Allen Towle started the Towle Lumber Company in Dutch Flat in 1861, by purchasing the assets of the Dutch Flat Sawmill of Hamlet Davis. Along with his brothers George and Edwin, and a variety of other minor partners, the firm of Towle Bros. Co. would go on over time to include numerous sawmills out in the woods, their own company owned lumber town (between Alta and Canyon Creek along the Central Pacific Railroad), an interest in a pulp mill at their town of Towle, and a narrow gauge logging railroad that at its height reached 30+ miles of rails leading into Nevada County.
Starting out with oxen pulled log cars over metal strapping on top of wooden "rails" in the late 1860s early 1870s, the railroad evolved into full metal rails and ownership of 5 narrow gauge locomotives. Little specific history of the above caboose is known. It was not a regular part of most trains going out or coming back into Towle. It was probably used to move occasional supplies, record-keeping chores including possible payroll responsibilities, and during promotional events when groups of people were taken out into the woods. It was probably built sometime in the 1870s or 80s, in their slops at Towle. Towle Bros. Co. sold out to Read Lumber Co. in 1902.
A diary kept by Sadie Towle (youngest child of Allen Towle) noted the caboose was moved to the Allen Towle House in Towle in l929. Family history has it being used as a childhood playhouse. It was rediscovered in the 1950s when surveyors were marking the proposed route of Interstate 80. In poor condition, it was moved to behind the Dutch Flat Historical Monument sometime in the 1950s. The Towle Estate Company decided to donate it to the community and Auburn Lumber Company took the Caboose down to Auburn and rebuilt it. It was dedicated in ceremonies on July 4,1964 at Dutch Flat.
Golden Drift Historical Society, Doug Ferrier, June, 2013
Starting out with oxen pulled log cars over metal strapping on top of wooden "rails" in the late 1860s early 1870s, the railroad evolved into full metal rails and ownership of 5 narrow gauge locomotives. Little specific history of the above caboose is known. It was not a regular part of most trains going out or coming back into Towle. It was probably used to move occasional supplies, record-keeping chores including possible payroll responsibilities, and during promotional events when groups of people were taken out into the woods. It was probably built sometime in the 1870s or 80s, in their slops at Towle. Towle Bros. Co. sold out to Read Lumber Co. in 1902.
A diary kept by Sadie Towle (youngest child of Allen Towle) noted the caboose was moved to the Allen Towle House in Towle in l929. Family history has it being used as a childhood playhouse. It was rediscovered in the 1950s when surveyors were marking the proposed route of Interstate 80. In poor condition, it was moved to behind the Dutch Flat Historical Monument sometime in the 1950s. The Towle Estate Company decided to donate it to the community and Auburn Lumber Company took the Caboose down to Auburn and rebuilt it. It was dedicated in ceremonies on July 4,1964 at Dutch Flat.
Golden Drift Historical Society, Doug Ferrier, June, 2013
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