Colfax Area Historical Society (CAHS) and Colfax Heritage Museum (CHM)

The October 21, 2023, presentation has been canceled.

Attendance at the quarterly presentations has dwindled since we restarted the presentations after COVID.

The board has decided to switch to one presentation in the summer, with a speaker that will draw a large crowd. It will be held in a larger, more comfortable location that will allow as many people to attend as are interested.

We will be planning an event such as the one we held in October 2019, with Robert S. Wells, author of Voices from the Bottom of the South China Sea, which was held in the City Council Chambers of the Colfax City Hall.

If you have any suggestions for speakers/authors or comments about this change, we would love to hear from you in an email to museum@colfaxhistory.org (you can also click the Contact Us link at the top of the page to send us your comments).

By Roger Staab. “The Train Wreckers: August 31, 1881” was published in the current issue of Donner Crossings, Issue No. 17, Summer 2023. Donner Crossings is published by the Placer-Sierra Railroad Heritage Society and is made available here with the permission of the PSRHS.

The August 2023 issue of the Colfax Cobblestones newsletter was mailed to all members today.

All issues of Colfax Cobblestones are available to read or download as PDF files.

If you enjoy the newsletter or want to support the historical society, museum, and our activities, please consider joining the Colfax Area Historical Society.

We have a new Facebook page for the the Colfax Heritage Museum and the Colfax Area Historical Society at facebook.com/groups/colfax.california.museum

You can also find it by searching for “Colfax California Museum” in Facebook.

Our new page is a Facebook Group, with multiple administrators. The old Facebook page was tied to a single person and did not allow us to have additional administrators. This change will result in more posts and photographs by CAHS members and the community.

The old Facebook page (Colfax Area Historical Society) will remain online but won’t be updated.

The May/June issue of Colfax Cobblestones was mailed to CAHS members this week. It includes news of the upcoming June 3 presentation by Christina Richter about Placer County (Past and Present) and an article from the Archives: “The Mole People of the Southern Pacific Railroad,” originally published in the Sacramento Bee in March 1975.

The “Mole People” article includes this photo of an SP worker using a shotgun to remove icicles in the railroad tunnels.

If you enjoy our newsletter, please consider joining the Colfax Area Historical Society.

Because of the weather in Colfax this week, our March 4th presentation is canceled. We will reschedule Swend Miller’s presentation about the Wright Brothers and their Model B aircraft. The new date will be posted here and on our Facebook page when available.

The February issue of the Colfax Cobblestones newsletter is now available. If you are a member of the CAHS, a printed copy has also been mailed to you.

This issue has the following:

• Our March 4th meeting and presentation with Swend Miller: “The Wright Brothers and How They Developed the Model B Aircraft.”
• The Story of the Colfax Hotels, by Nancy Hagman
• And more

Join us Saturday, March 4, 2023, for aviation stories and socializing. Swend Miller’s presentation will be about “The Wright Brothers and How They Developed the Model B Aircraft.” The Wright Model B was an early biplane designed by the Wright Brothers in 1910.

Saturday, March 4, 2023, 7 p.m.
Colfax Passenger Depot
99 Railroad Street, Colfax, California
There is no charge to attend
Everyone is welcome

Swend will also talk about Robert G. Fowler, the early aviator who crashed his Model B plane in Alta, California, during the first leg of his attempt to fly across the United States in September 1911. Fowler had his plane rebuilt in Colfax, California, under the supervision of two mechanics from the Wright Biplane Factory.

This issue of the Colfax Cobblestones newsletter includes the wonderful story about how CAHS recently received a photo album that had belonged to Dr. Chesley Bush. It contains numerous photos of the Colfax area in the early 1900’s. From 1912–1918, Dr. Bush worked as an assistant to Dr. Robert Peers, the director of multiple Tuberculosis treatment facilities in the Colfax area.

This issue also has information about our public meeting and presentation on October 12, 2022. We hope you can make it.

We have a wonderful new book about Dr. Robert Peers and the history of treatment of Tuberculosis in the Colfax area in the early twentieth century for you to download and read as a PDF.

Roger Staab, who will be giving a presentation about Dr. Peers and the history of TB treatment in the Colfax area on Saturday evening, October 15, 2022, has researched and compiled a new book, Dr. Peers and the Colfax School for the Tuberculous. The book is illustrated with more than 50 photographs, maps, and historical advertisements of the TB hospitals and treatment centers in the Colfax area.

Roger’s presentation and his book cover some of the same information. We hope you enjoy the book. And we would love to see you at the presentation on October 15.