BRIDGES: Donner Lake Bridge

This bridge is personal for me. I love the view of Donner Lake from this angle. My family owned land a few miles west of this bridge for almost 40 years. They built a cabin which we used all year long.

In the summer I loved driving along this road with the windows down, the warm summer mountain breeze flowing through the car. On this road you pass by a stone wall that was built by Chinese labor when they were constructing the Central Pacific Railroad. There's a rock that calls out to rock climbers for much of the year. You'll find cyclists climbing from the lake to the peak still high above where this shot was taken.




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At some point a bus went off this road into the gully right before the bridge. That bus lay there for decades slowly rusting, its once vivid colors turning muted. There was also an old rusted hulk of a car. Understand that at one time this was the route across the Sierras from California to Nevada. The eventual Interstate 80 was built on the hillside to the left where you can see what was possibly the beginning of the construction.

And of course this is the lake made famous by its namesake, the Donner Party. If you don't know the history of the Donner family and their fellow travelers you can read about it here. And if you're going to be in the area be sure to visit the California State Park where you can walk a path through the area where the families lived during the dreadful winter.

At the eastern end of the lake is the bustling town of Gateway with Truckee nearby. Both towns have changed dramatically and look nothing like what I fell in love with in the mid-1960s. At that time neither town would have been called bustling. Many an evening was spent at a restaurant in Truckee flirting with the waiters who were at heart nothing more than ski bums. And many a late night I had to come back over the pass to the cabin in a snowstorm. Now I'm older and wiser.

KNOTT what it seems

This post is a companion piece to this week’s Sepia Saturday post at Tattered and Lost Vernacular Photography.

The following images are all from Knott’s Berry Farm located in Buena Park, California.

I first went to Knott’s Berry Farm in the early 1950s, before Disneyland was even open. I have two vivid memories; one involved the train, the second involved the jail.

This lovely old train was one of the few rides in the park. I don’t remember why only my mother and I went on it, but I can tell you I was screaming at the top of my lungs before it was over. Everything seemed to be fine and dandy as the train moved around the park grounds. And then THEY came aboard with guns drawn, kerchief masks over the faces. They were train robbers and I thought it was all very real. I was terrified as they came down the aisle demanding our valuables. I don’t know how my mother got me calmed down, but we forever remembered that ride.

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The second memory involves my grandfather and the trick he played on me. Behind some old buildings on the main street is the old jail. You walk up a wooden sidewalk and look inside to see the poor fellow below. Again, I was a little girl, probably around 4 or 5. Imagine my surprise when I looked through the jail house door window and the prisoner, Sad Eye Joe, started talking to me, using my name. How could he possibly know who I was? My folks stood by laughing. I was creeped out. And for some reason my grandfather was no where to be found. It wasn’t until I was older that my folks let me in on the “secret.” Anyone could go to the building in front of the jail and give a man the name of someone who was approaching the jail door. Then this fellow would start talking into a microphone as you looked in the door. I got to finally do it to a friend in the early ‘70s. She was old enough to know the dummy was not talking, but it took her awhile to figure out how it had happened. I have a photo of her peeking through the door. I just wish I had a photo of the look on her face when she turned around.

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I haven’t been to Knott’s Berry Farm in a very long time. I have such good memories of how it used to be before it became just another park with rides. It was a gem when life was slower. Chickens roamed around the parking lot, long lines of people waited to eat in the chicken restaurant (not to go on rides), and just walking up and down the dirt covered streets with the old buildings was an adventure. As to the parking lot chickens…I have no idea if the lot was searched each night for road kill to serve the next day at the chicken restaurant.

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VENEZIA long ago

I have no idea how old this real photo post card is or where I got it. Two interesting views of Venezia with the one on the back obviously cut-out and glued on.

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Down the left side on the front is the word "depositata" which apparently means deposited. No idea why it's on the front of the card.

VULTEE VANGUARD P-48

This vintage postcard of a Vultee Vanguard P-48 is a real photo post card. It is signed by the photographer "©1941 W. J. Gray. LA" the LA standing for Los Angeles. I'm not finding any information about W. J. Gray other than some cards for sale of movie stars, planes, planes, and General MacArthur. If anyone has links to information I'd appreciate them.

As to the Vultee Vanguard P-48, here's a brief bit of information from Wikipedia:

The Vultee P-66 Vanguard was an accidental addition to the USAAF's inventory of fighter aircraft. It was initially ordered by Sweden, but by the time the aircraft were ready for delivery in 1941, the United States would not allow them to be exported, designating them as P-66s and retaining them for defensive and training purposes. Eventually, a large number were sent to China where they were pressed into service as combat aircraft with indifferent results.

The Vultee Vanguard was the product of an idea conceived in the late 1930s by the Vultee Aircraft Division of the Aviation Manufacturing Corporation of developing four aircraft designed for different roles from a set of common wings and aft fuselage and tail assemblies. The company assigned four model designations: V-48 to a single seat fighter, BC-51 to a basic combat trainer, B-54 to an advanced trainer, and BC-54D as a basic trainer. Eventually the BC-51 would become the Army Air Corps BC-3 and the BC-54D, the BT-13.

In 1938, Richard W. Palmer started the detailed design of the V-48 fighter member of the quartet. The aircraft featured a metal covered, semi-monocoque fuselage and fully retractable landing gear powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 radial air-cooled engine. During construction of the first prototype, a decision was made to lengthen the propeller shaft and install a tight cowling to provide a pointed nose to reduce drag. The first aircraft flew in September 1939, and was assigned registration number NX21755. The fighter was named the Vanguard.

Flight tests revealed the aircraft was suffering from inadequate cooling. Measures to modify the cooling ducting were of little avail. After re-evaluating the design, and noting that the insignificant drag decrease was not worth the added weight and ducting problems, the second prototype, which was assigned the model number V-48X and registration NX19999, was modified with a conventional cowl and the first aircraft were similarly modified. The second aircraft first flew on 11 February 1940. As a result of flight tests, a number of changes were made to the design including substantially increasing the areas of the horizontal and vertical tail surfaces. (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

I see that this same post card is for sale on ebay from around $6 to $15.