By Dennis Cassinelli
Recently, Chris Pattison, director of the Friends of Sutro Tunnel effort to preserve and restore the famous Sutro Tunnel contacted me about several people who wanted to donate Sutro Tunnel artifacts and memorabilia.
The group has been receiving many donations from individuals who have accumulated artifacts from Sutro Tunnel over the decades. These folks have been seeing the work that the Friends have been doing and have been donating back these artifacts. The purpose of this article is to describe the donated artifacts and publicly recognize and thank the people making these donations. Hopefully, this may encourage other people who have Sutro Tunnel related material to make similar donations.
People who have made donations thus far include the following,
Basco Joe, Joseph Elcano donated a lantern from inside the tunnel.
Laura and Stoney Tenant donated lots of images, history, and books.
Donald Ayer donated a flag pole and a survey marker.
Bill Huber, author of King of the Comstock Lode, donated Library of books and research.
Richard Barham, donated historical documents.
Brandon Wilding and the ECV, donated plaque from San Francisco Cliff House where Sutro moved when the tunnel was completed.
These are just some of the people that have donated historical items to the Friends of Sutro Tunnel. We can not possibly list all of the amazing volunteers, donors and supporters that are making this project a reality. But we express our appreciation and gratitude to all, like you, that help to make the Sutro Tunnel a succesful nonprofit that is restoring and preserving the Sutro Tunnel and Site. There are many items that have found their way off of the site and we are working to reclaim these items so that we can preserve them for future generations to enjoy and learn from. We are also looking for historical documents and the tunnel work journals. These journals are quiticential to our preservation efforts so that we can restore the tunnel and site to as close to historical accurate as possible.
You can follow our progress on our website, chris@thesutrotunnel.org, facebook and youtube.
Thank you, Chris Pattison and Dennis Cassinelli