Long Bell...now there is an operation that needs a book written about it. Their woods headquarters lay at Tennant, and as Lee said they had lines that went all the way out into Modoc County. There is a museum in Weed that contains thousands of photographs of their operations that is very well worth the visit.

Weed Lumber Company built a huge sawmill in Weed and started a logging railroad running northeast towards their holdings. The company chose Weed because the winds that roll off the northwest flank of Mt. Shasta were perfect for naturally drying lumber, but when they got too strong they tended to do things like removing the roof from the sawmill. SP purchased the Weed logging railroad for use as the start of their Natron Cutoff. The logging railroad nowhere near matched SP's engineering standards, and I seem to remember at least one SP official stating that Weed surveyed the railroad with "a blind dog and a Chinaman". SP heavily rebuilt the old Weed railroad, and parts of the original grade can still be seen twisting back and forth underneath Highway 97 as it heads north from Weed. The sale agreement included a clause that allowed Weed to build logging spurs off of the SP main up to a certain distance out of Weed, which they did as they extended their logging railroads out into the brush. SP ran the road trains that handled the Weed logs down to Weed.

I will third or fourth, whatever number we are up to, the recommendation to find and read Signor's SP Shasta Division book, or its predecessor Rails in the Shadow of Mt. Shasta. It's about the only reference out there on the Weed Lumber/Long Bell operations.

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV