September 21, 1960 (8 pages)

NEVADA COUNTY NUGGET Published Every Wednesday By. NEVADA COUNT Y NUGGET, INC, 132 Main St., Nevada City, Calif. Dial 265-2471 * Atte €; HOU ck i e's we os POR R. Dean Thompson. ... . Editor-Manager Don Fairclough. ... .Circulation Maneger Clarice Mc Whinney. . . «+ + + Art Editor Second class postage paid at Nevada City, Calit. Adjudicated a legal newspaper of general circulation by the Nevada County Superior Court, June 3, 1960 Decree No. 12,406 Subscription Rates: One year, $3.00; Two years, $5.00. Three years, $7.00. Printed by Berliner & Mc Ginnis, Nevada City. . Editorial Nevada City Among The Dinosaurs Congressman Bizz Johnson was in our office the other day and in the course of conversation hemade aremark that set us to brooding: if the proposed freeway through Nevada City should eventually roll throughthe heart of the town, he had a feeling the Smithsonian Institute of Washington, D.C. might like to acquire one of the old buildings that would be destroyed--forexample, the Ott's Assay Office. The thought of shipping a vital segment of Nevada City to this dead, dusty-and gloomy "national museum" does not inspire us. Furthermore, itis chilling to think that a museum 3,000 miles away might goto the enormous expense of saving a piece of our town, when many people in the town itself consider the old buildings merely unsightly nuisances. The true importance of Nevada City lies, of course, notin one building, but in the fact that the entire town is aliving, breathing unit with the historic buildings forming an inseparable part of that unit. Representative Johnsonrecognizes this. He pointed out historic buildings throughout the Mother Lode should NOT be moved. But that IF the treeway were to trench out a part of this area's history, THEN. We can see it now: one of our distinctive old buildings set upin the Washington museum among the dinosaurs. Ifthis is where "progress" leads us we have a better idea: ship the whole town to the Smithsonian and make areal exhibit out of it. If the whole town were taken, there would be nothing left at all to stand in the way of "progress." Of course there are some whowould argue that this procedure would add immeasurably to the burdens of an already over-centralized federal government. Others might even argue that Nevada City would do better to stay in California, paint itself, clean itself up, and make a concerted appeal tothe increasingly eager tourist trade. Still others might go so far as to suggestthat we prefer not to be dismembered by the division of highways or the Smithsonian Institute or anything else; that we are proud of what we are and what we have beenand what we will be; that we choose tolive here and work here because thisis one of the few remaining towns of true spirit, unity, and beauty; that we dof not intendtoembalm the heart of our town in concrete or in a museum somewhere in order that our remaining homes and stores and offices cianbecome mere freeway frontage. But surely such protests seem pale before the glittering technicolor dreams of ruination and destruction which the state and federal governments can induce in us. Study of 4-level interchange in Los Angeles when nearly completed. This photo impossible today as cars are constantly crossing camera viewpoint. The Nugget — Proudly Presents The following photo-story is reprinted from the CalifiP ornia Highways and Public Works magazine. It features . . photographic work by a Nevada City born employe of the . California Division of Highways on his retirement. i THREE DECADES For more than 30 years Merritt R. Nickerson, the Division of Highways’ Supervising Photographer, has traveled up and down California photographing state highways. At the time of his retirement, it seems worthwhile to look again at some of the photographs he has made over these more than three decades, When “Nick” first started taking pictures of California highways, the Model-T was the mainstay of automobile traffic in the state, and most of the highways were built for its slow speed, short turning radius, and -high clearance. Today California's highway engineers are world famous for their freeways. Nickerson was born in Nevada— City in 1897, and now lives with his wife in Carmichael. He first worked for the state as a clerk in the Department of Education in 1915, but left this job to enlist in the Army in World War I. After his return from overseas in 1919, “Nick” worked as a chainman and rodman on survey crews in the Dunsmuir area in District IT, but in 1923 left the state to work for a Sacramento commercial photography studio. With this firm he began photographing highways on a contract basis a few vears later, then returned .o full time state service as 4 photographer with the Department of Public Works in 1932. More recently, Nickerson has confined his photography mainly to aerial. M. R. NICKERSON At left: A falling boulder closes US 50. 1934 view of San Francisco and construction on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge » taken from Yerba Buena Island. Rebuilding US 50 over Myers Grade, 1940. Cuesta Grade on US 101, San Luis Obispo County, as it looked in the late 1920's. Below: In 1940, as today, slides were a problem on the Palisades near Santa Monica. Construction in the early 1940's on the access road to General Grant National Park. The Feather River levee which broke at Yuba City in the disostrous 1955 floods. State highway damage alone was more than $10,000,000. . First section of Pasadena Freeway (then called Arroyo Seco Porkway), now port of the Los Angeles Freeway System. Completed in 1940, this was California's first freeway.

NEVADA COUNTY NUGGET Published Every Wednesday By. NEVADA COUNT Y NUGGET, INC, 132 Main St., Nevada City, Calif. Dial 265-2471 * Atte €; HOU ck i e's we os POR R. Dean Thompson. ..... . Editor-Manager Don Fairclough. ..... .Circulation Maneger Clarice Mc Whinney. . . «+ + + Art Editor Second class postage paid at Nevada City, Calit. Adjudicated a legal newspaper of general circulation by the Nevada County Superior Court, June 3, 1960 Decree No. 12,406 Subscription Rates: One year, $3.00; Two years, $5.00. Three years, $7.00. Printed by Berliner & Mc Ginnis, Nevada City. . Editorial Nevada City Among The Dinosaurs Congressman Bizz Johnson was in our office the other day and in the course of conversation hemade aremark that set us to brooding: if the proposed freeway through Nevada City should eventually roll throughthe heart of the town, he had a feeling the Smithsonian Institute of Washington, D.C. might like to acquire one of the old buildings that would be destroyed--forexample, the Ott's Assay Office. The thought of shipping a vital segment of Nevada City to this dead, dusty-and gloomy "national museum" does not inspire us. Furthermore, itis chilling to think that a museum 3,000 miles away might goto the enormous expense of saving a piece of our town, when many people in the town itself consider the old buildings merely unsightly nuisances. The true importance of Nevada City lies, of course, notin one building, but in the fact that the entire town is aliving, breathing unit with the historic buildings forming an inseparable part of that unit. Representative Johnsonrecognizes this. He pointed out historic buildings throughout the Mother Lode should NOT be moved. But that IF the treeway were to trench out a part of this area's history, THEN.. We can see it now: one of our distinctive old buildings set upin the Washington museum among the dinosaurs. Ifthis is where "progress" leads us we have a better idea: ship the whole town to the Smithsonian and make areal exhibit out of it. If the whole town were taken, there would be nothing left at all to stand in the way of "progress." Of course there are some whowould argue that this procedure would add immeasurably to the burdens of an already over-centralized federal government. Others might even argue that Nevada City would do better to stay in California, paint itself, clean itself up, and make a concerted appeal tothe increasingly eager tourist trade. Still others might go so far as to suggestthat we prefer not to be dismembered by the division of highways or the Smithsonian Institute or anything else; that we are proud of what we are and what we have beenand what we will be; that we choose tolive here and work here because thisis one of the few remaining towns of true spirit, unity, and beauty; that we dof

not intendtoembalm the heart of our town in concrete or in a museum somewhere in order that our remaining homes and stores and offices cianbecome mere freeway frontage. But surely such protests seem pale before the glittering technicolor dreams of ruination and destruction which the state and federal governments can induce in us. Study of 4-level interchange in Los Angeles when nearly completed. This photo impossible today as cars are constantly crossing camera viewpoint. The Nugget — Proudly Presents The following photo-story is reprinted from the CalifiP ornia Highways and Public Works magazine. It features . . photographic work by a Nevada City born employe of the . California Division of Highways on his retirement. i THREE DECADES For more than 30 years Merritt R. Nickerson, the Division of Highways’ Supervising Photographer, has traveled up and down California photographing state highways. At the time of his retirement, it seems worthwhile to look again at some of the photographs he has made over these more than three decades, When “Nick” first started taking pictures of California highways, the Model-T was the mainstay of automobile traffic in the state, and most of the highways were built for its slow speed, short turning radius, and -high clearance. Today California's highway engineers are world famous for their freeways. Nickerson was born in Nevada— City in 1897, and now lives with his wife in Carmichael. He first worked for the state as a clerk in the Department of Education in 1915, but left this job to enlist in the Army in World War I. After his return from overseas in 1919, “Nick” worked as a chainman and rodman on survey crews in the Dunsmuir area in District IT, but in 1923 left the state to work for a Sacramento commercial photography studio. With this firm he began photographing highways on a contract basis a few vears later, then returned .o full time state service as 4 photographer with the Department of Public Works in 1932. More recently, Nickerson has confined his photography mainly to aerial. M. R. NICKERSON At left: A falling boulder closes US 50. 1934 view of San Francisco and construction on the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge » taken from Yerba Buena Island. Rebuilding US 50 over Myers Grade, 1940. Cuesta Grade on US 101, San Luis Obispo County, as it looked in the late 1920's. Below: In 1940, as today, slides were a problem on the Palisades near Santa Monica. Construction in the early 1940's on the access road to General Grant National Park. The Feather River levee which broke at Yuba City in the disostrous 1955 floods. State highway damage alone was more than $10,000,000. . First section of Pasadena Freeway (then called Arroyo Seco Porkway), now port of the Los Angeles Freeway System. Completed in 1940, this was California's first freeway.