Nevada Historical Marker #261
Spooner Summit TOLL ROADS Johnson’s Cutoff, also called the Carson Ridge Emigrant Road, passed over Spooner Summit and down Clear Creek Road from 1852 through 1854, but was rugged and little used. With discovery of the Comstock Lode in 1859, Spooner Summit became a focal point on the most heavily traveled branch of the bonanza road system linking Placerville, California, and the new towns east of the Sierra Nevada. Territorial governments granted franchisces to provide individuals or companies, allowing them to build and maintain toll roads. The Rufus Walton (Clear Creek) Toll Road replaced Johnson’s Cutoff in 1860, providing a better route around the southeast shore of Lake Tahoe via Glenbrook. LUMBER FOR THE COMSTOCK Massive amounts of wood were sent to the Comstock Lode from the Carson Range and the Tahoe Basin. Initially wood was hauled by wagon, but soon the transport included trains, steamboats, and water flumes. Spooner Summit is in the midst of a former logging landscape. In 1873, logging in the area was consolidated by formation of the Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company. Workers were housed at a small settlement called Summit Camp, built along one side of the toll road. From 1875 to 1898 the company operated the Lake Tahoe Railroad along 8.75 miles of the line from Glenbrook to this spot. The difficult route included switchbacks and a 487-foot tunnel just west of the summit. The narrow-gauge railroad’s sole purpose was to haul timber and lumber for building purposes and cordwood for fuel. This wood was transferred to an 11-mile long V-flume that extended from Spooner Summit down Clear Creek to Carson Valley. There the wood was loaded on the Virginia and Truckee Railroad for the rest of its trip to the Comstock. At its peak the Comstock consumed about 80 million board feet of lumber and 2 million cords of firewood each year. About 300,000 board feet of wood passed over Spooner Summit each day. This route was improved in 1863 with the completion of the Lake Tahoe (Bigler) Wagon Road, also called the Kings Canyon Road. About 5,000 teamsters were moving goods along roads leading to the Comstock in 1863, but traffic began to decline in 1875. Stations were built at convenient intervals along the roads. Swift’s Station was about two miles east of Spooner Summit on the Kings Canyon Road. In 1863, Spooner’s Station, located near the current junction of US 50 and SR 28 (a mile west of here), had a hotel, saloon, houses, blacksmith shop, and two barns. EARLY MORNING Introduction of automobiles into the Tahoe Basin rapidly changed the character of the place, making it accessible for far more people as a growing tourist destination. Early in the twentieth century, the decaying bonanza system of wagon roads had to serve the needs of the automobile travelers. In 1913, the Lincoln Highway Association designated the road up Kings Canyon, over Spooner Summit, and through Glenbrook as part of the Lincoln Highway. The highway was a private concept intended to enhance long-distance automobile travel by establishing the first transcontinental route. Actual work on this section began in 1914 when the Carson Good Roads Association placed redwood markers every mile. Each marker displayed the highway symbol and distances to Carson City, Glenbrook, and San Francisco. During this period one motorist described part of the road as “a narrow shelf along a barren, rocky mountain side.” Little more than light maintenance was done on the road even after it was included in the Nevada State Highway System as part of Route 3. In 1923, the portion of Route 3 between Spooner’s Station and the state line was incorporated into the Forest Highway System, making funding available for major improvements. In 1927 and 1928, a graded two-lane automobile road was built along Clear Creek, over Spooner Summit, and on to Glenbrook. A combination of state and Forest Highway funds paid for the work. The new road became part of US 50. In the 1930s, the road was oiled and surfaced with asphalt. Snow removal allowed year-round access to the lake. Finally, in the late 1950s, this portion of US 50 was upgraded to the present two lanes.
, Glenbrook, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #225
Spooner Area (Logging And Lumbering Period: 1868 – 1895). This area bears the name of Michele E. Spooner, a French Canadian entrepreneur, who, along with others, was instrumental in establishing the wood and lumber industry which supplied the needs of the Comstock mines and mills.In 1868 Spooner became a partner with Oliver and John Lonkey, the Elliot brothers, Henry M. Yerington, William Fairburn and Simon Dubois in the Summit Fluming Company and operated a shingle mill and sawmill. In 1870 Yerington, Bliss & Company took over the summit fluming company.In 1873 another sawmill was erected at Spooner Meadows. Later in 1873, all the mills were taken over by the Carson & Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company. This company, headquartered at Glenbrook, went on to become the largest of the three huge companies supplying wood and lumber to the Comstock.
, Glenbrook, NV, United States
Nevada Historical Marker #219
Glenbrook. Lumbering operations in the Glenbrook area of Lake Tahoe began in 1861. Consolidation of V-flume systems in and near Clear Creek Canyon by 1872 made it possible to float lumber, cordwood, and sawed material from Spooner’s Summit to Carson City and to eliminate wagon hauling over the 9-year-old Lake Bigler Toll Road (King’s Canyon Road).In 1873, the new Carson & Tahoe Lumber & Fluming Company, under Duane Bliss, assumed all operations, becoming the largest Comstock wood and lumber combine. It controlled over 50,000 acres of timberland, operating 2 to 4 sawmills, 2 Tahoe Lake steam tugs to tow logs, 2 logging railroads, the logging camps employing 500 men and a planing mill and box factory in Carson City. Timber depletion and reduced Comstock mining closed the company in 1898; it had taken 750,000,000 board feet of lumber and 500,000 cords of wood from Tahoe basin forests during its lifetime.
Glenbrook Road, Glenbrook, NV, United States
De Ek Wadapush (Cave Rock). A sacred place to the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, cave rock is the subject of many legends. Named for a cave, a remnant of which can be seen some 200 feet above the waterline. This formation was a landmark on the Lake Bigler Toll Road in the early days. Quarried granite blocks, which support the toll road, can still be seen on the west face of cave rock. The rock was first tunneled for the construction of a highway in 1931 and the second tunnel was put through in 1957. The Washoe name for Cave Rock is De-ek Wadapush which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Traditional Cultural Property. It is important now as it has been for thousands of years for the Washoe." Medicine men meditated and prayed here" and many distinct features help make up our culture, gifted basket makers, the wisdom of long-preserved legends, and our traditional way of life. Cave Rock was one of our prominent sacred sites reflecting our traditional values of respect for the land and "da ow" (Lake Tahoe) the life-sustaining water, the center of the Washoe world (Washoe elder)
, Glenbrook, NV, United States