://www.haunted-places.com/crocker.htm

https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/e671de17-3822-4558-bd13-f76532fc2ae7?branding=NRHP

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannerism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsara