Railroad Depot and Lumber Yard - Boulder Creek, CA - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

take a step back into history and look around. You are in the middle of a lumber yard teeming with activity.

as you turn and look downtown Junction Ave and Middleton Ave, you're looking at a former lumber yard. visualize piles of redwood stacked alongside the rail tracks which ran down railroad ave. Imagine the whistle blowing from a Southern Pacific Coast railroad engine steaming its way out of Boulder Creek with another load of lumber.

boulder creek owes its origin and colorful history to the lumber industry and the ensuing railroad. In the early 1800s logging was a laborious and dangerous profession. The task of transporting the lumber down from the mountain s was agonizing slow and difficult. Individual operators sent lumberjacks into the mountains to pile the raw logs high on carts and pole them down using mule and oxen teams.

The cost of ground transportation by horse teams proved to be prohibitive for the lumber industry. It was necessary to find another method to move the lumber. This brought about the flume. a flume is a large aqueduct designed to float logs miles down the side of mountains which was almost entirely an American invention.

The flume finally saw its last days in 1884, when the Southern Pacific Coast Railroads laid tracks all the way up to Boulder Creed and the flume was torn down. In fact, most of the flume's path was used as the right of way for the railroad.

Southern Pacific Coast Railroad Company put in a depot a general store and encouraged mills to move further up the valley to Boulder Creel. by 1899 Boulder Creek was on the map as the fifth largest shipper on timber in the county.

boulder Creek has the railroad, lumberjack and mill operators to thank for the wonderful contributions they have made to our town.

Group that erected the marker: San Lorenzo Valley Historical Society Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: Middelton and Junction Boulder Creek, CA USA URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
Take a picture of the marker, preferably including yourself or your GPSr in the photo. A very detailed description of your visit may be substituted for a photo. In any case please provide a description of your visit. A description of only "Visited" or "Saw it while on vacation" by anyone other than the person creating the waymark may be deleted by the waymark owner or the category officers.

Recent Visits/Logs:

There are no logs for this waymark yet.