One of my very favorite tumblrs is @railwayhistorical which lately has been tracing the historic path of the transcontinental railroad through the Sierra Nevadas. In a recent post a reference was made to the original route of the Central Pacific Railroad, mentioning the documentary work of photographer Alfred A. Hart (1816-1908) at the time of the railroad’s construction in the 1860s.
The image above is from Stanford University’s online catalog of hundreds of Hart’s photos–amazing images considering the drawbacks of the bulky photographic equipment in the era. I imagine he was lugging around a box camera with tripod with enough weighty 8’ x 10″ glass plates to take as many photos as he wanted.
This image is #265 in the “Advance of Civilization” series compiled by Mr Hart from 1862-69, Boca Crossing Of Little Truckee. “Boca” is Spanish for “mouth” and refers to a location at the confluence of the Truckee and Little Truckee Rivers where Central Pacific Railroad construction camp #17 was situated.
Abundant timber and water power made this location an excellent choice for the lumber needed for railroad ties: a sawmill was created, and the mill pond became a source from which ice could be harvested. In 1876 the site became a natural location for a brewery, which produced Boca Beer. More info and contemporary photos of the area and its historical markers are here.
I took the liberty of cropping the version of the photo from the Stanford website, removing text and border for better visual impact, but the photo in its original context is seen below.
