A really very interesting documentary about the history of Redding’s schools:
I had a tiny (very tiny) part in adding to this documentary with an 1890 map of Redding I archived here at Really Redding in 2016. Click to enlarge:
I don’t remember where I got the map, and unfortunately didn’t credit it at the time. I did make it into a gif that compares the 1890 Redding to (then) present day Redding from 2016 courtesy of Google Earth:
I think I need to update this to a more current satellite image of Redding. I thought it turned out very well in 2016.
World famous Burney Falls is about an hour drive East from Redding. We went up for their Heritage Day festivities, and it was great fun. Here is Burney Falls:
Here’s an image of the event:
There were lot’s of demonstrations and participation for kids in various “Pioneer” crafts like wood cutting, branding irons, and (my grandson’s favorite) candle making. There was a BBQ food fund raiser by the local Rotary, and some Indian Tacos. Speaking of Indians, there was some Indigenous Dance demonstrations by (I assume) the local Pit River people. I read on the flyer where this is the first time they have participated in this annual event, so that’s both progress and sort of a sad commentary on what has passed for “Heritage” around here up until now.
I give it 5 stars, would go again next year. Best of all, admission was FREE.
A Facebook post reminded me of this image I captured of the old and semi-famous Gene’s Drive In. A classic Highway 99 burger joint that in its day often attracted crowds of hot rod enthusiasts. Seen here with a “classic” dented Geo Metro parked out front, more indicative of the hard times seen a few years back. Gene’s did not survive the economic downturn.
I think it was mostly the big neon sign that made it seem special. In the end, not enough to save it, like many other neon lit Redding landmarks.
A few years back, Redding adopted a “50s Glitz” proclamation. That was to be our design theme for downtown. It hasn’t been widely adopted, luckily. What few new structures that tried it ended up looking ridiculous and forced. Not real neon, but neon-like colors and plastic signage. I hope the idea fades out. Neon elevated Gene’s to a certain charm, but obviously not enough to sustain it. Neo-Redding should look elsewhere for a design theme.
This Map of Redding from 1890 matches up well with satelite imagery borrowed from Google Earth. I did these frames some time ago, but finally got around to animating them.
Click to enlarge
Being a rail town on a river, things still line up very well. Except now you can see the train tracks turn north over the river, since they built Shasta Dam. The Redding Cemetery is easy to see. The sawmill became the Posse Grounds. Looks like our city hall was once a horse racing track!
Deakins Riverside Farm became Turtle Bay and The Garden Tract. I wonder iffarmer Deakin had any inkling that he had probably the most valuable real estate in Redding’s future. That stretch of river holds so much promise, still.
I love old maps. I don’t recall how I came across this specific one. If you like this sort of thing, check out this 1872 map of Redding overlay I posted in 2011.
This version of the 1890 Map of Redding came from the Shasta County Library site. The building is the old courthouse in Redding that no longer exists. You can click this to to enlarge also.
This available .TIF image is remarkably high resolution for an online photo.
I wondered what it would look like zoomed in. Please do click below to enlarge.
Bikes and their riders going to the movies in Redding in 1940
Hey, remember when you could ride your bike to the movies, and leave it unlocked out front?
I don’t. But evidently, such a scene existed. Lined up to see “Jungle Book” and “Blondies Blessed Event.” (which you can now watch on YouTube)
Closer in yet, a young woman looks right at you. You are a phantom from the future. Click to enlarge.
Evidently Redding folk once dressed somewhat more formally to go to the movies.
It looks like a windy day in Redding, that day in 1940.
The winds of change. Hang on to your hat.
Back then, moviegoers paid a “Defense Tax.”
10% Defense Tax for General Admission. 16% for you Students.
Zooming in. The work of Redding Signs.
Redding Signs.
Coincidentally, another “Jungle Book” remake is currently playing in a Redding theater. Seen below here in 2016 at the Cinemark Movies 14, across town from the Cascade.
Movie admission prices have gone up a bit since 1940.
A discount for seniors now, instead of students. But at least your “Defense Tax” is built in.
Facebook friend Lee Riggs posts to a group Northern California History. I always find his posts fascinating. He recently posted this image of the Redding Theater marquee on California Street in Redding, from the famous Eastman collection.
I did some Photoshop cleaning, and enlarged it a bit. I like how it turned out. Click to expand.
This story of life in Redding years ago appeared in the comments section of the Facebook post. Curating it here, since it adds detail that helps paint the picture of daily life here years ago.
“JOE Cabitto was washing dishes in Jaegel’s Cafe when the two prospectors came in lugging a gunny sack holding a gleaming 370 ounce gold nugget. The miners had found the nugget in Motion Creek, which joins the Sacramento River just below Shasta Dam. At the time, Shasta Dam was still 30 years in the future, Cabitto was a strapping young fellow and Redding had about 4,000 residents who swatted mosquitoes and shivered with malaria, even in the blistering summer heat. Jaegel’s, where Cabitto washed dishes and waited table, was a no frills cafe offering hearty roast beef dinners for 35 cents. Jaegel’s location eventually would be swallowed up by The Mall in downtown Redding, and Oser’s women’s wear store would replace the cafe. Nobody even dreamed of a mall.
Cabitto was “pearl diving,” or washing dishes, in Jaegel’s Cafe. Across Market Street, in those days, was Bags McConnell’s pool hall, where a Western Union “boy” stood on a stool and read a blow by blow telegraph version after each round in the 1927 Dempsey Tunney fight. Cabitto won $800 on that fight, the outcome of which still stirs bitter arguments because of the “long count” the referee gave Tunney after Dempsey knocked him down.
Jaegels was the favorite restaurant not only for the men who worked in town, but also for the farmers and miners who came to town on business. It was on the west side of Market Street just north of the Yuba Street intersection. All the cooking was done behind the counter on a wood stove. I had to go out into the alley in the back to cool off. There were a couple of big ceiling fans but all they did was keep the flies off the counter. The meals were served at the counter except for a couple of tables at the back where the few women who came in were served. It was my job to serve them. We called the tables the “Blue Room” and I really hated waiting on those women, especially when they were drinking. Dinners were thirty five cents and were served from 11:30 AM to 3:00 PM. That thirty five cent dinner included what they had cooked that particular day—roast beef, roast pork, beef stew, or on Thursday we had corned beef and cabbage, plus three pieces of bread with butter, potatoes, coffee or milk. After 3:00 PM the meals were served short order, mostly steak. A rib steak cost forty cents, a T bone sixty five cents. They were thick too. Fridays we had fish—halibut and sanddabs from Seattle, or fresh eastern oysters which came in cans packed in ice. Jaegel’s was the only place in town that served 10 cent coffee. All the other restaurants sold it for a nickel. The reason was we had to get rid of the morning coffee drinkers so there’d be room to start serving dinners at 11:00 to the regular customers. Some of the other people who worked there were: Ed Gibson and August Jacobi, the bartenders, Bob Gibson and Barnett, the cooks, Bill Rester, the waiter. George Lapp was the owner. His mother had been a Jaegel. The pay was $85.00 a month and board for seven days a week, eleven hours a day and no vacation. So we figured the more we ate the more we got paid. I went from a modest ] 65 pounds to 240 pounds. During the Depression we had to take a cut in pay, down to $65.00 a month, but they didn’t cut the prices for the meals.”
Again, this is from Lee Riggs. Thanks for sharing.
I don’t think these photos quite capture the scale of this mammoth construction project began in 2009, and located about 20 miles north of Redding. I don’t think I’ve ever come across a construction project this big before, hence why I’ve just had to take a photo of it. I was just amazed by the enormity of it, and I think it’s fair to say that I wouldn’t want to be a construction worker at this moment in time. Imagine the stress and the constant pressure they must be under to get it done? I just hope that their construction manager has the relevant qualifications to pull it off because it must be a very tough job. In fact, I may decide to have a look at sites like Raken just to see if I could potentially become a construction manager if I wanted to. Having the relevant skills would be important, but knowing how to manage a team and a project like this is even more essential, especially if you don’t want it dragging on for this amount of time.
Anyway, I just thought you’d like to see what I saw the other day, as I don’t think my eyes can still fathom it. Also, my shots are blurry since I was just waving my camera around while riding up Interstate 5. You can’t really see it very well while whizzing by at speed, so I thought I’d try to capture it on camera.
Below, you can see a worker in orange on a lift at lower right, for scale. These folks are working a hundred feet (a total guess) in the air. Click to slightly enlarge.
And then these two completely separate structures have to perfectly meet in the air. Impressive work!
Below, you can see the giant fish bas-relief in concrete. I suppose it will be only visible from the lake.
The Cal Trans website also had this interesting historical image of the original Antlers bridge construction from 1941. The sparse vegetation seen in historical photos is always striking to me. The Northstate was much more fire-safe back in the day.
“Cemeteries are like history books you can read” say Mike Grifantini of the Shasta Historical Society. We attended his walking tour of the Redding Cemetery over the weekend. The monuments and markers serve as a rich illustration of history. A striking example was the many Reddingites who died from the flu epidemic in 1918. That pandemic must have had a grim impact on our small town. Many lives ended that year. History made real.
Go towards the light?
It’s a place of austere beauty. A solemn reminder that all our stories come to an end. The Redding Cemetery is set on a bluff overlooking the Sacramento River
The gentleman above lived a good life, it seems. We should all strive for such a legacy.
Meanwhile below, one of the more painful of the million ways to die in the west, a movie currently playing in Redding theaters. It is perhaps more important to realize there are a million ways to live in the West too. That’s Really Redding.
