From "Doc Alders, Farmington's Lone Eagle" A Reminiscence. Averel (Doc) and Pete set up the Alders Union 76 Station in 1935 on the corner where the C.M. Alders Hotel had been located. An extraordinary feat for men so young. Doc was twenty-two years old at the time and Pete was nineteen. Once the service station was established, Pete tended the station while Doc worked at other jobs.
The Mattesich brothers, Lloyd and Glen, had a Moore Equipment "Carry-All" scraper and the Caterpillar to pull it. Stanley Moore and his dad had a dealership for Allis-Chalmers tractors. He would get them jobs to help pay for the tractor they bought from him. Therefore, they got a WPA contract building up the levee that had washed out on the Stanislaus River where it ran into the San Joaquin River. That was quite a distance to haul equipment from Farmington. Lloyd had a little low-bed trailer and they hauled it out themselves.
Doc operated the Carry-All scraper. The Carry-Alls were tractor-drawn earth movers.
The Allis-Chalmers and Moore scraper were used by the Mattesich brothers and Doc on other jobs. They used it on a road job going into General Grant Park one time. This presented a logistics problem since General Grant Park is in the Sierra east of Fresno on the road into Kings Canyon, some 160 miles from Stockton. Stanley Moore's hired driver hauled it up there. He was unable to make it up some of the hills. Therefore, he had to unload the scraper and drive it up some of the hills.
General Grant Park was a Federal Park. A real narrow road, and old road. They were coming down on this side of Grant and a woman was coming up the road right in the middle, and there was no room. It was a two lane road and there was no place to get off. Lloyd was driving the pickup and he ran it up on the bank that was on the side of the road and hit a big boulder and poked a hole in the pan. The woman was stopped in the middle of the road and said she did not see us coming. She was blowing her horn and scared to death to get over. No place to go but up on the boulder, so that was where we wound up.
The object of the project was to make the old road safe. They made a new road. The Mattesiches made the grade for the new road. Another contractor surfaced it.
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Happy Birthday wishes go out to Mary Campoy on Thursday, April 12th.
*****
Please contact me if you have items for the Farmington News column. E-Mail me at farmingtonnews@gmail.com or phone 896-6697.
The Mattesich brothers, Lloyd and Glen, had a Moore Equipment "Carry-All" scraper and the Caterpillar to pull it. Stanley Moore and his dad had a dealership for Allis-Chalmers tractors. He would get them jobs to help pay for the tractor they bought from him. Therefore, they got a WPA contract building up the levee that had washed out on the Stanislaus River where it ran into the San Joaquin River. That was quite a distance to haul equipment from Farmington. Lloyd had a little low-bed trailer and they hauled it out themselves.
Doc operated the Carry-All scraper. The Carry-Alls were tractor-drawn earth movers.
The Allis-Chalmers and Moore scraper were used by the Mattesich brothers and Doc on other jobs. They used it on a road job going into General Grant Park one time. This presented a logistics problem since General Grant Park is in the Sierra east of Fresno on the road into Kings Canyon, some 160 miles from Stockton. Stanley Moore's hired driver hauled it up there. He was unable to make it up some of the hills. Therefore, he had to unload the scraper and drive it up some of the hills.
General Grant Park was a Federal Park. A real narrow road, and old road. They were coming down on this side of Grant and a woman was coming up the road right in the middle, and there was no room. It was a two lane road and there was no place to get off. Lloyd was driving the pickup and he ran it up on the bank that was on the side of the road and hit a big boulder and poked a hole in the pan. The woman was stopped in the middle of the road and said she did not see us coming. She was blowing her horn and scared to death to get over. No place to go but up on the boulder, so that was where we wound up.
The object of the project was to make the old road safe. They made a new road. The Mattesiches made the grade for the new road. Another contractor surfaced it.
*****
Happy Birthday wishes go out to Mary Campoy on Thursday, April 12th.
*****
Please contact me if you have items for the Farmington News column. E-Mail me at farmingtonnews@gmail.com or phone 896-6697.
