Donner Summit - The Shed

Donner Summit - The Shed. . , History , In the old days, when it snowed over Donner Summit, the roads closed. Because an average of 34 feet of snow falls annually on Donner Summit, the roads over the pass closed in winter., Wendell Robie and the Auburn Ski Club worked hard to promote Sierra winter sports. They held ski races and ski jumping tournaments. They even imported snow to Berkeley and built an 85 foot ski jump on Hearst Ave. In 1939 they made snow at Treasure Island for another ski jump at the World’s Fair on Treasure Island. These activities, and others, raised the visibility of winter sports and built popularity., All of the demonstrating and sponsoring was for naught however, if the public could not get to the snow. The Club’s most creative idea has to do with the buildings you see here., Realizing that Highway 40 was the path to great Summit snow, the Club organized an outing for State legislators in 1931. On January 18,1931 56 automobiles left Auburn for Sacramento to pick up the legislators and their families for a day in the snow. A motorcycle escort led the way into the Sierra. The legislators, and thousands of people who followed along, saw exhibitions of skiing and ski jumping. Despite prohibition, they enjoyed alcohol too. Some legislators even tried skiing., Over two thousand cars had followed the legislators to the Sierra, to the end of the plowed road. The resulting traffic jam as everyone tried to leave, must have made a big impression on the legislature, because they quickly voted “sincere thanks... to... Auburn Ski Club” and later passed a bill to plow Highway 40. The large gray building at the top of the pass here was the dormitory for the snow plow operators. The cantilevered building was the gas station for the equipment and there used to be a large circular building in the parking lot that housed the snow plows. It collapsed, Renovation , Community comes together, In 2018 the Donner Summit Association won a grant from Placer County to put together the Trailhead of Trailheads. The idea was to solve a number of problems which you can read about elsewhere. We only got part-way with the project and applied for another grant in 2019. Placer County obligingly awarded us the second grant for the now-named Lamson-Cashion Donner Summit Hub (see the Lamson-Cashion plaque affixed to the boulder near the road), Getting the grants was only the easy part of assembling the Hub to improve the visitors’ experience on Donner Summit. It was only the easy part of making the most historically significant square mile in California more easily accessible, understandable, and appreciated., It was only the easy part of developing this unique park. Plans had to be developed and re-developed. Donors had to be lined up. Materials had to be ordered. Research had to be done. The harder part was doing the actual construction because even though we had two Placer County grants and we could order materials, there was still the problem of getting a lot of the work done. Some of the work cost money: paving, striping, and roof repair for example. That’s to be expected., Then the community stepped in. First the professionals were lined up to volunteer their skills. Architects, graphic artists, an historian, the local rock structure guy, contractors, a roofer, a backhoe guy, and a concrete guy donated some or all of their “hub” time. That still left removing and replacing the siding and the door, shoveling dirt, cutting and laying the ties, laying and spiking the rails, dealing with the County requirements for building and complying with the grants, doing the ordering and organizing, running the big earth compactor, shoveling decomposed granite, installing exhibits, clearing out the old shed, removing graffiti, hauling, lifting, toting, and then easing sore muscles and moving more dirt. Rails are heavy for example. It took a crew to lift and place them after dragooning some watching tourists when the rails turned out to be too heavy. Fearless community members went up in the Gradall machine to put on the DSA stencil and completely re-fasten all of the roofing. , Just took at what the shed and surroundings looked like in 2018, and took around you now. Look what a community can do., The most historically significant square mile deserves the Lamson-Cashion Donner Summit Hub and our community is happy to provide it to improve the visitors’ experience. ,