Idaho's Shoshone Falls Remain a Sight to See

   Just over the Idaho-Nevada border, north of Jackpot, is Shoshone Falls, a waterfall that some have described as the “Niagara of the West.”

   The massive crescent-shaped falls are simply spectacular. Stretching about 1,000-feet across, with a spill of more than 200 feet, they are, in fact, a longer fall than Niagara.

   With the record rainfall in the west this year, the falls should be spectacular for much of this year. That’s not always the case, however, since the flow of the Snake River over the falls can be reduced in dry years or high water use times.

   The reason for Shoshone Falls’ seasonal fluctuation in flows is that during the summer and fall much of the river water is diverted to irrigate farms in the surrounding Magic Valley.

   While there was some discussion about designating the area a national park, the issue was settled in 1902 by a landmark court decision in favor of the irrigation interests.

   Starting in 1901, a giant vertical tunnel was constructed into the rock above the falls. A 500-watt power plant was constructed in 1905-07 to provide power for the nearby town of Twin Falls, Idaho.

   Despite the changes made to the Shoshone Falls ecosystem, a visit to the site is always worthwhile. The falls are part of the visually spectacular Snake River Canyon, a deep, winding chasm at the north edge of Twin Falls.

   While originally shaped by glacial and volcanic activity, many of the unusual geological formations found in the canyon region were created some 30,000 years ago by a massive flood known as the Bonneville Flood.

   Historians say that was when ancient Lake Bonneville, which once covered nearly all of northern Utah and parts of southern Idaho, spilled over its traditional boundaries, causing a wall of water—believed to be one cubic mile in size—to crash into the Snake River near what is now Pocatello.

   The incredible force of the water created the Snake River Canyon’s large depressions and picturesque cliffs—of which Shoshone Falls in the most impressive.

   Even in the months when the flow of the Snake River is lower, it’s worth visiting Shoshone Falls because more of the sheer cliff walls are exposed. During those times, you can usually view two large ribbons of water spilling over the worn yet expressive basalt walls.

   Shoshone Falls Park, adjacent to the falls, makes for a pleasant place for an afternoon picnic in the shadow of the cascading water. The park includes a fenced overlook that provides a splendid panoramic view of the area.

   In the wetter spring months, Shoshone Falls widens and smaller rivulets of water will erupt from the surrounding canyon walls, including around the Shoshone Falls Park area, to support the blossoming of a virtual paradise of greenery.

   Another place to catch a glimpse of the beauty of the Snake River Canyon is adjacent to the Twin Falls Visitor Center on Blue Lake Boulevard. From the parking lot, you can look out across the broad canyon. There is a small fee to visit the falls.

   Nearby Perrine Bridge is a manmade marvel, measuring 1,500-feet across and standing 486-feet above the Snake River. The present bridge, built in 1974, replaced an earlier version that was, at the time of its construction, the highest bridge in the world.

   Twin Falls is 43 miles north of Jackpot, Nevada, a booming gaming resort community located on U.S. 93 at the Nevada-Idaho border. For more information, go to www.visitidaho.org/attraction/natural-attractions/shoshone-falls/.

Fabulous Views Found on Old Donner Summit Route

 

   Weather permitting, a fun alternative to traveling on Interstate 80 over Donner Summit is to take the historic Old Donner Pass Road that parallels the interstate for about 11 miles.

   Instead of racing along on a modern, four-lane freeway, this drive is considerably more laid-back, as you wind through beautiful, wooded alpine scenery, enjoying marvelous views of craggy peaks and cliffs.

   Heading east toward Reno, you can jump onto the two-lane road at the turnoff at Soda Springs. After passing through some fairly developed areas filled with summer homes and roadside businesses, the road makes a slow climb to the Sugar Bowl Resort and Donner Ski Ranch areas.

   If you stop in the parking lot at Sugar Bowl, you can catch a great view of the natural bowl-shaped landscape that gives the resort its name. The two tallest peaks at each end of the bowl are Mount Lincoln and Mount Disney (the latter named after Walt Disney, the original developer of the Sugar Bowl Resort in 1939).

   A bit farther up the road, you can see the west portal of the Donner Summit Railroad Tunnel, a 1,659-foot-long passage that was constructed in 1867 for trains traveling through the mountains.

   The tunnel was used for about 130 years by the Central Pacific, Southern Pacific, Union Pacific and Amtrak trains. These days, the trains travel through adjacent snow sheds rather than the original tunnel.

   Also take note of the stone embankments below the train tracks, which were hand-built by Chinese laborers in the late 1860s.

   The road continues to 7,088-foot Donner Pass. If you pull over here, you can look out over the steep eastern face of the pass and see the glimmering jewel known as Donner Lake.

   Continuing east on the road, you wind downward to the very picturesque Donner Summit Rainbow Bridge. This reinforced concrete arch bridge was built in 1926 (and restored in 1996) and was originally part of the historic Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental road in the U.S.

   But the story of Old Donner Pass Road even predates the Lincoln Highway. In 1844, the Murphy-Townsend-Stephens Party, one of the earliest emigrant wagon trains, blazed a trail through the area on its way to California.

   A later emigrant group, the tragic Donner Party, however, gave its name to the pass after it was trapped at the lake below during the winter of 1846-47.

   In 1864, a developed byway, known as the Dutch Flat and Donner Lake Wagon Road, was completed over the pass to serve the construction camps building the Central Pacific Railroad through the mountains.

   Historical records indicate the wagon road was abandoned after the railroad was finished but reconstructed as California State Highway 37 in 1909 then incorporated into the Lincoln Highway in 1913.

   The Old Donner Pass Road also was part of the Victory Highway in the early 1920s and, after 1925, part of U.S. Route 40—so, you can see, it has had many names and numbers in its long history.

   These days, while the interstate has taken away most of the auto traffic the road remains a special drive. The rugged rock cliffs surrounding the bridge are also popular with rock-climbers and hikers.

   From the bridge, it’s about six miles to Donner Lake, a scenic body of water that offers sailing, jet-skiing, boating, fishing and swimming. The road winds around the north side of the lake through a forest of condos and summer homes.

   At the east edge of the lake is the Donner Memorial State Park, which has a small museum commemorating the ill-fated Donner Party. A short nature hike from the museum leads to the site where the members of that group erected shelters and ends at the lakeshore.

   About a mile from the state park is the town of Truckee and where you can reconnect with the interstate and continue to Reno, about 30 miles east.

   For more information about Donner Summit and its rich history, go to the Donner Summit Historical Society website, www.donnersummithistoricalsociety.org.

Longtime Nevada Journalist Writes About His Hometown of Vallejo, California in New Book

 

View of Vallejo in 1852-53

  Brendan Riley really knows the city of Vallejo, California.

  Riley, the longtime Associated Press Capital Bureau Chief in Carson City, was born and raised in Vallejo, where his father was a legendary local newspaper editor and political figure, Wyman Riley, and his mother, Marjorie Riley, was also a journalist and writer.

  Following his retirement in 2009, Riley, a member of the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame, who spends part of his time in Genoa, Nevada, and part of it in Vallejo, turned his attention to his hometown and specifically its rich history.

  In 2017, he published his first book, “Lower Georgia Street: California’s Forgotten Barbary Coast,” about a once-notorious sailor district in Vallejo with a colorful and racy history.

  In the course of writing that book, Riley collected so much historical material about the city that he felt he had more to say on the subject. As a result, later that year he began writing a regular column, the Solano Chronicles, for the “Vallejo Times-Herald” newspaper.

  Recently, Riley collected the best of his columns for the past few years into another book, “Vanishing Vallejo: Random History Notes on a Colorful California Town.” In other words, a book begets a column that begets another book.

  “Vanishing Vallejo” offers a wonderful overview of the many interesting people, events, and places that define the city. Importantly, many of the entries focus on Mare Island, an historic shipyard that provided jobs for many in the community and remains an important part of the community’s identity.

  Riley divides his book chronologically, with entries organized by the year they were published. He begins his book, appropriately, with a short history of the city’s namesake, General Mariano Vallejo, who originally hoped to have the California state capital located in the community (it did have that distinction for a short time).

  Other items in the first chapter, collecting 2017 columns, include a profile of Admiral David Farragut, the first Mare Island Shipyard Commandant, a story about gangster George “Baby Face” Nelson’s time hiding out in Vallejo in the 1930s, and the impacts of Prohibition on the city (it was largely ignored).

  Subsequent chapters include stories about the time the future Duchess of Windsor spent in Vallejo in 1920, how ill-informed urban renewal efforts in the early 1970s unfortunately destroyed several landmark buildings in the city, the stories of sunken ships in Vallejo’s bay, and how famed novelist Ernest J. Gaines, who grew up in Vallejo, once haunted the city library for inspiration.

  Reading the book, one comes away with a new appreciation for the rich history of Vallejo, a city that often is overshadowed by its more famous neighbors, the Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley and San Francisco.

  For example, who knew that in 1918, actor Boris Karloff, who would later go on to great fame in films like “Frankenstein” and “The Bride of Frankenstein,” spent time in Vallejo as a struggling actor? Karloff, then in his early 30s, joined the acting troupe at Vallejo’s Airdome Theatre and performed in a number of plays until the theatre, like all public venues, was closed during the deadly influenza outbreak of 1917-18.

  Unable to work as an actor, Karloff worked as the nearby Sperry Flour Mill for about two months. In 1919, with the Vallejo acting company now defunct, Karloff joined a theater company in San Jose and, eventually, ended up in Hollywood, where he found much greater success.

  Brendan Riley’s “Vanishing Vallejo: Random History Notes on a Colorful California Town,” is published by America Through Time, an imprint of Foothill Media, working with Arcadia Publishing. It can be found in online bookstores, such as Bookshop.org, which pays a portion of its sales to local bookstores.

Calistoga's Francis House Somehow Defied the Odds

   When one tells the tale of an historic property, especially in fast-growing places like California and Nevada, the story typically ends with the destruction of the venerable old structure, which is inevitably replaced by something new and shiny.

   But there’s an old house in the quaint community of Calistoga, located at the north end of California’s famous Napa Valley, that somehow dodged a date with a wrecking ball to become an elegant and magnificent small hotel.

   Located at 1403 Myrtle Street, the historic John H. Francis House was built in 1886 in the classic Second Empire style of architecture (similar in appearance to Virginia City’s Savage Mansion, which was built in 1861). The house has the distinction of being the only stone residence built in that style in the Napa Valley.

   James H. Francis, who commissioned construction of the house, was a prominent Calistoga merchant (his brother, George, was owner of the Napa Register newspaper in the city of Napa).

   Francis had a mercantile store on the corner of Lincoln and Washington streets in the downtown area and owned several ranches, including one north of Calistoga on which there was a productive silver mine.

   His three-story mansion incorporated locally-quarried stone as well as curled redwood. When completed, it was arguably the most elegant and impressive single-family home in Calistoga.

   Following Francis’s death in 1891, the house was sold to Colonel Myron E. Billings, a Civil War veteran and justice of the U.S. Criminal Courts who had been appointed by President Ulysses S. Grant. Billings modified the house over the next several decades, installing electricity, hot and cold running water, and indoor bathrooms both upstairs and downstairs.

   In 1918, Billings died and the house was rented to a local nurse, Mabel Martin, who converted it into the Calistoga Hospital. According to author Jane Hodges Young, writing for North Bay Biz magazine, Martin married a local minister and widower, C.L. Peterson, and the two operated the hospital until the mid-1940s.

   During the next two decades, several additions were made to the building, which also was sold several times until closing in 1964. According to Young, in 1970, it was purchased by Donald J. Selvey, who apparently was a hoarder who did no maintenance or upkeep of the property and used it to store his cars and other junk.

   Despite being placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, the once-grand old house was essentially abandoned for more than 50 years, slowly decaying (the second floor and the stairs collapsed at one point). In 2015, it was listed as one of the ten most endangered historic properties in the county by Napa County Landmarks.

   In 2007, the property was purchased by Napa developer Neil Schafer, who announced plans to build a luxury resort on the property, but that fell by the wayside with the Great Recession of 2008-2009. Finally, tired of having such an eyesore and hazard in the middle of town, the city of Calistoga began discussing demolishing the house.

   In 2014, however, the crumbling ruin was acquired by Dina and Rich Dwyer of San Francisco, who spent three and a half years removing debris and lovingly rebuilding the house into a boutique hotel.

   Completed in 2018, the Francis House is now a beautiful, meticulously-restored, five-bedroom luxury inn with a swimming pool, tennis court and infrared sauna and salt room. Even if a night’s stay isn’t in your plans, the place is certainly worth checking out.

   For more information, go to https://thefrancishouse.com/.