Elks Lodge #1712
Shingle Springs, California
Yesterday we started our day with a trip to the Folsom Prison Museum. It was very interesting but now I can't get Johnny Cash's song out of my head. I was surprised to see an exhibit about "Sheriff Joe" from Arizona at this museum.
The original prison was nicknamed "The Castle" due to its design. It is built in a hole formed after the excavation of the granite used in the buildings. We weren't permitted to get close enough to see where the road sloped toward the main gate.
All of the license plates for the state of California are still manufactured at this facility.
We also drove over to see the site of Sutter's Mill. The area now is a state park with a reproduction of the original sawmill.
This is the site of the original mill on the American River. It's hard to visualize how quickly this area changed after gold was discovered. The ranger told me that a three once nugget was found five years ago so there must still be gold in the area.
This is a memorial to the Lincoln Highway and old US 40 which were replaced by Interstate 80. Notice how smooth the slabs from the original road are? Too bad the newer road is not pothole free.
We were driving down the road when this group of statutes caught my eye. These enormous works of art were made by a local dentist in Auburn, California. The parking lot of his original office is decorated with several of his concrete statutes.
Did I mention that they were very big?
The artist's first statue in the 1960s was of a nude man. Unfortunately it faced a busy street causing shock and criticism from the town. School buses were rerouted so they didn't pass by with a load of school children. That was a long time ago and now no one seems to pay much attention to the art work.
We have been fortunate to time our visit to this Sacramento suburb to coincide with the annual vulture migration. It is rather disturbing to see large numbers of vultures circling overhead. I wonder if they know something we don't.
When we were driving in Oregon we passed a sign warning "Ecology Crew Ahead". I was expecting to see a bird banding operation, turtle crossing or something like that. It turned out to be people picking up garbage.
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