From over the Hill . . .

November 9, 2011

This informative email came a few days ago from David, an avid fan of this website!

"I was doing some research on my house in Yreka and I came across an interesting resource that folks might not know about.
Apparently there was a company called Sanborn* that did very detailed property maps for fire insurance purposes. The maps include detailed information regarding town and building information in approximately 12,000 U.S. towns and cities from 1867 to 1970.

Yreka was one of them and it looks like they have two sets of maps for Etna. You can get copies of these maps for free from the Library of Congress. This might be a useful resource when tracking down info on some of these older local places. Feel free to share this information with folks if you think anybody would find it useful."

*Sanborn maps: The Sanborn Maps were originally created for assessing fire insurance liability in urbanized areas in the United States.

Well . . . you might have guessed I couldn't bring up the Library of Congress link fast enough!!!!

It said the maps for Etna weren't available online, but there was a little place at the bottom of the page to 'Ask a Librarian', so I clicked on that and emailed my request.

I immediately got back a reply that I would receive an email response in answer to my question as soon as possible. The next morning, there was an email with the pdf file attachments for the maps. What service!

Sooooooo to make it easier for you, I am going to give you links for those very same pdf files so you can view the Etna Mills maps. (The original ones from July, 1908 and then 'corrected' in August, 1929.)

You will need a pdf reader program installed on your computer to view them. The one I use now is Nitro PDF Reader, after having lots of trouble with Adobe. It's free! This link will take you to their download.

The main thing I like about this program is that I can adjust the size of viewing from the little bar at the bottom right of each page . . . it goes from 25% all the way up to 1600% . . .

I found the best viewing size of these maps (for me) was 150% or 200%.

There is soooooooo much historical and fun information on the pages. Etna Mills had a lot of outhouses!!!!!!

This information is on Sheet One of the maps:

Population 1000

This is information about the Water System and Fire Department in Etna Mills in July, 1908 . . .

This is information about the Water System and Fire Department in Etna Mills in August, 1929 when they evidently came back through town and did 'corrections' . . .

Here is the Index to give you an idea
of which streets are on what Sheet . . .

I am putting Sheet 4 first
as it covers the Business area
of Main Street . . . *
Link to Sheet 4 ~ July, 1908
Link to Sheet 4 ~ August, 1929

* Check this out when you look at the 1908 and 1929 maps of Downtown:

Remember back on the August 22, 2011 Post, when Mike Shafer was kind enough to give us a little history on the Etna Meat & Ice Building where he and Bev now call 'home'??? As I first looked at the 1908 Map, it was one of those 'Eureka!' moments . . . A few years ago Bev told me that Laddy Palmer's mother stopped by one day when Bev was working in her fabulous garden area between their building and City Hall/Police Dept building next door. Mrs. Palmer told her that 'years ago' there was a Chinese Restaurant there and the building was further down the hill. A few people refuted that, until we found this photo . . .

Wong Ock Sing Chop House

And this map drawn by Sanborn Maps in July, 1908, shows it very clearly . . . look how far back from Main Street the building is . . .

compared to this map by Sanborn in August, 1929 . . .

and when Eb and I stopped by
to visit Bev & Mike tonight
to present them with a 24" x 32" size copy
of these 1908 and 1929 maps,
Mike pointed out how the ditch
had been diverted for use by the Brewery!

I am sure that the more people who look at these, the more historical information we will glean from these amazing pieces of Etna's history.

Here are the links to the other Sheets:

Link to Sheet 1 ~ July, 1908
Link to Sheet 1 ~ August, 1929

Link to Sheet 2 ~ July, 1908
Link to Sheet 2 ~ August, 1929

Link to Sheet 3 ~ July, 1908
Link to Sheet 3 ~ August, 1929

(Link to Sheet 4 is above the paragraph
and photo of the Wong Ock Sing Chop House)

Link to Sheet 5 ~ July, 1908
Link to Sheet 5 ~ August, 1929

Today when I was in Yreka, I stopped by Siskiyou Laser Products at 314 South Broadway and Jamie Hittson, the Owner, was kind enough to figure out the printing size which would make easiest viewing (24" x 32"). I had him print me 3 sets of Sheet 4 (downtown Business area): one for us, one for Bev & Mike and one for City Hall.

I left copies of the pdf files with Jamie, so anyone wanting printed copies larger than you can print off your home printer, can contact him at (530) 841-1078 and arrange to have that done. His rates are reasonable and quality is excellent. Tell him you saw the maps on FromOverTheHill.info !!!!!!!

GREAT Gift Idea
for friends and family
who are
Local History Lovers

In joy!

Che'usa

Support Locally-owned Businesses . . .
(Local also
means Yreka!!!!!!!!)

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