Old Soda Springs

by Bill Oudegeest

I didn't get any help from anyone but my curiosity is sometimes insatiable. This time, in stead of making up some interesting facts - as I do sometimes but then forget I do - I went looking in my local library. There, tucked away, is a hidden room that you have to sign your life away to enter. It contains a wealth of ancient books about California and genealogy. I found enough about a lot of Placer County to whet my appetite for a visit, sometime in the future, to the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley.

(Old) Soda Springs was once a noted summer resort. There was a fairly good stage road from the station to Soda Springs. At this place too, in 1864, did the prospectors rush and form a district, and locate many claims, with high sounding titles, for mining purposes. Soda Springs is at the head of the North fork of the American, about 10 miles west of Lake Tahoe. In natural beauty, picturesque scenery, and romantic landscapes it stands out unique and wonderful in all features that compose it, surrounded by lofty mountain peaks, with their bare, rugged granite sides exposed, and with shaded depressions filled with snow. It is at this point that the great tunnel of 7 miles in length, proposed by Colonel Von Schmidt to divert the water of Lake Tahoe to the north fork, has its exit to the California side of the Sierra. Soda Springs was originally developed by Mark Hopkins and Leland Stanford in about 1870 and was known as Hopkins Springs until a post office was established on March 8, 1875. From 1867 until 1873 the station of the Central Pacific was known as Tinker's Station.

J.A. Tinker was a rough hard driving hard drinking teamster: who hauled freight between Soda Springs and mines on the Forest Hill divide. The name Tinker's Defeat was given to a hairpin turn on the Soda Springs Road because once with eight horses he came to grief there. Tinker's Knob was named for him in humorous reference to his nose. In 1867 his name was listed as the owner of the Tinker and Fent Hotel on Donner Lake Road.

The ridge route from Old Soda Springs to Auburn [Baker Ranch Soda Springs Road] was built in 1852 by Placer County to lure immigrants on their way. Disrepair ended it soon after. In the 1860's the road was revived by the silver mines in Nevada but it never achieved the fame of the Dutch Flat - Donner Lake roads. This ridge road connected the chain of mining camps from Iowa Hill, Damascus, Forks House, Yankee Jim's, Forest Hill, Michigan Bluff, Deadwood, Secret Canyon, to Roberston's Flat. There one branch went to Lost Emigrant Mine and Soda Springs and crossed the summit to Squaw Valley. The other branch went to Last Chance and the grove of big trees [ more on that after I visit - if they're still there].

City boosters in Auburn wanted to open the grove of big trees as a tourist attraction, so in 1920 a caravan of promoters sallied forth with the local forest rangers and lots of signs. They traveled Sailor Grade, Robinson Flat, Duncan Ridge, Glen Mine - Blue Eyes Rd., Last Chance Rd. to find the huge redwoods. Seven were standing and two had fallen. The largest fallen tree was 16' in diameter which they named the General Pershing Tree. The largest fallen tree was named the Theodore Roosevelt tree. This spot is still shown on the Placer County maps and is in Section 19 Township 13N Range 13E. It's 10 miles east of Michigan Bluff, 6 miles SE of Last Chance and 8 mi. SW of Robinson Flat.

Does anyone have information on the hotel that was once at Soda Springs? Pictures? Big Trees? etc.? We have collected some photos of Old Soda Springs, click here to view.

Sources: 1.History of Placer and Nevada Counties by Lardner - two different versions one being much thicker published in 1882 2.History of Placer County no author 3.A Treasury of the Sierra Nevada Reid California Place Names

Hiking to Old Soda Springs

Walking from Donner to Squaw was fun but more fun was the anticipation it left me with. You will remember from the last exciting issue (which you have nicely bound to save for posterity) that we saw a sign as we came within a few miles of Squaw on the Pacific Crest Trail. It marked the trail to Old Soda Springs. I could hardly wait. I'd always wanted to see what was there.

It's worth the walk! I don't recommend doing it the way I did, though. I parked at Donner Summit and walked from there to Lincoln to Anderson Peak to Tinker's Knob to the turn off to Old Soda Springs, to Old Soda Springs, to the Cedars and finally back up to Serene Lakes - 24 miles or so. There I had to get on my bike and ride up to the summit to retrieve my car. Better would be a couple of options. Leave a car at the Cedars (or just beyond because they get kind of sticky) and then drive to the summit and do what I did which will save 6-7 miles. It will be almost all level or down hill with lots of great picnic spots. Another shorter option would be to leave from Squaw. From there you can take the tram to the top and hike the trail from the top of Shirley Lake lift. Without spending tram money you can take the trail from the very end of the valley too. It hits the Pacific Crest Trail and is an easy hike. Either course to your car at the Cedars will be about 12 miles all level or downhill. Don't go from the Cedars to Squaw. That's uphill all the way and further. Some of the trail is very steep and looks like it was made before Mr. Switchback patented the switchback trail. Walking from the PCT turn off down to Old Soda Springs is an experience. Much of it is like what forests must have been before the white folk showed up. You will drop to the valley floor where you'll cross the rushing waters of the North Fork, walk on a beautiful forest floor covered with ferns, through large aspen stands, and past some gigantic fir and pine trees. One I measured with my arms was over 15' in circumference. They never logged this! Further on, closer to Soda Springs, the forest gets thicker and you'll pass some ancient venerable fire scarred cedars which are also huge. Old Soda Springs now is a collection of log and stone buildings. Two are made of beautifully mortared rock, the others are square log cabins. Their regular white chinked lines give them a very old classic look. There I met a caretaker who said that Old Soda Springs was the old Mark Hopkins estate. You will remember he was one of the Big Four who put in the transcontinental railroad. Just past the buildings there's a small structure which looks like a well. It is. You can dip your hand through a hole in the floor to taste the water - soda water. From there the road heads out past some newer houses, a meadow, an old pond, a swimming lake, through a locked gate (the trail is public though and has a sign saying so), and on to the Cedars. From there it's uphill all the way to Serene Lakes so you'll be glad you parked your car somewhere near.