Construction of New Road Up Kern River bv Forest Service

By Walter S. Johnson President, Mt. \Thitney Lumber Co.

Back in 1886 John P. Fleitz of Michigan acquired some nine thousand acres of timber land in the High Sierra in the area now known as the Southern portion of the Sequoia National Forest. He evidently believed that the Sequoia gigantea groves would some day prove of great commercial value, for in the selection of timber he included three tracts that contain groves of these Sequoia gigantea, located in picturesque spots near mountain meadows.

These nine thousand acres were divided into four separate lracts in a twenty mile area; the northern tract, containing 3100 acres, being near Camp Nelson; the second tract, containing 4000 acres, being near Double Bunk to the South; the third tract, containing 750 acres, located near Lloyd's Meadows; and the fourth tract, containing 1230 acres, located near the Tule River Indian Reservation.

Mrs. Dwyer and Mrs. Rucker, the two daughters of Mr. Fleitz. inherited these tracts and continued to hold them in the hope that the lumber business would develop to a point where the construction of a railroad would be warranted to reach them. The most feasible route for a railroad to this timber would be from Bakersfield up Kern River, a distance of approximately'one hundred miles, but the cost of such a road, built in the rocky canyon of the Kern River would be fully as great as the value of the timber, and so the years drifted by with no possibility of liquidating their holdings.

In 1935 they turned the task of liquidating this timber over to Frank Solinsky, Jr., of San Francisco, who made a careful survey of the area and in his quest for a customer for the timber he interested Walter S. Johnson, W. E. Arblaster, George Arblaster, C. A. Webster and C. T. Gruenhagen, California lumbermen, to a point of having them carefully go over the area and examine the timber and the possibilities of transporting the lumber out of the country. To make this inspection it was necessary to go on horseback as there were no roads through it. This area contains several horse trails, maintained by the United States Forest Service, hence it was possible to examine the timber and investigate the possibility of routes for the establishment of roads to reach it as soon as the snow had melted.

The United States Forest Service is keenly interested in preserving the groves of Sequoia gigantea and establishing recreational areas in the High Sierra for the benefit of the general public. Mr. Solinsky was able to interest them in making some timber land exchanges by which the United States Forest Service obtained title to all the areas and agreed to an exchange whereby the heirs would be given timber of other species all located within one area, with the proviso that the timber therein must be logged ofi within a thirty-year period in accordance with approved forest practices which will preserve the young growth and protect th6 water sheds, and that trees along any highways should be left by way of preserving the natural beauty of the area, the public to have available these several fine recreational areas and Sequoia Groves for all time to come.

There was available for road building purposes certain CCC-labor and as part of the exchange agreement by which the Government obtained title to all the land involved, it was agreed that the United States Forest Service would build a road from Fairview up Kern River, thence across Kern River and up South Creek to a millsite located at the junction of South Creek, Double Bunk and Parker Creek, at an altitude of. 4700 feet, where ample water was available for a log pond, :rnd sufficient open area for a sawmill and lumber drying yard. This required a road approximately nine miles long, part of which is up the rocky Kern Canyon, also a steel bridge over the Kern River.

The commencement of these negotiations was in 1935, and the deal was finally worked out whereby there was created the Mt. Whitney Lumber Company, acting as agents for the Dwyer-Rucker Timber Company, who had obtained the cutting rights to some 306 million feet of Sugar Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Jeffrey Pine, Fir and Cedar timber, in an area adjacent to this South Creek millsite.

The deal was completed in the fall of 1936, and the United States Forest Service, with the aid of the CCC-men, built a road from Double Bunk down to the millsite and established a camp sufficient to house some 100 CCC-workers and commenced the building of the upper portion of this new road. 'Ihey also established a CCC-Camp at Fairview, down on the Kern River, where some 150 CCC-men were housed and began construction of a road from the south end thereof up Kern River, thus working the construction from both ends.

Under the agreement it was understood that the Forest Service would complete this road and the steel bridge within a period of fourteen months, which was quite an undertaking in view of the rocky walls of Kern Canyon through which the road had to be cut. The Forest Service used the following equipment in this work: 3 Caterpillar Diesel tractors, RD-7; 1 Caterpillar Diesel tractor, RD-8; 4 LeTourneau Angledozers; 1 Allis-Chalmers Tractor 80; 2 LeTourneau 4 yard scrapers; 1 Lima Diesel 1 yard shovel;4 F.W.D. trucks; 8 Chevrolet 2ft-ton trucks; 2 Wagon drill outfits; Cleveland Drill; Gardner-Denver Drill; 9 Compressors-3 Sullivan, 2 Schram, 2 Davey on tractors, 1 Gardner-Denver, 1 Ingersoll-Rand; 1 Jaeger Concrete Mixer, trailer mounted.

Because of the intense cold and heavy snowfall in the winter of 1936-37, it seemed almost necessary that the CCC-Camp, (Continued on Page 20)