Placer County History Digest

Early on a Saturday morning exactly 50 years ago, the quiet of the small towns of Citrus Heights, Antelope, and Roseville was shattered by a massive explosion coming from the nearby Roseville rail yard.

The Placer County Board of Supervisors approved $2,250 in revenue-sharing monies to the Auburn Parlor #59 Native Sons of the Golden West to place a plaque on the 442nd Japanese Battalion Memorial in Roseville during its consent agenda.

The Auburn State Theatre announced a temporary closure following a partial ceiling collapse April 18. All events scheduled in the near future have been canceled.

The Cal-Neva Lodge & Casino irreversibly changed the history of north shore Lake Tahoe when it opened in 1926.

“The Lake of the Sky” is grabbing attention this winter for more than one reason. Emerald Bay froze completely, including the inlet, for the first time in many years.

In nearly 30 years with KAHI, Jerry Henry rose to be the 65-year-old Auburn radio station’s majority shareholder, president and general manager. Now, he says it’s time to retire.

Writes Lincoln Messenger editor Carol Feineman: “It’s our responsibility to report on and decipher the truth on difficult topics, no matter how unpopular that might make the newspaper.”

A 46-acre white elephant in Lincoln that no one is publicly talking about needs to be addressed by city, county, regional and federal officials. The elephant is the defunct, contaminated Lincoln Titan 1 Missile Silo Complex that operated from 1962 to 1965.

In 2004, Bob Moore put together the concept of the Sierra Avalanche Center and enlisted a volunteer to help with winter forecasting duties. It became officially stamped as a nonprofit in the 2003/04 season. Next year will be its 20th anniversary.

After acquiring nearly 50 years of institutional knowledge about Lake Tahoe’s environment, retired Tahoe City Public Utilities District Engineering Consultant David Antonucci decided to write a book about all he’s learned.

Lake Tahoe has been a sought-after destination location for years, and has quickly grown since development began in the 1960s.

Gold Mountain California News Media Inc. has acquired 11 California titles from Brehm Communications Inc. Six of the titles comprise the Gold Country Media cluster: twice-weekly Auburn Journal and weeklies the Loomis News, Placer Herald, Roseville Press-Tribune, Lincoln News Messenger and Folsom Telegraph.

Avi Kwa Ame National Monument will protect sacred Native American sites, wildlife.

Californians are accustomed to being battered by many of nature's whims. Less familiar are volcanic eruptions like the one currently taking place at Hawaii's Mauna Loa. But California's own volcanoes are capable of violent fury.

State and tribal officials gathered Nov. 14 at the state capitol to break ground on a new monument that will replace the statue of Father Junipero Serra.

Beauty drew Brieanne Mirjah D'Souza to Eureka.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom recently joined the California Museum in announcing the 15th class of inductees into the California Hall of Fame. They join 138 Californians previously inducted for embodying the state’s innovative spirit.

Tahoe-Truckee, like any region in America that’s steeped in decades of history, isn’t immune to stories of supernatural sights and sounds. Here are some stories of history, mystery and lore associated from all sides of the lake.

Low-income patients who need specialized cancer treatment often struggle to get it. Advocates say a new law is a small step toward improving services for those patients.

The Gatekeeper’s Museum, run by the North Lake Tahoe Historical Society, has recently received a generous grant to preserve the Native American Basket Collection, donated by Marion Steinbach in the 1980s.

Lake Tahoe has endured many different eras of history, and all are woven into the fabric of its unique landscape. One way to take a trip back in time is to visit the iconic mansions and rustic cabin museums around the lake’s shores.

In a video, Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe chairman Clyde Prout III and elder Gerri Camp look around the Yo Dokim Pakan-Gerjuoy North Fork Preserve, land they recently acquired in the Tahoe National Forest.

Influential local resident George Whittelll’s yacht has turned 82. Thunderbird has been a focal point of the attached lodge and the surrounding area for generations, with tours available through the Thunderbird Lodge Preservation Society.

In nine books, preeminent California chronicler Kevin Starr ranges from the state’s pre-Columbian setting to the 21st century. His knowledge, scholarship and exquisite writing are as breathtaking as one’s first view of Yosemite Valley.

Placer Land Trust has transferred ownership of 40 acres above the North Fork of the American River to the Colfax-Todds Valley Consolidated Tribe, composed of Nisenan, Maidu and Miwok people. Tribal Chairman Clyde Prout III said, “Now we have a place where we can keep our traditions going.”

In the mid-1970s, if you were a Tahoe/Truckee music lover, that probably meant listening to KSML, “The Radio Voice of the Secret Mountain Laboratory.” On local airwaves from late ’74 until early ’77, it was a countercultural alternative to traditional radio.

If you hang around long enough in these waning days of the Biltmore—as a Moonshine Ink reporter did—you might meet people who are there getting the last of Tahoe’s daily affordable happy hours.

There are approximately 6 million items in the inventory of the California State Library. Four million of those are books, and nearly 2,000 of those are law books.

Gene Chapman has retired after selling the Chapman Monument Company in Roseville, which produced headstones, monuments, and private and public art projects for 37 years. The sale was to a local contractor, and for the first time since 1880, it will no longer be the site of a monument company.

As part of its Reexamining Our Past Initiative, California State Parks is seeking input on a proposal to change the way history is interpreted at Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park. The effort will provide visitors with more inclusive and historically accurate information.

Sierra-at-Tahoe has announced plans to open for one weekend only, April 9-10, to celebrate 75 years of “history, cherished memories, good times and … tough times too.”

After discussions between Placer County staff and the Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California, the Board of Supervisors has voted to rename the three county-maintained roads that contained the word “Squaw.”