Tomb of the Sierras

Tomb of the Sierras. a forest of underground timbers. Panel One: , The forest immediately around Virginia City and the Comstock Lode were quickly depleted of their timber. Eyes soon turned to the nearby Sierra Nevada Mountains east of Lake Tahoe for more wood., Bust! , In the 1890s, the boom of the Comstock was over, and with it went the demand for lumber. The Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company’s last wood order was filled in September 1898. By then, almost every tree in the Tahoe Basin had been harvested., By the early 1900s, all that remained of the once-flourishing settlement at Spooner Summit were a few sagging buildings and some dilapidated corrals. The Carson and Tahoe Lumber and Fluming Company (CTLFC) sold off land in large parcels to private interests and donated the rest to the state, liquidating its holdings. The CTLFC was dissolved in 1947., In all, the Comstock produced nearly $400 million in silver and gold over its 20-year lifespan. Its rich lodes created several fortunes, helped finance the rebuilding of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake, and persuaded the U.S. government to welcome Nevada as a state even though it hadn’t yet met the population requirements (compensating instead with excess wealth)., ”The Comstock Lode may truthfully be said to be the tomb of the forests of the Sierras. Millions on millions of feet of lumber are annually buried in the mines, nevermore to be resurrected.” , - William Wright, 1976, Panel Two: , Hungry for Wood , the fuel for it all. , In addition to serving as mine-bracing lumber, wood was also needed to power steam engines for mines, mills, and railroads; build houses and storefronts; and fuel thousands of woodstoves in the harsh winters. , Once the wood arrived in Carson City by flume, it was stacked, dried, and loaded on Virginia and Truckee Railroad flatcars for the 21-mile route to Virginia City., More than 750 million board-feet of lumber and 500,000 cords of firewood passed through Spooner Summit to meet this great demand. Yet this huge harvest represented only a fraction of the total timber felled for the Comstock – enough to have circled the Earth in a 30-foot-wide, 4-inch-thick boardwalk!, Panel Three: , Conserving Out Resources , planning for the future , . In 1899, President William McKinley created the Lake Tahoe Forest Reserve to conserve the remaining forests of the basin following the decades of logging for the Comstock mining boom. Following entry into the National Forest System when the US Forest Service was created in 1905, the land around Spooner Summit became part of the Carson Ranger District in 1925., Managing for Multiple Uses , Tasked with protecting the forestlands from overgrazing, timber harvest and unauthorized mining ventures, forest managers have stewarded the land back to health. Spooner Summit is now dramatically healthier than it was on hundred years ago., A Recreational Gem , Since the 1950s, when a four-lane highway was constructed to connect Carson City to Lake Tahoe, the area surrounding Spooner Summit has become a pristine playground in winter and summer.