In October the Jefferson State Insulator Club held a hunt in Northern California. We explored a lot of new territory, but no one found any treasures. Bill Ostrander did find a piece of what appears to be a rare LIMA multipart. About a dozen club members attended, most hiking the routes of old lines.

I took a few people to the museum in Weaverville, where I had made arrangements to photograph the museum's insulators. We met the person who found some of the items for the museum, and he told us where the items came from. They were on the old Western Union line through the mountains (popularly called the Collins line by collectors.) Originally built in 1858, the line was upgraded by Western Union in the early 1870's, and then discontinued in 1887.

An "A" Mold EC&M (flared skirt, no button)
 from the Western Union upgrade.

This is the crudest side peg I've ever seen, 
a tree limb with the insulator jammed on a branch.

Here's a historic item from the 1858 Threadless line... a Goodyear threadless hat, made of rubber. The original mounting block (side peg style) for the threadless hat (right). Taking a close look at the hat, notice the iron "yoke", or ring, attached to the insulator. This allowed the line to slide past the insulator when struck by falling tree branches, thereby reducing the number of outages in timbered terrain.

Another item from the 1858 threadless line,
 a woodblock rams-horn.

The photo above shows my kids sitting beneath a pole
 from the 1870's upgrade. This pole bears to EC&M style 
sidepegs. It's located in beautiful downtown Callahan.