Description: PC0002 Image no. 267. View near the state line Truckee River
Photographer/artist: Alfred A. Hart
Date taken: 1860s
Photo location: Truckee River
Type: photo
Subject: Transcontinental Railroad Construction
County:
Source: Stanford Collection
References:
Contributor: Stanford Libraries
Notes: Original image is 3.7 MB. HCS 1/16/2022. Image at Stanford site. See also Goldbaum and Huffman's 2012 book, Waiting for the Cars, p. 296. View taken looking northwest about 1 1/2 miles downstream from present day Floriston. Established in 1867, the authors explain that Floriston was built "to serve local ice warehouses. In 1899, Herbert and Mortimer Fleishhacker of San Francisco organized the Truckee River General Electric Company to generate electricity to sell to the Comstock to operate pumps to drain the mines. The company built a seven-foot rock-filled crib dam at Floriston, and a powerhouse at Farad, connected with a wooden flume. A 33-mile transmission line conveyed the electricity from Farad to Virginia City. The Farad plant is located on the opposite side of the river from where Hart made this photograph. The name "Farad" comes from the unit of electrical capacitance, which is itself named for Michael Faraday." Further, the Fleishhackers organized the Floriston Pulp & Paper Company in 1900 and built a paper mill. After multiple ownership changes, many complaints about the paper mill and pollution, the mill was closed in 1930. For a more detailed history of the mill and the history of the pollution, see this article. Notably, Farad operated until 1997 but the dam was washed out in a flood.
Rights: NOT FOR SALE; research only
Identifier: AAH0079
Serial Number: 2133
Donation: Alfred A. Hart Collection (AAH) collection (#34)
