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A Tioga Wolf On Us395 At Mono Lake


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As I replied to Mobilene about my US 395 California & Mono Lake post, I was reminded that I had seen photos taken between 1916 and 1921 at Mono Lake on US 395 (which of course wasn’t US 395 then!).

 

My grandfather was chauffer to Leslie. C. Brand, often referred to as the Father of Glendale (California). Mr. Brand bought property just off 395 in 1911 and the lodge he built up Lee Vining Canyon still exists. He had a Locomobile modified to provide his Sierra transportation and named it the Tioga Wolf. Of course my grandfather, as driver, got to go on Brand’s road adventures along the old road.

 

This part of California was sparsely populated in the teens, and the primary economic driver was mining. At the time, Bodie and Aurora (now both ghost towns) were going strong. My grandfather recalled the impossibility of getting a night’s sleep in Aurora because of the noise from the huge stamps crushing the ore.

 

But this is about a modern road trip, not family history!

 

This is a photo of the Tioga Wolf parked in front of two buildings on US 395 in 1921.

 

AR395TiogaWolTiogaLodge.jpg

Tioga Wolf at Tioga Lodge in 1921 on what was to become US 395.

Glendale California Public Library. L. C. Brand Collection

 

As we passed by the modern Tioga Lodge across the road from Mono Lake, I recalled the old photo and wondered if the 1921 photo might have been taken there. The battery was dead on my primary camera. Not having the old photo in hand to compare angles, I took a couple of quick grab shots with my backup camera to compare when we returned home.

AR395TiogaLodgeMatch.jpg

AR395TiogaLodge.jpg

The Tioga Lodge Today on US 395

 

I haven’t compared them until now. They match ....as I have just this moment discovered! The angles aren’t perfect but there is no mistaking the buildings. That is great! Is it any wonder I love the old roads!

 

I find it amazing that the Tioga Lodge today looks so much like it did in 1921. About all that has changed is that the old road was dirt and higher than the present road, the Michelin sign is gone, and an ornate railing sits on top of the old rock wall.

 

I think we can say with certainty that this is a photo taken in 1921 in front of what is now the Tioga Lodge, on the old road, before it was US 395. Note too the boat they are carrying. This is fishing country!

 

The photo below was taken on the shore of Mono Lake, probably on the same trip as the photo above (note the boat). That is my grandfather with the cigarette in his mouth.

 

AR395TiogaWolfMonolake.jpg

The Tioga Wolf on the Shore of Mono Lake

Glendale California Public Library L. C. Brand Collection

 

The lake is lower today, so it would be next to impossible to match the sites. But if you have a little imagination, place the car left center in the photo below.

 

AR395MonoLakeCarSite.jpg

Mono Lake Today looking east from US 395

 

The map below is a 1923 Automobile Club of Southern California (ACSC) strip map showing the Tioga Pass and Mono Lake, with the Tioga Lodge clearly marked. For those interested in the old road, note that the road north of Mono Lake goes northeast and the original (not the more modern) Conway Summit road is under construction. Also note that Lee Vining doesn’t exist, at least on the map.

 

AR395MonoMap.jpg

Mono Lake & the Tioga lodge in 1923 on ACSC Map

Keep the Show on the Road!

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Ohhhhhh rapture. This is the kind of road evidence I dream about. And how cool that your grandfather was involved!

 

I hope to find old pictures along Indiana roads like this!

 

jim

Thanks for the comment! Yeh, it doesn’t get much better. The Tioga Wolf was familiar to my mother’s whole family as they lived on the Brand’s Estate in Southern California. I had seen these pictures many times before because copies were held by my uncle. And I knew the Tioga Lodge existed because I had driven by several times over the past 50 years, but never stopped there. Then when we passed it by on this trip something clicked.

 

I do a lot of Then and Now stuff, in fact I wrote an unpublished book using old postcards, so this little discovery from my own family on a road I truly love is a once in a lifetime find. And you can take some credit as it really was as I was answering your e-mail that I remembered taking the photo six months ago.

 

I sent a copy to the folks at the Lodge to get their reaction. And I maybe I will send a note to the Brand Library in Glendale as they maintain a history of the Brand family on the former estate. It would be a minor thing to them, but they would no doubt add it to the photo description in their possession.

 

In the 1950’s and 60’s I recall the Lodge as deserted, but it has been very nicely renovated. It isn’t open in the winter, so we didn’t go inside, but we will the next time we are by. It is about 500 miles from where we live, but this adds another reason for a return visit to that area. And I want to take the old alignment that goes around rather than over Conway Summit.

 

And speaking of old pictures, I will e-mail you some pages out of George R Stewart's US 40 book of Marshall and Vandalia. It's early 1950's not 1850's though.

 

Keep the Show on the Road

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Dave, as one who has the utmost admiration for then & now photos, I tip my proverbial cap to you! Cool how it looks like they lowered the level of the road over the years. I've toyed with then & nows several years ago and have a few up on my web site. Russell Olsen put a fine book out about three years ago of Route 66. I think it's called Route 66 Lost & Found. I believe he came out with a follow-up on it a year ago.

 

US 40 guru Frank Brusca is in the process of publishing a 50 year follow-up to the George Stewart book, and painstakingly working to take every one of his pictures at the same location and same angle as Stewart's. Last I heard he was nearly done with retracing, but I think a week or two ago he posted a note about it on the Route 40 Yahoo Group about doing some work on it out west and was looking for anyone interested in tagging along. I'm too lazy to look up what he said, so I'm sure Denny can fill in the holes of my story. :rolleyes:

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Dave, as one who has the utmost admiration for then & now photos, I tip my proverbial cap to you! Cool how it looks like they lowered the level of the road over the years. I've toyed with then & nows several years ago and have a few up on my web site. Russell Olsen put a fine book out about three years ago of Route 66. I think it's called Route 66 Lost & Found. I believe he came out with a follow-up on it a year ago.

 

US 40 guru Frank Brusca is in the process of publishing a 50 year follow-up to the George Stewart book, and painstakingly working to take every one of his pictures at the same location and same angle as Stewart's. Last I heard he was nearly done with retracing, but I think a week or two ago he posted a note about it on the Route 40 Yahoo Group about doing some work on it out west and was looking for anyone interested in tagging along. I'm too lazy to look up what he said, so I'm sure Denny can fill in the holes of my story. :rolleyes:

 

Funny that you should mention Frank Brusca and the George R Stewart US 40 book. I sent Mobilene some pages from it this morning of the route in Illinois he will be following tomorrow. I communicated with Brusca months ago and not only was he revisiting Stewart’s sites and redoing photos (including some 360 degree panoramas), he was trying to find some of the people!!! I think he succeeded in at least one case. Talk about your Then and Now!

 

I told Mobilene he should buy a copy but they want 80 bucks for a copy. I’m glad I bought mine 20 years ago. It is a real classic.

 

Thanks for the comment on my grandfather’s pictures. I look for the old buildings in my travels, but this one topped them all. Those old photos have been around the family for years (although I got my copies from the Brand Library). I knew they were taken at “Mono Lake” but never imagined that the Tioga Lodge was the site. To see the match up yesterday as I was doing a post here on US 395 had to be a lifetime highlight for roadside then and now shots.

 

The lodge sits right beside the highway and as an old road map guy, I have seen it marked on 1920’s and before Automobile Club of Southern California maps for years. And I knew the place when I used to roam that area, but it was mostly deserted back then.

 

It will be hard for me to top that experience.

 

Continued thanks for your leadership and let’s Keep the Show on the Road!

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Wow, so many branches on which to hang comments and even an invitation to fill in holes. When I first scanned this thread yesterday, I thought I'd come back and make a small comment related to the discovery of matching photos. That comment will now come at the end since there are all those other branches.

 

First, the Stewart book. I just now saw a copy for $18 on Alibris. Try searching wwww.alibris.com if that link doesn't work. Mobilene, you strike me as the sort of person whose life will not be complete until you own this book. You might also want to pick up something that Thomas & Geraldine Vale did in 1983. It's a thirty year update on many, but not nearly all, of Stewart's photos. Alibris shows this available new in paperback for $7.50 or used for $4. It's nothing close to what Frank Brusca is working on but I think it's still worth four bucks.

 

Frank did post a note in his US-40 egroup about working on photos this summer between Kansas and San Francisco. I expected to see a similar note show up in the US-40 forum here but it hasn't yet. He is looking for help along the way and he doesn't sugar coat the task ("lugging camera gear, battling critters") but it would be an opportunity to be involved in what promises to be a remarkable book. Anyone interested can contact Frank through his profile here.

 

Russell Olsen did release his second volume of "Route 66 Lost & Found" a year or so ago but I just got a copy last month in Clinton. I explained to Russell that I was waiting to pick it up myself so I could save postage. He's well into a third (and probably last) volume of the series and was heading east from Clinton to nail down some of the photos.

 

And now my own "old family/road picture" discovery. My great-grandparents drove a Ford Model T to Florida in 1920 and, in 2001, my girlfriend & I retraced that as best we could. Prior to the trip, I had borrowed and scanned lots of old family photos hoping to find something from the 1920 version. No joy. Then, after we had repeated their stop at Lincoln's Cabin near Hodgenville, KY, we (actually my girlfriend had to point it out to me) realized that one of the scanned photos was of the cabin but reversed. While it was a picture taken by rather than of my relatives, I was still pretty excited. I now knew that about a half-dozen similar sized pictures were likely from the trip and that the pictures were all contact (i.e., reversed) prints. A couple of the others are at roadside but lack any sort of clues as to location. The photo can be seen here. It's not much - just one more picture of a cabin that has been photographed probably millions of times - but finding it was a bit of a thrill for me.

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If you click the link in Denny's message, it'll fail. Remove "localhost/" from the URL and it'll work.

 

Denny, how fascinating to read your grandmother's writing and compare it to your trip and photos. Makes me wish my grandparents had been travelers. Well, my dad's dad drove a truck, but probably wasn't the picture-taking type.

 

Yeah, yeah, I'm probably going to break down and buy that book.

 

jim

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If you click the link in Denny's message, it'll fail. Remove "localhost/" from the URL and it'll work.

 

Denny, how fascinating to read your grandmother's writing and compare it to your trip and photos. Makes me wish my grandparents had been travelers. Well, my dad's dad drove a truck, but probably wasn't the picture-taking type.

 

Yeah, yeah, I'm probably going to break down and buy that book.

 

jim

:blush: I used to do that (locate something in my local copy and forget to change the link for posting) a lot more. Thanks for catching and sorting it. The link has been edited.

 

Even though I sometimes wish there were more...pictures...letters...details...I'm really just thankful to have some hints of their travels and to have known them for several years.

 

As someone who 1) lives near US-40, 2) owns both a car and a camera, and 3) has been known to use them simultaneously, not owning Stewart's book just seems wrong. <_<

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Denny, again you prove to be the master road voyerger!

 

First, the Stewart book. I just now saw a copy for $18 on Alibris. Try searching wwww.alibris.com if that link doesn't work. Mobilene, you strike me as the sort of person whose life will not be complete until you own this book.

 

I’m glad you spotted the Stewart book on alibras. I think what I did on ABE was to type US40 whereas you typed U.S. 40. So I got just one or two citations.

 

You might also want to pick up something that Thomas & Geraldine Vale did in 1983. It's a thirty year update on many, but not nearly all, of Stewart's photos. Alibris shows this available new in paperback for $7.50 or used for $4. It's nothing close to what Frank Brusca is working on but I think it's still worth four bucks.

 

I didn’t know about this one. I’ll buy one for sure.

 

Frank did post a note in his US-40 egroup about working on photos this summer between Kansas and San Francisco. I expected to see a similar note show up in the US-40 forum here but it hasn't yet. He is looking for help along the way and he doesn't sugar coat the task ("lugging camera gear, battling critters") but it would be an opportunity to be involved in what promises to be a remarkable book. Anyone interested can contact Frank through his profile here.

 

I’ll take a look. It has been awhile since I visited the site.

 

Russell Olsen did release his second volume of "Route 66 Lost & Found" a year or so ago but I just got a copy last month in Clinton. I explained to Russell that I was waiting to pick it up myself so I could save postage. He's well into a third (and probably last) volume of the series and was heading east from Clinton to nail down some of the photos.

 

I got his first volume when we were on 66 this winter. I’ll pick up the second.

 

And now my own "old family/road picture" discovery. My great-grandparents drove a Ford Model T to Florida in 1920 and, in 2001, my girlfriend & I retraced that as best we could. Prior to the trip, I had borrowed and scanned lots of old family photos hoping to find something from the 1920 version. No joy. Then, after we had repeated their stop at Lincoln's Cabin near Hodgenville, KY, we (actually my girlfriend had to point it out to me) realized that one of the scanned photos was of the cabin but reversed. While it was a picture taken by rather than of my relatives, I was still pretty excited. I now knew that about a half-dozen similar sized pictures were likely from the trip and that the pictures were all contact (i.e., reversed) prints. A couple of the others are at roadside but lack any sort of clues as to location. The photo can be seen here. It's not much - just one more picture of a cabin that has been photographed probably millions of times - but finding it was a bit of a thrill for me.

 

I’m having a problem reaching the site, so comment will have to wait until I do. (I see that the URL associated with the link is garbled, so I believe it will require your correction) I look forward to seeing your photos. It is a little tweeter (a high note, a sweet, clear experience) to stand where your great grandparents stood 80 or more years ago.

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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I’m having a problem reaching the site, so comment will have to wait until I do. (I see that the URL associated with the link is garbled, so I believe it will require your correction) I look forward to seeing your photos. It is a little tweeter (a high note, a sweet, clear experience) to stand where your great grandparents stood 80 or more years ago.

 

%#@!% Denny, you got the link fixed, but now I have a hour of fun reading to do following Granny. I will just tell the wife that I can't pick up her new display cabinet this morning.

 

Keep the Show on the Road.

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If that flies with your wife, then I salute you, KTSOTR.

 

It's worse than that. Did you read Granny's Letters at Denny's site? It will take several sittings to fully digest that gem. I am going to encourage him to start a new thread so it will get more attention.

 

I hope your National Road Trip is great tomorrow. I hope you got the Stewart US40 pages OK. We'll watch for your report.

 

Keep the Show on the Road!

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I got the US 40 pages just fine, and I'll make a point to take photos of the same spots you sent. A couple of the pages were in Indiana, and I'm going to try to stop by those, too. The friend I'm taking on the trip tomorrow lives near Belleville -- grew up out there, really -- and she says that the image from there of the farm looks familiar to her. She's going to drive home that way tonight to see if she can find it. jim

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Wow, so many branches on which to hang comments and even an invitation to fill in holes. When I first scanned this thread yesterday, I thought I'd come back and make a small comment related to the discovery of matching photos. That comment will now come at the end since there are all those other branches.

 

First, the Stewart book. I just now saw a copy for $18 on Alibris. Try searching wwww.alibris.com if that link doesn't work. Mobilene, you strike me as the sort of person whose life will not be complete until you own this book. You might also want to pick up something that Thomas & Geraldine Vale did in 1983. It's a thirty year update on many, but not nearly all, of Stewart's photos. Alibris shows this available new in paperback for $7.50 or used for $4. It's nothing close to what Frank Brusca is working on but I think it's still worth four bucks.

 

Frank did post a note in his US-40 egroup about working on photos this summer between Kansas and San Francisco. I expected to see a similar note show up in the US-40 forum here but it hasn't yet. He is looking for help along the way and he doesn't sugar coat the task ("lugging camera gear, battling critters") but it would be an opportunity to be involved in what promises to be a remarkable book. Anyone interested can contact Frank through his profile here.

 

Russell Olsen did release his second volume of "Route 66 Lost & Found" a year or so ago but I just got a copy last month in Clinton. I explained to Russell that I was waiting to pick it up myself so I could save postage. He's well into a third (and probably last) volume of the series and was heading east from Clinton to nail down some of the photos.

 

And now my own "old family/road picture" discovery. My great-grandparents drove a Ford Model T to Florida in 1920 and, in 2001, my girlfriend & I retraced that as best we could. Prior to the trip, I had borrowed and scanned lots of old family photos hoping to find something from the 1920 version. No joy. Then, after we had repeated their stop at Lincoln's Cabin near Hodgenville, KY, we (actually my girlfriend had to point it out to me) realized that one of the scanned photos was of the cabin but reversed. While it was a picture taken by rather than of my relatives, I was still pretty excited. I now knew that about a half-dozen similar sized pictures were likely from the trip and that the pictures were all contact (i.e., reversed) prints. A couple of the others are at roadside but lack any sort of clues as to location. The photo can be seen here. It's not much - just one more picture of a cabin that has been photographed probably millions of times - but finding it was a bit of a thrill for me.

 

I got both U. S. 40 books (Stewart & Vale) from Alibris - I've found a lot of interesting books over there. But, then, I haunt old book's stores, and that's just what Alibris is - only on-line.

 

Hudsonly,

Alex Burr

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Thanks for posting this string, especially the photos, KTSOTR. I really enjoy seeing those old black and white photos and when you match the location up its magic. Do you think there might be a gene for 2 lane roadways that was passed down from your grandfather?

 

I have one old black and white photo that I would like to match the location of someday. My Great Grandfather was a Superintendant of a section of the Trans Canada Highway in Ontario sometime back in the 20's or 30's and my mother has a picture of him standing on the roadbed as it was being constructed near a summit that was named after him (Bain Summit). I haven't located the summit on a map yet and who knows when I will have the chance to get to Ontario.

 

roadhound

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