Nostalgia & History > RR upstream from Cantara Loop?

Anyone have any info on the railroad line that went upstream from Cantara Loop toward Ney Springs? Here is a pic of a deteriorating bridge over a stream along an overgrown roadbed.

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Signor's Shasta book has a photo of a logging branch going under the Cantara SP bridge to the area up river. Cantara had a logging mill and even a post office at one time. How far up river from Cantara was this taken?

> How far up river from Cantara was this taken?

About half way between the narrows and the mouth of Ney Springs Creek on the Ney Springs side of the river.

I hiked this area 20 years ago, and some scant evidence of the logging line was still extant in a few places on the west side of the Sacramento River.

Ney (or Neys) Springs was a thriving resort at the Turn of the Century, but had nothing to do with the railroad, as far as I know.

There were two lumber outfits at Cantara at the time. One was owned by the Truckee Lumber Company and purportedly operated as the Cantara Lumber Company, though I have never seen it listed as anything other than a branch of the former. It opened in the early 1890's and closed around World War One. The other was a box and door plant. I don't know when it began operation, but it was leased for awhile by the Northern California Lumber Company, which also had mills at Gazelle and Igerna. They vacated the lease in 1908 in favor of a large new box factory at Hilt, later owned by Fruit Growers Supply. The Cantara mill then was operated by the California Box & Door Company. In 1911, the mill's owner, George A. Pratt, moved its machinery to a new box factory in Dorris.

I presume that the railroad was owned by the Truckee outfit, but have found absolutely no record of the line, so far.

Ed Gibson

below: from the Grizzly-Bear, October, 1907, p47

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Signor's SP Shasta Division book has the following to say about this.

"T.H. Bradshaw established a mill at Cantara, milepost 328 on the Southern Pacific, in 1892 and proceeded to log the surrounding country.  Between 1901 and 1904, the California Box & Door Company expanded the operation,.  Logs were brought down the steep hillside by means of an ingenious cable system wihich was powered by the weight of the logs themselves.  Logs on this tram system crossed the Southern Pacific grade on a trestle just sough of the mill.  Later, the tram system was extended across the Sacramento River into the very center of Cantara Loop where some drying yards were located, and on up the north bank underneath the SP's 18th crossing bridge for about a mile, where it crossed the river and headed up Nay Springs Creek.  Near the springs, a loop and switchback were necessary to gain elevation.  From the switchback, the tram extended an undetermined length in the direction of Castle Lake.  By 1913 the property was being operated as the Cantara Lumber Company.  It is not certain when this operation was shut down.  The spur serving the mill appears in SP records as late as 1917, but it is assumed the mill was abandoned shortly thereafter due to depletion of timber.  The tramway had been abandoned for some time before."

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV