March, 2018 issue #115 Eadweard Muybridge on Donner Summit At some point in my life when I was able I tuned in to "Bonanza" the TV show about a father, his three grown sons, the Ponderosa Ranch, and their adventures around Virginia City and Lake Tahoe. There was a new adventure every week and to make the new adventure every week, the writers brought in guest stars because there were only so many stories the Cartwrights could get into themselves. It seemed to me that everyone famous visited the Ponderosa: gypsies, Emperor Norton, a president, criminals, etc. In studying Donner Summit history a lot of people kept dropping by too. Mark Twain took the stage over Donner Summit a couple of times. The Central Pacific’s Big Four were here. Famous artists visited and did art work. Famous photographers visited and fortunately documented Donner Summit for us. There were authors, a vice president, a famous dog musher, famous skiers, Snow Shoe Thompson, record setters in various fields, industrialists, the Donner Party rescuees, members of the State legislature, etc. (I was going to list more but you get the point). One of the visitors was Eadweard Muybridge, famous 19th Century photographer. It would be nice to discover some of Mr. Muybridge’s experiences on Donner Summit. The DSHS research team set off looking for information on the internet and in that older technology, books. Besides some Muybridge photographs on Donner Summit the internet does not divulge anything about Muybridge visits. That’s when we turned to the bookstore and picked up The Inventor and the Tycoon. That review is here on page 18. There was not even a mention of Donner Summit and so Eadweard Muybridge Snowsheds at Cisco from the Northeast. next was River of Shadows (next month). Again, there Cisco was a thriving town before the RR was completed. was no mention of our preferred subject. We give up. Maybe some energetic reader will want to get into another book about Mr. Muybridge and maybe something will turn up there. Meanwhile we have Muybridge photos to share and of course they are worth thousands of words. ©Donner Summit Historical Society March, 2018 issue 115 page 1 Story Locations in this Issue Palisade Lake pg 5 Crater Lake, page 3 Rhino Rock pg 4 Summit Hotel pg 7 Donner Lake Resort pg 8 Upper Cisco remnant pg 17 Pictures pg 8-9-10 editor: Bill Oudegeest 209-606-6859 [email protected] Unless otherwise noted, the photographs and other historical ephemera in The Heirloom's pages come from the Norm Sayler collection at the Donner Summit Proofread by Pat Malberg, Lake Mary, Donner Summit Historical Society page 2 ©Donner Summit Historical Society March, 2018 issue 115 Muybridge #696 "Mt. Crocker..." and "Lake Flora" which today is actually Crater Lake. Back in the fall someone emailed the DSHS Historical Help Desk for help getting to Lake Flora on Donner Summit. Well that was an easy one and at no extra “charge” we provided more: how to get to Lake Azalea and the Catfish Pond or Maiden’s Retreat (we’re thoughtfully full-service that way and recommend exploredonnersummit.com). That started the Heirloom staff thinking. Where did the name “Flora” come from? (We covered how Lake Angela got its name in the May, ’10 Heirloom). Almost at the same time some of our more exploratory members were pushing the Donner Party Hike (now sponsored by the DSHS – see the November, ’17 Heirloom) to include as a new hike, Crater Lake on Boreal Ridge. Here’s where that comes together and leads us to Eadweard Muybridge, a famous photographer who visited Donner Summit. Eadweard’s wife was named Flora. He got up to Boreal Ridge about 1873 and made some stereographs of “Lake Flora” which in the 1866 Government survey had no name. So a good guess is that Muybridge named it for his new wife, who was half his age, but before he found out she was having an affair and murdered her lover (stay tuned for more on that). He captioned his stereographs, taken up there, with “Lake Flora.” He also made photographs of Rhino Rock on Boreal Ridge (to take that hike consult our “Historic Hikes of Donner Summit” brochure which is available at the DSHS, or on our website. At some point the Lake Flora on Boreal Ridge lost its name or was only named Lake Flora in Muybridge’s stereographs. At some point later one of the unnamed lakes that sits between what is now Old 40 and I-80 was named Lake Flora. Since we have no other evidence, and have gone searching, one reasonable conclusion is that Muybridge’s wife’s name got attached to the current Lake Flora. If we accept that then that opens up more about Eadweard Muybridge on Donner Summit. We’ve covered Alfred A. Hart and Carlton Watkins (January, ’14 and December, ’16 Heirlooms), famous photographers who visited and photographed Donner Summit so there’s some precedence to bring in Mr. Muybridge. Parenthetically we’ve also looked at other famous artists who visited but that’s really a field for futureHeirlooms – keep up your subscriptions. Having the rationale for introducing Mr. Muybridge to Heirloom readers the research staff went in search of books. There are quite a few since Mr. Muybridge was pretty famous in the late 19th Century. He was the guy who won the bet for Leland Stanford about whether a horse lifts all four legs off the ground while galloping (they do and Stanford won). That led to a lot of pictures and then some books on humans and animals in motion. That leads some people to give Muybridge credit for inventing moving pictures. That’s not Donner Summit though so we were looking for other books, preferably some with ©Donner Summit Historical Society March, 2018 issue 115 page 3 Donner Summit in them. Then we came upon The Inventor and the Tycoon: A Gilded Age Murder and the Birth of Moving Pictures. It is about Eadweard Muybridge and Leland Stanford. The murder of course refers to the lover of Muybridge’s wife, Flora. Muybridge visited Donner Summit. His wife had her name on Donner Summit and there was scandal. What could be more enticing? Muybridge was born in England and came to the United States and then California in his early twenties. He had had a couple of careers before hitting on photography which made him famous. He didn’t like photographing people and so concentrated on landscapes. Not only did he photograph San Francisco and the Pacific Coast but he also photographed Yosemite, Central and South America, Alaska and the Modoc Indian wars. He photographed houses of rich people which is how he came to know Leland Stanford. That led to a long relationship, financed by Stanford, that explored animals and people in motion. That is what his long term fame is based on. As he experimented with motion. Muybridge developed the first moving pictures and so can be considered Eadweard Muybridge Rhinoceros Rock. #700 a father of motion pictures. His friendship with Stanford brought him into contact with the Central Pacific Railroad and so Muybridge photographed Donner Summit. His photos of the railroad are much like Alfred A. Hart’s or Carleton Watkins’ but he also photographed other things. At some point he decided to climb what is now Boreal Ridge. There he found “Lake Flora” and “Rhino Rock.” The lake is not difficult to find. It’s easy to see and it’s the only lake up there. Rhino Rock, though, is difficult and shows Muybridge must have spent time on the ridge exploring for different views. If you want to find Rhino Rock the GPS coordinates are 39° 19.467'N 120° 21.710'W or go to page 6. More on Mr. Muybridge in the review The Tycoon and the Inventor later in this Heirloom - see page 18 and then more next month. From Art Clark about the photo of Rhino Rock above. Sometime around 1870, Edweard Muybridge spent some time in and around Donner Summit photographing interesting outdoor scenes. I'm not sure how he found this chunk of granite, which he named Rhinoceros Rock, but we had a hell of a time locating it! This rock formation does have a passing resemblance to a Rhinoceros, but only if viewed from a certain angle. From other directions it might also be a cat, or whatever. 39° 19.467'N 120° 21.710'W If you want to visit see page 6. page 4 ©Donner Summit Historical Society March, 2018 issue 115 Eadweard Muybridge Interior of snowsheds western summit Sierra Nevada Mountains. Eadweard Muybridge The Devil's Peak from Palisade Lake near western summit Sierra Nevada Mountains Palisade Lake is a private lake with a private community of cabins. Access is not allowed. ©Donner Summit Historical Society March, 2018 issue 115 page 5 From the DSHS Archives Here is a special treat. We used to run Art Clark's Then & Now feature each month until Art ran out of subjects. More than a hundred are on our website. Here is one that never ran in the Heirloom. Left is the "then" version of #701 Muybridge's Rhinoceros rock. Right is the "now" version featuring Art Clark and Art Clark (he's a funny fellow.) Who the guys in the "then" version are we don't know but probably they are not Art Clark. page 6 ©Donner Summit Historical Society March, 2018 issue 115 Wm. M. McCarthy Photograph Collection at the State Archives Wm.