View source for W. W. Prather Lumber Company

==History==

Lake County in Northern California had a single railroad, built by Wilbur Prather for his Elk
Mountain Mill. It was a 3’ gauge railroad, using a variety of homemade and used railroad
equipment.
Wilbur Prather established his saw mill at Elk Mountain in 1921. The mill site was 18 miles
north of Lakeport, on Clear Lake. Prather purchased the Lakeport Planing Mill in 1922, which
he used in part as his retail lumber yard and hardware store. Trucks were used to transfer
lumber from the saw mill to Lakeport. Prather also operated general trucking business hauling
a variety of goods, including pears and gravel.

Mill from 1921, railroad added 1936, abandoned 1946 36” gauge 4 miles long

===Timeline===
 July 1921, Prather builds/opens Elk Mountain Sawmill (SF Chronicle, 18 Jan 1922)
 1922 – Wilbur Prather takes over the Lakeport Planing mill, and moved his lumber yard to this locations (corner of South Main and Martin Streets, Lake Port)
 1923 – Pather purchases railroad material (rail and car parts) from the Colusa and Lake to build log railroad for Elk Mountain Mill. 
 1919 - The first locomotive (“Little Dinky”) is a converted International Farm tractor.
 1924 – Logging railroad begins operations
 1925 – Purchases a Whitcomb gasoline locomotive
 1938 – Purchases a used oil burning Heisler from Richardson Lumber, Steward Point.
 Clear Lake floods, Prather leases mill (lumber or planning?) to others
 1946 – Mill closed

==Rolling stock==
Locomotives
“Little Dinky” Homemade locomotive based on 1919 International farm tractor
1925 Whitcomb
25 ton, two truck Heisler c/n 1225, built 1911
to W W Prather Lumber near Clear Lake 1938
Abandoned in the woods, salvaged by Holmes Brothers of Santa Cruz, c. 1955
Kept at Billy Jones railroad, to Hal Wilmunder for Camino Cable &amp; Northern,
To Les Wulmunder, preserved, near Chico California
Cars
8 cars, 4-wheel log cars based on narrow gauge passenger trucks (reportedly Barney &amp;
Smith trucks from NWP). Cars had swing bolsters removed and log bunks added. They
were used one car per log rather than as disconnects. They were coupled with long
roosters.
10 ton capacity “Carter” wood frame pedestal log trucks. Cars had a mix of Carter and
“LEW” castings. Either from Goodyear Lumber (ex L. E. White) or from Richardson
Lumber. One pair of log trucks and additional parts salvaged by Henry Sorenson
Sources
John Parker, Clues About Lakeport&#39;s Past: Archaeological Monitoring Report, For Floyd Ross,
Savings Bank of Mendocino County, 2011
David Morgan, Lonely at the Top, published by author, 2008
Dave Braun, Valley Model trains page for model of the 4-wheel passenger truck based log cars
[http://valleymodeltrains.com/website/165o.html]


Photos of mill in UCB collection
[https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/nanna/api/multimedia/image/v2/recid:14071-VTM00005756a_k.jpg/full/1500,/0/default.jpg]
http://dc.lib.berkeley.edu/catalog/VTM_vtm1_756_photo
http://dc.lib.berkeley.edu/catalog/VTM_vtm1_757_photo
http://dc.lib.berkeley.edu/catalog/VTM_vtm1_758_photo
http://dc.lib.berkeley.edu/catalog/VTM_vtm1_759_photo
http://dc.lib.berkeley.edu/catalog/VTM_vtm1_760_photo

http://dc.lib.berkeley.edu/catalog/VTM_vtm1_761_photo
http://dc.lib.berkeley.edu/catalog/VTM_vtm1_752_photo
http://dc.lib.berkeley.edu/catalog/VTM_vtm1_763_photo
http://dc.lib.berkeley.edu/catalog/VTM_vtm1_764_photo
http://dc.lib.berkeley.edu/catalog/VTM_vtm1_765_photo

===Commentary &amp; Notes===
Lakeport CEQA Report
In 1922, [Wilbur] Prather took over the Lakeport Planing Mill and moved his lumberyard to its
location at the corner of South Main and Martin Streets. In an ad for the lumberyard it said that
various types of lumber were sold, but “no bull pine.” From this time on, Wilbur Prather was
affectionately known as “Bull Pine”. In 1923, the need to transport timber to his Elk Mountain
Mill from farther distances, prompted Wilbur to purchase portions of the abandon narrow gage
Colusa and Lake Railroad. He had track and wheels shipped by rail to the Hopland station where
he loaded them on trucks for the trip to Elk Mountain. He coupled a 1919 International farm
tractor to a set of rail wheels and made the first Lake County Locomotive, “Little Dinky”. 
In 1925, a Whitcomb gasoline locomotive was added and later a steam yarding engine. The mill
managed to remain in operation through the depression and in 1938, an oil-burning Heisler
locomotive was added. 

Clear Lake flooded in 1938 and Prather decided to lease his mill operation to the Lake County
Lumber and Box Co. A string of leases followed until the mill was closed in 1946.
Operated with a Hiesler purchased used from Stewart’s Point, some disconnect log cars and
single truck log cars built from Carter Passenger car trucks

'''From Dave Braun:'''
&quot;What was Lake County&#39;s Only Railroad?&quot; (Lake County being located in California, north of the
San Francisco-Bay Area). The Prather railroad was also the second-to-the-last all-new narrow
gauge logging railroad constructed in the state of California. In the Spring of 1924, Prather
began logging operations using a small International tractor as a locomotive, and log cars
consisting of eight former Northwestern Pacific narrow gauge passenger car trucks.
Operations were on level gradients, permitting this somewhat unbelievable combination, and
proving there is indeed a prototype for everything. Logs were bucked to 17 feet and were