Sierra Nevada Logging Museum
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The Sierra Nevada Logging Museum is a museum dedicated to preserving the history of logging in the Sierra Nevada area. It is located in Arnold, California.
The Museum is centrally located in the heart of the Sierra, in the community of White Pines, near the town of Arnold on State Route 4. The seven-acre site sits on property originally occupied by the historic logging and mill workers’ camp of the Blagen Lumber Company (1938-1962). The Museum is constructed on a forested slope above White Pines Lake (elevation 4,000 feet). Ample parking is available at the museum, and the site is accessible year-round, although from late fall through March the museum is open only by appointment only. It tells the history of loggers and logging-related industries in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California – from the discovery of gold in 1848 to the present day. The geographic scope of the Museum encompasses the 18 counties of the Sierra Nevada range, from Lassen County in the North to Kern County in the South.
The Museum, overlooking beautiful White Pines Lake, includes a 2400-square foot building with extensive indoor exhibit space, a gift shop, on-site storage and workshop, as well as outdoor exhibits of large equipment and artifacts. The museum is adding a library/research room that will be completed by the Fall of 2007.
Museum exhibits highlight economic, technological, social, and cultural contributions made throughout the region by loggers and the logging industry. Interior displays include working models of sawmills and logging camps, historic logging photos, dioramas illustrating the evolution of logging from the 1850s to the present day, and a large collection of logging tools such as handsaws, drag saws and chainsaws, peeves and canthooks, broadaxes and felling axes. Also, a full-size scene of a 1930s-era logging camp family cabin, and touch-screen displays of logging sights and sounds are highlights of the museum.
The seven acres surrounding the building site are for recreational as well as educational use. An amphitheater, built with the support of the Arnold Rotary Club, is located among the trees. Picnic tables and barbecue pits have been installed along the lakefront. Interpretive trails guide visitors to impressive historic artifacts: a Willamette steam donkey that first operated in Tuolumne County, a “two-man” sawmill, a 1920 Shay logging locomotive (under restoration), several enormous logging arches, three caterpillar tractors from the 1930s, a drying-yard lumber carrier, a historic Adams horse-drawn grader used for road clearing in the woods, and many others.
From the museum, easy walking trails lead to swimming, boating and fishing at White Pines Park and a long walk leads all the way around White Pines Lake, passing the site of the old Blagen Mill and its log pond.
The Museum is operated by Friends of the Logging Museum (FLM), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and is open Thursday-Sunday, 12:00-4:00.
