Forest Gift Shop, Cisco Grove

Before the coming of I-80, traffic crossing Donner Summit passed through Cisco Grove, an active small community serving highway travelers. The area included a gift shop, lodge, restaurant, grocery store, gas station, housekeeping cabins, bar, and ski club, and nearby the Auburn Ski Club had rope tows, ski runs, ski jumps, and lodging. The Auburn Ski Club pioneered and helped popularize modern skiing and was responsible for opening Highway 40 to winter travel, but later I-80 cut through its ski runs and ski jumps and the club moved up to the Summit to land where Boreal is. The stone buildings here are the remains of the Forest Gift Shop, which supplied tourists with locally produced souvenirs, including owl ashtrays made from pinecones and pine rounds and corncob and pinecone pipes, while a neighboring fruit stand sold ice-cold orange juice, fruit, and orange candies. John J. Wegman built the shop in 1938 on land owned by Jim Gould Sr., with masonry by Lester Hammond. The business lasted ten years until World War Two and reduced traffic hurt trade; after the war it reopened as the Sierra Gift Shop and continued until the arrival of the freeway. The coming of I-80 transformed Old Highway 40 as faster travel ended leisurely stops, and many small stores, cafés, lodges, service stations, and motels disappeared, ending a way of life. Earlier, James Gould had bought the Cisco Grove land from the Central Pacific Railroad, and it became the start of a 22 mile flume and ditch of the Gold Run Ditch and Mining company, carrying water to Gold Run for hydraulic mining. In 2008, the Gould Family donated the building and park to Placer County.

California · United States