Rare 1865 photo of Pollard's Hotel (burned down around 1880)

 

 

Probably the best photo you'll ever see of Pollard's Hotel. Notice the other side of Donner Lake, which came into view after I enhanced this photo.

Were Pollard's Hotel and the Donner City Hotel on the same site? Details at bottom of this page

 

 

Below, three 1915 panoramic photos taken with early color film (not colorized) by J. Waters

The photo above is looking east from the west shore of Donner Lake and shows the same area as the page below from the 1915 State Department of Engineering Survey of the old road. The photo was taken two months before the survey in 1915.

The surveyor was working east to west. Note the "cottage" on the left is 150' to the right of the road as noted in the field book, and then the hotel is 426 feet beyond that point (closer to the photographer) as noted.

The big round sign is a Red Crown gasoline sign. The hotel and surrounding area was expanded greatly a few years after this photo--owned by Wally Gelatt.

The photo above appears to be where present-day Donner Lake Road meets Donner Pass Road. Notice the old car on the road and the cows grazing.

 

There's a plaque at the Donner Summit "Rainbow" bridge overlook that is titled "Those Who Passed Here" and it refers to the pre-Highway 40 highway as "unpaved and primitive." Other than not being paved, this 1915 Donner Lake road above is hardly primitive (in many countries today this is considered a modern road). In fact, when Highway 40 opened in 1926, it was not paved either, and wasn't paved for several years. Between 1863 and 1926, the old road was constantly maintained and improved by the railroad, then county and state governments. Check out a 1917 letter from Caltrans about this very road on the Documents page.

 

Many times I thought of the "Forty-niners" as we saw the sign, "Overland Trail." In coming along the Lincoln Highway, we are simply traversing the old overland road along which the prairie schooners of the pioneers passed. How much heart-ache, heartbreak, and deferred hope this old trail has seen! I think of it as we bowl along so comfortably over a somewhat rough but yet very passable road.

                                         ---Effie Gladding, 1914

 

Below, a portion of a 1915 Lake Tahoe brochure. The first map shows how the state viewed the highways from Sacramento--there was one highway that went via the north side of Tahoe, and one via the south--they both met at McKinney's, midpoint on the west shore. Soon, the northern route changed to go to Reno instead of Tahoe.

 

Below, 1915 photo on Auburn-McKinney's State Highway.

 

I was curious about the tag hanging from the radiator. I made some adjustments and look what showed up:

 

 

Above, an 1865 Lawrence & Houseworth photo of the Dutch Flat Donner Lake Wagon Road, within the 1 mile section that is being illegally blocked. If you look in the center, you'll see the photographer's covered carriage off to the side of the road. It held a portable darkroom. (click photo for full screen)

 

 

Above, an 1877 Andrew Hill painting depicting the 1844 Stephens-Murphy pioneer party making their way around the same hill that drivers go around today on old Highway 40.

Hill won a gold medal for this painting in 1878 at the State Fair in Sacramento. This painting was purchased and placed in the California Pioneers Association of San Francisco, but destroyed by fire in the 1906 earthquake. Luckily, someone took this black & white photo of the painting prior to 1906, but the colors are lost forever.

(click photo for full screen)

 

 

The same location 82 years later in 1926, soon after the bridge was opened.
During construction of Highway 40 in 1924-26 (which was to the left of the photo), rocks fell down on the old road which went to the left of where the letter D in Donner is (see photo below for better view) and the state created a detour, which is below the letter O in Donner. Thanks to Jack Duncan for this information.

 

Below is a 1924-25 photo of the same area while Highway 40 was under construction. The old road is buried under rocks and the detour goes over the granite hump. The bridge is not yet built, although Highway 40 is in the works. The flat area on the other side of the old road is dry, but became a pond the next year, due to either a blockage of the natural drainage or the excavation of dirt in the flat area for use in Highway 40 (more research is needed, but in either case, the pond should go).

 

 

Below is close-up of above photo showing two cars and the dry flat area. This would have been in 1925. A portion of the old road just to the right of the car on the right was soon buried beneath supporting rock for about 200 feet where the new Highway 40 continued from where it leaves off here; the old road was shifted about 30 feet to the west so that travelers could use it until the new road was completed. If you look just to the left of telephone pole on the right, you'll see what looks like that shifted detour, all set to go, which needed to be completed before work continued on the new road. So these two cars could have been the last cars to drive on the original old road. The 1915 survey shows that the old road is not actually under the newer roadway, only under the supporting rocks.

 

The photo below is very interesting due to the second it was taken--showing the third car coming from the old road (actually, the detour for the old road) onto new Highway 40. If the photo was taken one second later, it would not be obvious that the cars were coming from the old road onto the new road. The entire new road wasn't opened until the bridge was finished in 1927. The bridge is just left of the photo. The old road went to the right where the third car is seen.

 

 

The same location another 79 years later in 2005.

 

 

Above, around 1930, looking at Highway 40 (the darker road) with the older Lincoln Highway / Dutch Flat Donner Lake Wagon Road (the white road). Today, the older highway is visible, but not as clearly. In many places, it is overgrown with brush or eroded by water.

We are hoping to clean it up and have it look like this again. Thanks to Norm Sayler for this rare photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right, 1923 photo shows a car making its way up the Lincoln Highway to Donner Summit. The photographer is standing between the current China Wall plaque and the vertical rock-climbing wall. This section of road between the car and the photographer is now covered with 2 to 4 foot boulders placed there by the idiots who put in the gas pipeline and/or the ATT fiber optic cable in the 70s and 80s. Someone must have said "Here's a flat area--let's just put them here." This is one of three points where the old state highway is not walkable from Truckee to the summit. There is another spot like this with large boulders in the road further to the east near the Y to the washed-out bridge, and a short portion of the road is buried near the summit bridge due to Highway 40 construction.

(This spot is about 1/2 mile above the Cadjew section)

 

 

 

 

Above, 1929 photo on what is today's South Shore Drive. Highway 40 was only 3 years old, behind the hotel. The hotel and restaurant is on the site of today's Donner Lake Realty. The hotel is the same one as the photo at the top of this page--but about twice the size. Look closely at the roof--it shows the original size and the addition. The hotel was moved in the late 40s to across from today's boat dock and named Lakeshore Hotel. 1949 photo below. It burned down in 1961.

 

 

Above and below, two pre-1926 photos of the road on the section that is currently being illegally blocked.

 

 

 

 

Above, looking north through the "subway." This new 1914 route slightly east of the old one allowed the state highway to make a less steep climb and avoid going through an opening in the wood snow shed as it had done since 1864. There were reportedly cases where car drivers would not stop and get out to see if a train was coming and drive into the snow shed right when a train was coming. Not good. Today, this tunnel is visible from Old 40.

The older road is also still there but is is overgrown with 95 years of brush and trees and is blocked at the railroad tracks by a concrete snow shed.

The state highway surveyor in 1915 noted that this new tunnel was 16 feet high by 16 feet wide. Since Highway 40 was finished in 1926, this tunnel (and the 1914 roadway going to and from it) was only used as the state highway for 12 years. The older route over the tracks was used for at least 50 years.

Below is the 1913 law authorizing building of this tunnel.

 

 

The tunnel and the new road to it were definitely completed by late 1914 when the photo below was published. The photo looks like it was taken the week it opened--maybe the hour it was opened, based on how clean the new incline looks, and how clean the old road looks. Notice the log directing traffic away from the old route. Thanks to Norm Sayler for this photo.

 

------photo coming soon------

 

The tunnel could have been completed by June of 1914, according to Mr. James, the author of the 1915 article below. He refers to June 10, 1914 in an earlier part of his article as the date of his trip to Tahoe. Since the tunnel was only authorized in June 1913, and  "in effect" on August 10, 1913, workers would have really hustled to get most or all of it done by the time snow came (as it always does) in November 1913. Since there is almost always snow at this site in May of each year, it doesn't seem likely that any work was done in 1914, before June. Anyone want to check old newspapers between October 1913 and October 1914 to verify this?

 

 

THE LAKE OF THE SKY
BY GEORGE WHARTON JAMES
Copyright, 1915, BY EDITH E. FARNSWORTH

At Summit a marvelous view is had in both directions, east and west. Westward the fall of the Sierras into the Sacramento Valley is apparently so gentle and easy as to lead one to wonder that he has risen so high, but eastward the descent is much more steep and abrupt. The rude granite in many places is almost barren though Sierran trees abound. The grade is easy, and the new grade and tunnel under the Southern Pacific tracks makes an added improvement. Almost immediately on emerging from this tunnel the full glory of the eastern view is forced upon the attention. At one's feet, apparently, lies the placid surface of Donner Lake, its pure blue giving one a premonitory foretaste of the richer blues that await him at Tahoe, while beyond are the mountains that overlook the Great Basin of Nevada. Rapidly the road descends, well engineered and easy to negotiate to any responsible driver, and before one is aware he is bowling along on the level Donner Boulevard, which is as perfect a piece of country road as can be found anywhere on earth. The Monument (not yet completed) erected by the Native Sons to the memory of the Donner Lake pioneers, and the Memorial Cross, erected on the spot where the unhappy party camped, are passed and in a few minutes Truckee is reached.

 

 

Below is an interesting excerpt from the same article written in 1915 about the Coldstream Canyon emigrant route, used for about 18 years, from 1846 to 1864 by many pioneers, but not the Donner Party. The Donner Party made all their attempts on the Stephens route, traveling the north side of the lake. The Coldstream route was an alternative to the 1844 Stephens route. It was longer and higher but less steep than the Stephens route.

The article also shows that the Coldstream route wasn't used after the Dutch Flat Donner Lake Wagon Road opened in 1864. 

The 1866 photo at right (yes it really was taken in 1866) shows the road near the summit, looking north--Highway 40 is now above this road, with the bridge to the right. If you are walking down the incline below the auto tunnel, you'll see this view. Notice the wagon train. Mark Twain most likely used this road, since he worked in Virginia City and Sacramento.

 

DFDLWR busy from 1864 to 1909

Some articles say that the DFDLWR was not used much after the railroad opened until the state took over the road in 1909. I've always thought that this is total and absolute nonsense. Now I have some evidence: the 1915 article below refers to "county road officials" who had "for years ignored" the Coldstream trail. Reading between the lines: county road officials maintained county roads for decades prior to 1915, the year of the article. Therefore, the DFDLWR, being a maintained official county road, was in fairly decent shape when the state took it over in 1909. It was certainly a well known and well traveled road. When the railroad opened in 1869, it took only a portion of travel from the DFDLWR. All wagon travel, horseback travel, stagecoach travel, early automobile travel, and even walking travel for 62 years, from 1864 to 1926 traveled on this modern (at the time) DFDLWR (or the longer Carson/South Tahoe route) to reach Sacramento or San Francisco. And think about all the "western" movies and TV shows which all took place in the 1850-1900 period. Of course, they were fictional, but they were based on life during those times (Bonanza was set on the north shore of Lake Tahoe). Most events involved characters on horseback, stagecoaches, and wagons, all of which would have used this road in this part of California during those years. The idea that an expensive, state-of-the-art road would rarely be used by the thousands of newly arriving pioneers is crazy. Like the old saying, "Build it and they will use it." Also, railroad travel cost money. This road was free to use after 1874 or so. And free is always better when money is scarce.

Also, records show that even in the early 1900s, people still referred to the road going through Truckee (and beyond) as the Dutch Flat Donner Lake Road (they had dropped the word "Wagon").

 

The spot in the article below described as "turning south to Cold Stream" is near the intersection of the current Donner Pass Road (then the Dutch Flat Donner Lake Road) and Coldstream Road, just east of the Donner Museum. Donner Pass Road is a bit south of it's original location--it was re-aligned in 1963 when the freeway was built. Most people aren't aware that most of the old alignment is still there--it across the freeway--it's the current onramp to the westbound 80 (not the loop onramp near the Shell).

 

 

THE LAKE OF THE SKY
BY GEORGE WHARTON JAMES
Copyright, 1915, BY EDITH E. FARNSWORTH


An unusual trip that can be taken from Tahoe Tavern is down to the foot of Donner Lake and then, turning to the left, follow the old emigrant and stage-road. It has not been used for fifty years, but it is full of interest. There are many objects that remain to tell of its fascinating history. Over it came many who afterwards became pioneers in hewing out this new land from the raw material of which lasting commonwealths are made. Turning south to Cold Stream, it passes Starved Camp. The stumps of the trees cut down by the unfortunate pioneers are still standing.

It was always a difficult road to negotiate, the divide between Mt. Lincoln and Anderson Peak being over 7500 feet high. But those heroes of 1848-49 made it, triumphing over every barrier and winning for themselves what Joaquin Miller so poetically has accorded them, where he declares that "the snow-clad Sierras are their everlasting monuments."

This road is now, in places, almost obliterated. One section for three miles is grown up. Trees and chaparral cover it and hide it from the face of any but the most studiously observant. When the road that takes to the north of Donner Lake was built in 1861-63 and goes directly and on an easier grade by Emigrant Gap to Dutch Flat, this road by Cold Stream was totally abandoned. For years the county road officials have ignored its existence, and now it is as if it never had been, save for its memories and the fragments of wagons, broken and abandoned in the fierce conflict with stern Nature, and suggesting the heart-break and struggle the effort to reach California caused in those early days.

 

 

Below, "The Road Past Donner Lake" 1916. That appears to be Wally Gelatt, owner of the Donner City Hotel and other properties of the area, including Donner Lake Camp. He also ran the Winter Carnival in Truckee for several years beginning in 1914. He and his wife even had their own post office for a while when the west end of Donner Lake dropped the name Donner City and became officially known as Gelatt, California from 1923 to 1935.

Below, 1927 in Citrus Heights, at Auburn Blvd and Greenback Lane. This was right after new Highway 40 opened to Reno and was still called the Victory Highway but not for much longer. People liked signs. Roll mouse over for close-up of the "You Are Here" map (allow Active X control if asked).

Below, 2009 at same spot. Looks like a former gas station and garage similar to the old building. What used to be Greenback Lane is now Desimone Lane, a shortcut to Greenback Lane, which was shifted east a bit (at the stoplight) to connect with Highway 80. (Google photo)

 

Were the Pollard Hotel and the Donner City Hotel on the same site?

It seems very likely that the current Pollard Hotel monument needs to be moved to the other side of Old Highway Drive in front of the current Donner Lake Realty buildings. Here's why:

 

The recorded 1909 "Donner City" and 1948 "Donner Ski Haven" subdivision maps for this area along with the 1922 Highway 40 construction plans establish beyond a doubt that the Donner City Hotel sat on the exact site of the current Donner Lake Realty buildings. The old state highway/DFDLWR would therefore have been behind the current buildings (going through a bit of the northwest corner of the Realty building on the right), meeting up at the curve in Old Highway Drive. The current short section of Old Highway Drive from the curve to South Shore Drive was a 1948 re-alignment of the old highway.

 

I found the 1865 photo of Pollard's (seen at the top of this page) and computer-enhanced it to bring out the lake and hillsides in the background. The few other fuzzy copies of this photo on the internet do not show the lake and beyond. We can see that the Pollard Hotel faces the lake and not the road, just as the newer Donner City Hotel did in the 1915 photo (50 years later). The carriages in the 1865 photo seem to be on the road right next to the hotel traveling at the same angle as the road in the 1915 photo of the Donner City Hotel. Keep in mind that the road stayed the same from the 1865 photo above to the 1915 photo above (and until 1948).

 

There is also the fact that both buildings are hotels. It seems very unlikely that the newer hotel would have been built in a different spot than the Pollard Hotel. If the Pollard Hotel had a concrete foundation, it probably survived the fire and could have been used for the new hotel (they both appear to be the same size) and any water and sewer setup from the Pollard Hotel could have been re-used to some extent.

 

And here's more rock-solid evidence: Notice the bump in the ground to the right of the hotel in the 1915 photo--looks like a granite outcropping. If the Pollard Hotel was at the southwest corner of Old Highway Drive and South Shore Drive as the current monument shows it, we would see that bump in the above photo, near the tree stump--but it's not there.

 

Below are two maps showing Pollards Hotel. The 1865 survey shows two buildings which the surveyor identified by dots, Pollard's Barn and Pollard's Hotel, one on each side of the road. The surveyor used similar dots on other structures on his map. Notice the different sizes of the two dots, the hotel being larger than the barn.

The other map is from 1868, drawn by Montague. It also shows two buildings, one on each side of the road. Both maps show the hotel being close to the road. If Pollard's Hotel was where the current monument is, the hotel would be 200 feet from the road--and even further from the barn. Not likely.

 

 

 

Below is a cropped photo showing Pollard's Hotel from a distance across Donner Lake. To the right of the hotel is another structure--the barn. It's clear from the maps that they were fairly close to each other. BTW, a dam was built on Donner Lake at the time and water came much closer to the hotel than naturally, as seen in the photo.

 

 

Below is another photo of Pollard's from a different angel--here the barn is very clear--it's a one story barn, like the one in the next photo.

 

Below is a photo from 1866 showing a similar hotel at Crystal Lake--the hotel has the same L-shape and is nearly identical to Pollards. The structure to the right is probably the same type of barn that was at Pollard's.

 

 

A group by the name of E Clampus Vitus placed the monument at its current location in 2000. They may not have realized that Old Highway Drive was realigned in 1948 and only knew that the hotel was on the south side of the old road. Maybe someone could search old Truckee newspapers and find a story about the building of the Donner City Hotel and whether it used the Pollard Hotel site. The Donner City Hotel goes back to at least June 1911, when it was mentioned in a magazine article. I'm guessing it was built right after the September 1909 subdivision map was recorded showing a one-acre Lot A at the spot.

 

Back in July 1864, J.D. Pollard made a great deal with the owner of this land, D.W. Strong of Dutch Flat: If Pollard built a hotel "as planned," or spent $2500 towards that goal, he would then own the 354 acres on the west side of Donner Lake--that's most of the land where houses are today. Apparently, Pollard later sold the land to the Tomlinsons, who were the owners in 1909.