Bill Hanks presented on the following subject:

Some Railroads of the Sierra Nevada Mountains

The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin, it reaches almost 4,300m at it’s highest point. Situated primarily in central and eastern California, it has many notable features including Lake Tahoe, Yosemite National Park and groves of giant sequoias which are the largest trees in the world. The California gold rush occurred in the western foothills from 1848 to 1855, but the range was not fully explored until 1912. The giant sequoias trees were seen as a resource to be exploited and that required railroads. Many railroads were built to gauges ranging from 3ft to 4ft 8-1/2in, to access the Sierra Nevada for a variety of purposes, some of which were covered in this presentation.

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