Truckee

Images of America: California

by Sherry E. Jennings

At 5,980 feet, Truckee enchants visitors with a quaintness that belies the mountain town’s rugged past. The very environment in which Truckee exists—high elevation, cold, deep snows—forced its founding fathers, residents, immigrants, and transient workers to make tough decisions while attempting to keep peace in a wildly remote area. In just over 150 years, Truckee has morphed from a collection of lawless rough-and-tumble settlements to a close-knit community with a sense of adventure at its core. The Truckee area was also at the cornerstone of many 19th-century technological innovations. From logging that kept trains stoked and fed Nevada mines to an ice-harvesting industry that transformed refrigerated transportation and the largest paper mill west of the Mississippi, Truckee proved its engineering mettle.

128 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2011

Reviews

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting book, and well written. Another reviewer mentioned the Chinese Laborers. I think those were covered well, given the book’s focus was the town.

Unfortunately, the image quality is not very good. The book is “black and white”, and so are the photos - but the print quality is poor. Lots of details were lost. Also, most images were landscape, so then relegated to a mere quarter page. Flipping the orientation of the book to get more full page images would’ve helped a LOT.

Glossy printing, like others in this series, would’ve helped. Too much definition was lost.

The writing was excellent, so still giving a 4 star. Hopefully a new edition can come out to address these issues

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm little disappointed about the lack of information about Chinese laborers and also the way they were portrayed as just arriving on the scene made it seem like they were encroaching on in fact they were installed. Great photos though

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've heard people talk about Truckee, but didn't know anything about it, and now I do.

I can't say that there was a lot to excite this reader, but I did learn about "snow sheds" and how they were used by the railroads near the Donner Summit.

I also got a better feeling for what it was like to travel by road before there were bridges, as on Hwy 40 before Rainbow Bridge was built, and after.