Bill Rohde and some climbing partners struggled for hours climbing up 14,162 foot high Mount Shasta in Northern California last summer. Then while celebrating their successful ascent, Bill surprised them by asking to have his picture taken with a couple of objects he had packed along with him.

His partners just couldn't believe he had carried an insulator up the mountain with him... much less a copy of Crown Jewels magazine!

Bill is best known for collecting large, heavy, multipart porcelain insulators. But he says for the climb he chose the smallest insulator he had on hand, a CD 102 pony embossed "SF".

The copy of Crown Jewels he chose was the October 2002 issue which features on its cover a picture taken by Bill himself. The photograph is of two large multipart insulators that were still in use at the time. Inside the magazine, Elton Gish described the two as M-4415's made by the Thomas company between 1905 and 1912.

The date, according to Elton, can be determined by the "blue jean" seam line found inside the bottom skirt. Elton explained, "This distinctive mark in the clay was caused by a section of denim pants leg placed inside the skirt when it was pressed out in an apparent method to prevent the plunger from sticking to the damp clay." Sometimes, even the crosshatching of the denim material is visible in addition to the seam.

That same issue also featured an article written by me about a hunt for, coincidentally, multi-part insulators by members of the Jefferson State Insulator Club. That hunt, also coincidentally, occurred just a few miles south of Mt Shasta adjacent to another natural wonder (visible from Interstate Five), the Castle Crags.

Mt Shasta is a mountain I've always wanted to climb. Due to knee problems, that may never happen. So, thanks, Bill for figuratively carrying me to the top with that issue Crown Jewels you picked out.

Howard Banks

CROWN JEWELS 
& BILL ROHDE ON TOP OF IT ALL