McCloud Heritage Junction Museum

Bob Grey (Louisianna) Grizzly Peak LO Shasta Natl. Forest.

Shasta National Forest Headquarters - Mt. Shasta circa 1942

Logging, Camps, and Towns Many of these photos (higher quality) are available through the McCloud Museum with a cost and donation.

The Milky Way building on Main St in McCloud. I took these pictures in Oct. 1989

For those who are missing the "old" days, and the snow!!!!

The Hearst's Rich Northern California Nevada History It was 1859, in 6 Mile Canyon located very close to Virginia City, Nevada. George Hearst came out from Miss...ouri looking to make it big in the mining business and pay off his father’s debts back home and paid $3000 dollars for a 1/6 interest to purchase his shared interest in the Ophir Mine with his newly formed partners Pat McCoughlin and Peter O'Reilly. Together they organized the most incredible haul of its time when they ingeniously ox carted 38 tons of silver ore over the Sierra’s to the only nearby smelter in San Francisco, California. For that, Hearst made $90,000 and in 1860 he took his profits with his partners and proceeded to buy more mines in other states and eventually other countries. He was born in 1820 in Franklin County, Missouri, he wasn’t all that educated, but what he lacked in schooling he made up for in pure raw desire to learn the mining trade. He worked as an apprentice in a copper mine near his hometown and there as a young lad he realized he had the ability to organize men that would be loyal and who believed in his ideas about mining. He also ran the families store and was a very likable kindhearted man, but he had mounting debts caused by his father’s previous failures who had died in 1846 and he was left as head of his family to solve these problems. He realized that the only way out of this was to head out west with some friends and see if he could be one of the lucky ones to strike it rich or Find the Elephant as they coined back in that era. As he headed out west with his partners for the California Gold Rush then arriving in 1850, he and his partners lived comfortably for about 10 years just outside of Nevada City, California crushing quartz. He bought a 1/6 interest off Henry T Comstock for $3000 with his two partners in Virginia City on Mount Davidson & Gold Hill. He heard about the Blue Clay or Blue Gumbo they were finding over in Virginia City that at first the miner’s thought was a bit of a nuisance in their rockers and sluices because it got in the way of their gold prospecting and many of them just tossed the blue stuff to the side. Little did they know that when you used the pan amalgamation method by adding this blue gumbo clay to an old metal bathtub and mixed it with mercury, copper sulphate & salts, you could come back the next day and there would be pure silver separated out from the ore. After buying 3 of the most successful mines of that era, George Hearst gained tremendous wealth and reputation and in 1860 he married a girl by the name of Phoebe Apperson when he was 40 and she was 18. They moved to San Francisco and had one child in 1863 by the name of William Randolph Hearst. George Hearst became a California Assembly Member and eventually a Senator representing California, he died in 1891. In 1902 Phoebe took a train ride from Redding to Sisson up the Siskiyou Canyon to visit her SF attorney Charles Stetson Wheeler who had bought a men’s only hunting and fishing club on the McCloud River that included 50,000 acres of land from Justin Sisson’s wife after he died in 1888. (Mt Shasta was named Sisson 1888 to 1924) They called it, The Bend. As soon as she laid eyes on the turquoise colors of the McCloud River she asked her council if she could buy part of his estate So is to, Entertain Guest, Phoebe exclaimed. Charles Wheeler wanted nothing to do with this and said to Phoebe, Now Phoebe, this is a men’s only hunting and fishing club, you’re lucky I even let you in here, I might have to keep this quiet. But not ever taking no for answer knowing she and her late husband were responsible for so much philanthropy and goodwill in their time together, donating or being major benefactors for the University of California, the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association and the first President of the Century Club of California. Undoubtedly, on top of her game In those days, that was big time stuff for a lady on her own and she kept on Charles until he agreed to a ninety nine year lease. Alright Phoebe, I’ll let you lease the Wyntoon section of our lands here, but please, don’t be building anything too extravagant, I don’t want to upset the boys you know. She proceeded to build a seven story castle to the chagrin of Wheeler’s requests, but none-the-less it was popular with her cronies from the San Francisco Bay area and her friends she invited up from Pleasanton, California, where she had her large country farm estate located at. Phoebe Hearst died in 1918 like many other Californians did that same year due to the Spanish Influenza Virus. Her son William Randolph would visit on summers and then lived full time at the estate until it burned down in 1924/25 and that’s when WRH hired Julia Morgan, the first women architect in California to design a new castle on the McCloud River like the one she did in 1919 at San Simeon being called upon for several very important projects by the Hearst family and other notable legends and stars of that era. That luminary continued to win her claim and notoriety for her creative designs that were ahead of her time and she became loved and revered throughout California for her works. WRH was more of a playboy when it came to the Hearst Estate, he enjoyed entertaining friends and using the estate for big parties and personal entertainment. He enjoyed inviting the most influential people of that era. One of them was Marion Davies, a movie star actress and Broadway dancer he entertained regularly at the castle. Hearst died in 1951 but when I think of the Hearst Family, I think back to George Hearst and all his great efforts to make a better life for several generations if not millenniums to come. Wealth is not something that just falls from the sky like a mistresses bird of a feather. It takes will, desire, planning and a lot of hard work- with an ounce of luck. Like figuring out how to haul 38 tons of silver ore over the Sierra’s in 1859, that’s impressive. The Hearst Castle lies on the Upper McCloud River just like it did when Phoebe Hearst first laid eyes on those one of a kind turquoise glacial waters. Just like those flowing waters lies another story of the Greatest American Dream. You don’t have to eat carrots to be a visionary, but you do have to see ahead of the hare of your era. George Hearst was a Legend and someone I have grown to admire over the years as a true American hero of his time. And That's The Rest of the Story, I'm Jack Trout..... Good Day! http://www.mtshasta.com/history-of-the-mccloud-river.../

A short video of Mother McCloud from the past enjoy!

Out at the Hearst Estate at Wyntoon on the McCloud River in 1940 with Cary Grant (Archie Leach) Marion Davies, Sculptress Hannah Gaertner (Her Bear Fountain, on...e in her hometown in Germany also.) WR Hearst & Davies Guest. This is right after Cary Grant filmed Philadelphia Story. Davies had loaned Hearst all her money she invested prudently and talked a girlfriend into loaning him a million after he lost everything in the stock market crash. His father George had made $90,000 hauling 38 tons of silver ore from Virginia City in 1859 to the only smelter in SF over the Sierras. Now, W R Hearst’s mistress was calling the shots out at Wyntoon as she and Hearst hid out there during WWII as well as hiding out from the media who loved to write about their ongoing affair while his wife Millicent raised his five boys on the East Coast. Hearst mellowed out and was humbled going into his old age and he died in 1951. His mother, Phoebe Hearst died in 1918 at her Estate in Pleasanton, Ca. of 1918 Pandemic and all women who died that year never got to vote. Davies and Millicent never said a bad word about each other and when WR HEARST left everything to Marion Davies she signed it all over to the family or they would be commoners now. I liked WR Hearst better after the stock market crash and he should be remembered for hiring the first women architect in California Julia Morgan. His father George Hearst was under appreciated and deserved more credit in the lore of history, his efforts paid our country in gold and silver we eventually loaned out to England & France. I’m Jack Trout and that’s The Rest of the Story... Good Day!

Wayne Repass has given us permission to share these photos of the Meat Market. They were purchased in a little shop in Grants Pass. Glad to have them home! If you recognize anyone in the pictures, please add their name in the comment section attached to that picture. We'd love to be able to identify all these wonderful people.

The "New look" of Main St., McCloud.

Here's a group you don't often see.

The following photos were taken around the 1950's. McCloud River Railroad was challenged on many occasions with heavy snow, which made it difficult to get the ...freight out to Mt. Shasta. These photos were taken by Charles Hogan, Master Mechanic for the railroad at the time. I just discovered them going through some old books. Photos of Engines 16, 18, and 29 along with many of the workers moving snow to open lines to move timber. I am sorry, I do not know the names of the men in the photos. If someone does recognize an individual, please submit the name. Bob Dais

Some things are historic on the very day they happen.

I mentioned to some folks that I had a series of photos from the early 1900s to 1989, showing the slow progression of an open-grown forest changing into an overstocked, high fire hazard forest. Many of my fellow foresters have seen these. I think a picture is worth a thousand words.