Re: SVR Hudspeth Lane Spur

No idea on that spur, but it would be in an area that was dredged I believe. There appears to be a spur going N. from the mainline in the area where the Hwy into Sumpter diverges from Hwy. 7. The attached map shows a siding put in for Baker White Pine Lbr. perhaps a little farther up the valley. I haven't tried to find it on the ground. MP 25 today is at Hwy. 7, but I am not sure how close this follows the original mile markers. MP26.5 appears to be at Huckleberry Loop West on the old maps. Huckleberry Loop East next the present day McEwen depot is a little above old MP 23. Going back to my earlier post in this thread I mentioned some mystery about Stoddard Lbr. #1. W.George Cook put me in contact with Shay expert Rick Henderson regarding this engine. He said that the Shay build records were updated several times over the years to indicated current ownership of engines by CN. They apparently inked over the original name for which the engines were built possibly with white ink then put the current owner in that location on the form. They were likely more interested in maintaining contact for sales purposes with current owners than maintaining an archive for us future generations. The record for this Shay is marked in the "built for" space on the sheet Stoddard Lumber Company. Stoddard Lumber company did not exist at the time this engine was built. Mr Henderson said he was sure that the engine was built for Sunny South Lbr. and was purchased for Stoddard Bros. by David Eccles. Some lists have shown it as SVRy #1 which is simply not correct. It is likely that this engine was used on the line up Clear Crk. as this is where Stoddard Bros. had their operation when the engine was acquired in 1897. I would dare to speculate that this little engine replaced horses on the tramline shown on the map. I have researched some in the on line copies of the Sumpter Miner newspaper. From memory as I recall reading Stoddard Bros. shut down the mill on Clear Crk. in 1899 and moved the machinery to Baker proper. After they built a mill in Sumpter. My impression is that it was at the mouth of Sawmill Gulch. The late Ron Harr asserted that there was an early logging grade up Sawmill Gulch, so this may be where the little Shay went next. The little Shay was wrecked in 1903 around the time the Heisler which became Stoddard Lbr. #2 "Old Brigham" was acquired. I am not sure where this wreck occurred, but it must have been a doozy with derailed cars pulling the little engine off of a trestle. This one might guess was the reason the #2 was needed for their small operation now without a locomotive. The #1 was repaired and put back in service. I have only seen one rather poor photo of the #1 beyond a photo showing the remains of it and #2 on a scrap train.