The Wheels Roll Again
by Mike Dastrup and Ma Wheeler

 

A previous version of what follows was published in the February 13, 2006, edition of the Ridge Rider News, whom we thank for reprint permission. See also the article, “Big Wheels keeps rolling: Landmark Shingletown eatery owners plan to rebuild after fire,” by David Benda, which appeared in the Record Searchlight on July 5, 2006. -- Ma Wheeler

 

A longstanding beacon on Highway 44, our outsize set of wheels, is now undergoing a much-needed restoration.

 

Some called them “logger’s wheels,” or “katydids,” but most early loggers called them “big wheels.” They were designed to haul massive logs from the  forests where they’d been cut, either to pick-up points along logging trails, or directly to mill sites for processing.  Before the advent of big wheels, loggers apparently had to wait for snowfall before they could move large logs any distance.

 

 As its name implies, big wheels consist of a pair of enormous wheels (over 11 feet high) with a 25-foot-long boom laid across an 8-foot-long axle. This boom has hookups for a team of up to six horses or oxen. Later in the century, these draft animals were replaced by tractors.

 

 Try to imagine our own Big Wheels in action. The structure is backed over a log or logs up to 5 feet in diameter, and a small trench is dug underneath the logs. Through this trench, workers pull a massive chain.  They connect each end of this chain to one of two large, forged cams located on top of the axle, next to one of the wheels.  As the horses or oxen move forward, the boom slides across the axle, pulling a 6-foot lever that turns the cams. As the cams turn, the chain lifts the logs from the ground, and the whole thing moves forward. Once the inertia of the load is overcome, it is relatively easy to keep the wheels moving. A single load will carry up to 2,500 board feet of lumber, and some logs reached 100 feet in length.

 

 First invented some time in the 1870s, the original big wheels were built by the Overpack Wagon Company Co. of Manistee, Michigan. Although a few other manufacturers built similar big wheels (one such company was in Redding and called the Redding Iron Works), the basic design has changed little. In fact, one manufacturer was the Redding Iron Works in Redding, California. 

 

 Our Shingletown big wheels were built around 1900 by the Pacific Cap & Foundry Company of Washington, and shipped to the Gerber Mill Co. in Mineral, California, and used in the surrounding mountains.  On November 22, 1936, the Gerber Mill, timberland, and equipment, including the big wheels, were sold to Shingletown resident Harry Abbott.  He paid the outrageous price of $1,300 for the entire package. The big wheels were then retired and moved to the neighboring mountains of Shingletown.

 

 On April 30, 1939, Mr. Abbott opened a small trading post on property he owned on Highway 44.  This post included a gas station, grocery store, café, and a large dance hall.  Months went by without a real name for the business.  Some suggested it be called “Abbotville.” One day, Mr. Abbott’s sister-in-law, Ella, was staring at the contraption he had put out front as an eye-catcher, and she said simply, “You should call your new restaurant, “Big Wheels.’’

 

 And there the wheels have stood for 70 years. Like a faithful guard standing at attention at his post, these wheels have stood up to a hundred snowy winters, millions of cars, numerous forest fires, three restaurant fires, storms, floods and freezing temperatures, to proudly greet each coming spring and once again welcome the hungry loggers, townspeople, travelers, and countless children who like to hang from its spokes and use it as a backdrop for photos. Although the wheels have bravely tried to fend off fires, bugs, wood rot, and the occasional cheesy Christmas light decorations, Father Time has been persistent. The wheels suffered badly from neglect. Most of the wood boom has rotted away, the steel is rusted and pitted, and the wooden spokes can barely support our 2-ton piece of history.

 

 So, as many of you have noticed, our big wheels, after 70 years, have temporarily left their post. They are being restored at Bear Mountain Carriage Shop in Jones Valley. It is gratifying that so many people have pitched in and provided material – seasoned oak for the spokes, for example – and labor, and equipment. We plan to display on a permanent plaque the names of those who helped with the Big Wheels rebuilding.

 

 We are all looking forward to a rebuilt Big Wheels Resort.  It is then and only then that our beacon of hot food, cold drinks, good friends, music, dance, love, and laughter will roll back to its perch atop the mountain to stand once again with its onetime foe, but now longtime friends, the tall pines, feel the good earth under its wheels, and hear the laughter of the children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren of the people who came before and built this great community.

 

 Here’s to the next hundred years.

 

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Big Wheels Resort 2005.
Photo by Robert Whitcomb

 

E-mail Info@BigWheelsResort.com