I first contacted Ron Souza in hopes of purchasing a porcelain block insulator similar to the one Ron owns and is shown in Gerald Brown's "Collectible Porcelain Insulators". The Pacific Pottery Company block would fill a hole in a collection of porcelain threadless insulators that didn't have many holes left to fill. 

Ron clued me in. "Doug, those that have them are not going to give them up. If you really want a block from the Placerville and Humbolt line, you'll have to come out here." 

John McDougald was invited out by Ron to see first hand the areas that were being worked in search of the somewhat controversial glass blocks. 

With all of our plans made for our west coast trip, what a surprise was in store? How about our host being rushed to the hospital 48 hours before our departure. 

These are my recollections of the trip, written on Saturday, July 15th just before my return trip to Connecticut.

July 11th Tuesday: Hats off to America West. Plane leaves right at 7 :45 a.m. for a perfect flight to Phoenix and then on to Sacramento. John has arrived about one half hour before me. The decision to rent a car for our use is made. Not much choice -- Lincoln Town Car or Blazer. Duh!?! Off to see Ron at the hospital. Jim Sanders has come up from Ojai to spend the week with us, filling in for ailing Ron. We do stop at Ron's house getting a chance to see some pretty neat insulators and get a feel for the research this guy is doing. Then it's on to Joe Sousa's (Ron's son) home in Marysville. More interesting pieces to look at. Joe is going out with us on Friday, but right now the three of us head for the mountains, specifically the Plumas National Forest at LaPorte. We camp out under the stars. Chilly sleeping on a cot and not the best night's sleep.

I'm ready to go ... Blazer and all!

July 12th Wednesday: Metal detectors and three pronged rakes in hand, it's off to the somewhat allusive telegraph lines. Not fully understanding the many lines that might have connected the mining settlements, we spent a lot of time on a portion of a line that has yielded glass blocks. We did find good traces of wire to indicate direction, but no span locations. A lot of time is spent combing areas to pick up wire location. This is very rugged terrain and to think this is a simple task is to be very naive. At noon we drove back to LaPorte and had a sandwich at the Rabbit Creek Deli, one of two businesses in town, the other being the Union Hotel. 

Only bed in town -- the Union Hotel.

John and I checked out the Union with the thought of staying there for the night. Otherwise it's a bunch of miles back to civilization. Lucky us -- a double bed and a pullout in the third floor suite for $95.00 plus tax. We jumped on that and I believe there was only one other room rented for the night.

It was back to the forest for a somewhat shorter afternoon search. I guess all three of us were tired, but we worked an area called Yankee Hill. We didn't have any luck in picking up a line location. 

We headed back to the Union and kicked back having a few beers, a good steak dinner, a shower and a good night's sleep (much better than the camp out routine). End of day two.

July 13th Thursday: Breakfast at 7:00 a.m. in the hotel restaurant. Special of the House -- all you can eat sourdough pancakes and sausage for $5.00 cooked by the hotel owner, served by his daughter. Absolutely delicious!! Chip (the owner) makes up some ham and cheese sandwiches, adds a plate of fixin's, some chips and we are ready for day two in Plumas. It is suspected that the line ran from LaPorte to St. Louis (about five miles). Previously a glass block and side bracket had been located and cut from a tree. This is a piece that we had seen at Joe Souza's home in Marysville. From that tree location we comb the area in the direction of St. Louis. We spend about two hours and arrive at the St. Louis cemetery. Very interesting -- everything is somewhat overgrown but all of the headstones are still in place. All other evidence of a community has disappeared. St. Louis at one time had about fifty buildings but like the other mining settlements nothing remains. I mean nothing! We work our way back across the same area still not picking up any trace of a line. 

Extreme terrain in the old mining settlements.

John McDougald and Jim Sanders 
observe scar left by the 
side bracket and glass block.

Scar about 15 feet up on 
the trunk of the tree.

St. Louis remains.

It's back to the Yankee Hill area for a new point to work from, but first lunch. Two beers are split three ways. Jim discovers the plastic bag holding ice leaked and those beautiful ham and cheese sandwiches become breadless. All three were submerged in water. After consuming what was still edible we examine what looks to be the old wheel tracks to St. Louis. The Souzas have poked around and thought they had picked up traces of wire. We work a fairly large area, picking up some wire. But not being able to put together anything concrete. We work our way out to the truck and head back to Roseville. 

Trees big enough to swallow a man.

Jim Sanders and me digging under some
large cedar trees.

A rockem'...

... Sockem'...

Party -- right around the block --
with me, Joe Souza and Jim Sanders. 

Friday is the day I'm waiting for: the reason I came -- the Placerville and Humbolt line -- "The Bee Line" -- the porcelain block I want for my collection.

The trip to the LaPorte area was great. It wasn't particularly successful and it didn't solve all the nagging questions when new pieces surface. Believe me, looking for insulators in the Plumas National Forest is not like looking in your backyard. Success on the glass block lines would have been nice, but success on the Bee Line is mandatory.

Back in Roseville we luck into a room with a bum air conditioner for a mere $30 per night. This is such a good deal it becomes headquarters for three nights. This really was some good luck because the Olympic trials were being held in Sacramento and everything was booked.

We clean up, go visit Ron, who is still in the hospital and then on to the Cattlemen Restaurant for another round of beef. Long day -- into bed by 10:00 p.m. Joe Souza is picking us up at 6:00 a.m.

July 14th Friday: Joe is right on time and it's off to the "Bee Line" -- east on Route 50 toward Nevada. Ron and Joe have spent years on this line and know where there should be some promising locations, but still there is no guarantee that a block will show up. At the first stop, wire and nails are picked up almost immediately around a large dead tree. The site looks so promising that John and I start to dig an area probably 10' x 15', down to firm ground -- nothing! 

This promising start bogs down some as line location eludes us. We work an old roadway but find almost nothing. A large cedar, about 1/4 mile from our first excavation, still has the bracket nails protruding. This is a site that Jim Sanders previously dug with no results. John, Jim and myself expand the excavation area but still no block in sight. The four of us work the next 1/4 miles until the old road meets existing Highway 50. 

We now head to a new location about a mile further east. It was here that Jim and Dave Campbell recently dug a block at the base of a large cedar. Back about 180 feet is another stately cedar, clearly scarred where a bracket had been fastened. This sure looked like the spot that would yield the California block that was missing from my threadless porcelain collection. John and I worked this site as Joe and Jim started searching out line location ahead.

The area we excavated with our rakes turned up nothing. John moved ahead with the other two, but I stayed behind and expanded thy search area. It just had to be there, yet the time was moving along and nothing was turning up. Finally the others returned, not finding any wire locations and I conceded that this huge tree was not surrendering its 140 year-old insulator to this "Easterner".

Back to Joe's Bronco and on to site number three, another few miles down the highway. Here we pulled off onto a side road. Joe pointed out a huge cedar with a large section of the base either rotted or burned out. When we got close you could see where the side bracket had been. This looked as promising as the tree I had just finished digging. 

John, Jim and myself started raking. The soil was soft down a foot or more with a heavy grass and weed growth. This was unlike all the other digging we had done this week. We started about twelve feet from the tree in a fan shape working toward this monster of a cedar -- John on the left, Jim in the center and me on the right. As each foot of earth is scraped and nothing shows up, doubt starts to set in. John and I reach the base of the tree from the left and right -- nothing. 

Jim digs to the base at the rotted out section -- nothing. Then he takes his rake and starts to pull out the almost sawdust-like wood and soil that is in the tree itself. Probably two thirds of the debris is raked out when -- KLINK! The next careful pull on the rake delivers the most beautiful sight -- an almost perfect Pacific Pottery block! One hundred and thirty years in the ground and now the center of attention of four very happy treasure hunters. 

Pictures are taken (all smiles, of course) and the hunt for the day officially ends. 

Back to the hospital in Roseville to show the "Bee Line Guru" the newest addition to the insulator hobby. We were all pretty happy campers, but I think Ron was the happiest. Even though this trip to the hospital kept him from going on the dig, he had kept his promise to me -- "You come out and we'll send you home with a block." 

Well, John left for two insulator events in Oregon on Saturday and Sunday. He had a six hour drive after a whole day of insulator hunting.

July 15th Saturday: Jim and I went back up to Plumas and scouted out some areas that might yield a telegraph line, but it wasn't the kind of day Friday had been. We drove back to Roseville late in the afternoon. Jim dropped me off at the motel and then headed home to Ojai, a six hour ride. A giant thanks to Jim. He stepped in when Ron was rushed to the hospital. He led the way from Tuesday to Saturday. What a good friend!

July 16th Sunday: America West Flight 2126 departs Sacramento at 12:13 p.m. as scheduled. On board is the first Pacific Pottery Company block to leave the state.