1937 Vintage Road Trip Scrapbook - Part 19 - Heading East - Soda Springs to Reno

(for part 1, click here)

Soda Springs to Reno

After seeing the sights of San Francisco and the Bay Area, the Johnsons start their trek back home. Heading east toward Reno, Nevada, they spend a night in Soda Springs, CA at the Rainbow Tavern, built by Herstle Jones in 1927. 

It boasts 32 “cool comfortable rooms” with “wonderful meals – wonderful scenery.” The South Yuba River meanders behind the tavern, and visitors could catch fish and have the dining room cook them up.

Fortunately for us modern day travelers, the Rainbow Tavern – later known as the Rainbow Lodge – still stands! It is located at 50080 Hampshire Rocks Road in Soda Springs, and can be visited. It can be found off the Highway 40 Scenic Bypass. Here is their web page!

One of the postcards on this page is of Donner Lake and Pass, which is close to Soda Springs.

Joan writes next to the postcard; “This lake is 35 miles west of Reno. It is 3 miles long, 1 mile wide and is one of the most picturesque alpine lakes in California. The Southern Pacific snowshade and summit of the Divide are not far from this.” It was hard to read the last line, so I’m not sure if snowshade is what she wrote – doesn’t seem to make sense here.

Donner Pass is well known for the tragedy of the Donner-Reed party (not to be confused with the Donna Reed party) - 

Donna Reed - NOT a cannibal!

- who became stuck in that area in the winter of 1846-47 and had to resort to cannibalism to survive. Luckily, the Johnsons avoided eating each other during their 1937 road trip.

Joan also pasted this article into the scrapbook;

Next stop; Reno Nevada! I'm not sure if they stayed here, I believe they just drove through, since it is not that far from Soda Springs. Also, there's not much info on this page, other than the postcards.

Top postcard is titled; Center Street Looking North, Reno Nevada

Middle postcard; Washoe County Courthouse, Reno Nevada

Bottom postcard; Post Office, Reno Nevada

The little cartoon clipping says, "900 miles of wire are required to connect the control equipment at Boulder Dam."

Next stop in the scrapbook - Yellowstone! Woo-hoo!!

1937 Vintage Road Trip Scrapbook, Part 17 - Yosemite

(for part 1, click here)

Yosemite National Park

After finally kissing the California coast via Los Angeles, the Johnsons visit the Petersen family in Selma, California on Sunday, July 4th, 1937 for dinner. I wonder if they celebrated the 4th together, perhaps watching a fireworks display. Maybe they had fun with their own sparklers, firecrackers and bottle rockets. Anyway, the next day saw the Johnsons entering Yosemite National Park via the south entrance. The fee to enter the park was $2 at the time.

One of the highlights of the scrapbook is the Yosemite booklet pictured below. It's still in great shape and clocks in with 37 pages, plus a foldout map in the back. When I opened it up, a tiny newspaper clipping fell out about a landslide on Half Dome.

From the article: "At 4:30am last Wednesday, Florence awoke with a start. She heard a tremendous roar like that of thunder. She - and hundreds of tourists - wondered if California was suffering another earthquake. It wasn't. Half Dome, a landmark familiar to all visitors to the beauty (sic) area, had merely decided to shed part of its flat face. Ton upon ton of rock slid from the peak into the valley below."

I wonder if the Johnsons heard any of the ruckus.

The next couple pages of the scrapbook are filled with lovely, colorful postcards.

Underneath the postcards above, Joan writes: 4,000 years old - 227 ft high, 90 ft in circumference at the base. And then: These Giant Sequoias are the oldest living things in the world, they grow to a height exceeding 300 ft with a circumference at the base of nearly 100 ft and the bark is sometimes 40 inches thick.

Under the postcard above, Joan writes: Each night during the summer season, for the pleasure of their guests and all the visitors to Yosemite, the management of Camp Curry have established a gorgeous spectacular custom. A huge bonfire if built on Glacier Point 3,200 ft directly above the camp. At the conclusion of the nightly campfire entertainment, the burning embers are pushed from the point above. This cataract of fire and sparks makes a sheer drop of over 2000 ft before striking any obstacles,a sight to be long remembered.

There's also an article about the Augustana Male Quartet - I'm guessing that may have been part of the entertainment? And below that, an article from the San Francisco Examiner, dated Wednesday, July 7, 1937, about a 16 year old Berkeley boy rescued from a narrow ledge of Glacier Point Cliff. From the article: "The valley itself was a huge ampitheater (sic) from which hundreds of park visitors watched the rangers crawl goat-like down the sheer cliff to where young Edward Fleischer clung to his narrow foothold." Turns out the kid was rescued unharmed.

It's very likely the Johnson family was there to witness this event. It must have been quite a nail biting spectacle to see.

More Yosemite postcards above, of Cathedral Spires, Yosemite Falls and other waterfalls. Joan writes above about Yosemite Falls: 2600 ft high - the stream is about 35 ft wide at the top of the falls and the roar of its waters are heard all over the valley.

And then we come to the Johnson family portrait which I posted a close-up of in an earlier entry. It was taken July 6, 1937 and cost a buck.

It sounds like the Johnsons had quite a memorable adventure in Yosemite. Plus, it's so cool to have an actual picture of them!

Next up: San Francisco!

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1937 Vintage Road Trip Scrapbook, Part 15 - Los Angeles (c)

(for part 1, click here)

Los Angeles - Forest Lawn Cemetery

The Johnsons are still near Los Angeles, this time at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale. With over a quarter-million people buried there and a million visitors a year (though I would presume not nearly that many in 1937) Forest Lawn is a sprawling place. It's got multiple chapels, works of art, fountains, and is the resting place of many celebrities. There's quite a list of the famous who are buried there on its Wikipedia page.

Included in the Johnson scrapbook is an informational booklet called Sacred Services in Sacred Ground, which includes a insert about the replica of the Last Supper painting located in their Memorial Court of Honor (pictured above).

And what cemetery would be complete without a 17" x 23" fold-out map? (above)

Our scrapbooker writes above, about the Wee Kirk o' the Heathers pictured in the postcard, "Replica of Glencairn - Annie Laurie's Church. The romantic story of Annie Laurie is recalled by the tiny church. A faithful reproduction of the one she attended throughout her life - 1682-1764. The original church was erected in 1310 and destroyed in 1885."

I'd never heard of Annie Laurie before. There's a poem about her written by William Douglas:

"Maxwelton braes are bonnie, where early fa's the dew

Where me and Annie Laurie made up the promise true

Made up the promise true, and ne'er forget will I

And for bonnie Annie Laurie I'd lay doun my head and die

She's backit like the peacock, she's breistit like the swan

She's jimp aboot the middle, her waist ye weel may span

Her waist ye weel may span, and she has a rolling eye

And for bonnie Annie Laurie I'd lay doun my head and die."

The poem was later turned into a song (there are many versions, but here is Deanna Durbin's, recorded in 1936, so very possibly heard by the Johnsons. By the way, she was only 14 years old when she recorded this song):

Below, we find the great Ripley again with a few more facts about Forest Lawn Cemetery:

According to the latest info I found, there have now been over 30,000 weddings held there!

Next stop, Catalina Island!

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