VIGNETTE > T. C. Wohlbruck

Double Bow Knot – March 21, 1915 – click to enlarge

C. Wohlbruck’s main career (among many others) was photography. In 1914 he began taking school class pictures as the official California School Photographer. In 1915 he began taking pictures of railroad passengers at Double Bow Knot. On the trip up to the top of Mt. Tam, an assistant would collect a dollar and an address from interested passengers who would receive a copy by mail. In 1918 he sold the business to a Mr. Hedley. In 1920 he built a museum next to the Donner Party Memorial Pioneer Monument near Truckee. He displayed surviving artifacts and sold refreshments, souvenirs, books about the Donner party and postcards of his photographs. He established three Service Stations. One was at the museum, a second at Emigrant Gap with a spectacular view of Bear Valley, and the third at Echo Summit. In 1930 after 15 years of collecting, he opened a horse-drawn carriage collection exhibit in Redwood City. In 1931, he published an illustrated edition of Charles F. Mc Glashan’s famous book, History of the Donner Party: A Tragedy of the Sierra.  His seven different businesses were headquartered in his office and photo lab in San Francisco.