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Lunch & Learn

  • Cloverdale Multipurpose Senior Center 311 North Main Street Cloverdale, CA, 95425 United States (map)

When Steam was King

To all of those who love old-time logging and steam railroads be sure you don’t miss the “When Steam was King” slide presentation by Gerald French. French was in the Stanislaus National Forest photographing for the Stockton Record way back in 1958. Just as he got his camera set up, a belching steam engine suddenly appeared pulling eleven log cars. From that moment on, French knew he was forever hooked on photographing all aspects of the logging railroad.

During his summer break from college, he worked for Pickering Lumber Company, Standard, CA, just five miles from Sonora. During his time off, he also photographed West Side Lumber Co and Sierra Railroad.

The foreword to his book, When Steam was King:

For over six decades, from 1903 to 1965, a lonesome whistle was heard echoing through California’s Stanislaus River canyon. It was the whistle of a Shay steam engine pulling its load of logs down to the Pickering Mill at Standard. This is the story of the men and machinery that worked the line. Today the logging camps, locomotives, and the railroad crews are all long gone from the woods…

…Only memories remain.

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