Dunsmuir in 1952

^{cover photo: Caltrans District 2 Siskiyou County Dunsmuir, Cedar Street 1940’s Siskiyou County, Cedar Street …}

By Harriet Alto

When I first arrived in Dunsmuir in the late summer of 1952, it was the largest town in Siskiyou with a population of 5,000.

Dunsmuir Elementary School was “bursting at the seams” with 700 students. The school was located near the business district on the main street of the town which also served as a segment of the main highway between San Francisco and Seattle.

Traffic Boys were an essential part of school children’s safety. They were trained to allow buses, rumbling logging trucks and other big trucks to continue past the school without gearing down to stop. School children waited patiently to cross the street before and after school, as well as during the hour-long noon recess which allowed them to walk home for lunch. When the timing was appropriate, the captain would blow his whistle and the team of boys on both sides of the street would turn the wheels that swung the big STOP signs out to the middle of the street. Then the captain stood in the crosswalk signaling the children that it was safe to proceed.

Special uniforms and caps (covered by bright yellow slickers in bad weather) lent prestige to their task. The boys were rewarded in the spring with a trip to San Francisco and a Giant’s baseball game.

With its thriving business community, Dunsmuir was the “hub” of shopping for all of Siskiyou County. Department stores, furniture stores, five separate men’s and women’s clothing shops, four grocery stores, two hardware stores, and three drugstores provided every family’s needs. No one needed to shop out of town – in fact a two-hour drive down the two-lane, winding canyon road to Redding wasn’t worth the effort!

Change, however, was inevitable. In the mid-1950s with the advent of the freeway, a wide swath was cut along the west side of town and resulted in the removal of many homes. Coupled with this was the modernization of the railroad industry and the gradual demise of the timber industry. Dunsmuir’s economic base along with its population began a spiraling downward trend.

The ribbons of steel still hug the canyon’s walls but no more can one hear the melancholy sound of the steam engine’s whistles. The Shasta Daylight train is long since a part of the past and AMTRAK whizzed by in the dark of night with its passengers missing the most scenic part of Northern California. Union Pacific recently created a merger which absorbed the Southern Pacific, so change continues

But the spirit of Dunsmuir is still alive in the hearts of long-time residents and newcomers whose vision for our community brings the hope and promise of brighter days ahead.

Harriet

• More Novel Genres – John Sammon
  Post Views: 19 By John Sammon Last week we talked about picking a genre to write a novel and I listed them to include science fiction, fantasy, romance, mystery, thriller, literary fiction, monster, horror, historical fiction and westerns. I recommended that if you’re going to write a novel it’s probably a good idea to select
• Travels of Different Flavors
  Post Views: 23 I think back to trips I have taken, years ago, decades.  I think of the benches and chairs I slept upon; of the meals I ate, by pointing at words written in a different language; of people that I met, who came and went in a heartbeat, saying or doing profound things,
• Supreme Court Narrows Federal Law Barring Drug Users From Owning Guns
  Post Views: 18 Justices rule the government may not automatically disarm an occasional marijuana user, but stop short of striking the statute down WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the federal government cannot automatically strip an occasional marijuana user of his right to own a firearm, narrowing a provision of the federal
• KLAMATH WATER USERS ASSOCIATION REACTS TO NEW COURT DECISION ON THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT
  Post Views: 38 Klamath Water Users Association (KWUA) is disappointed in a decision issued today by the United States Court of Appeals that affects water users who rely on the Klamath Project for irrigation water. In a 2-1 ruling, the court found that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) has discretion to curtail water deliveries
• Obituary: Carol Lee Munson
  Post Views: 20 Carol Lee (Hammond) Munson passed away with family by her side on June 15, 2026 at Madrone Hospice House in Yreka. Carol was born in Yreka at the Siskiyou General Hospital to parents Carl and Jessie Hammond on April 27, 1941. At that time, Carl was a timber faller and the family