W. W. Prather Lumber Company

California / Logging / 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

Bibliography
John Parker, Clues About Lakeport'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
[1]

Equipment Roster

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 & Northern, To Les Wulmunder, preserved, near Chico California

Freight Equipment=

8 cars, 4-wheel log cars based on narrow gauge passenger trucks (reportedly Barney & 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

Photographs

Photos of mill in UCB collection
[2] 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 & 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:
"What was Lake County's Only Railroad?" (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

California / Logging / W. W. Prather Lumber Company