A mountain train keeps Madera County's logging story moving

Madera County has two very different faces. Down on the valley floor, the story is farms, canals, packing sheds, and county offices. Up toward Oakhurst and Fish Camp, the story shifts into pine forest, mountain roads, and old logging country.

The Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad is one of the easiest places to feel that mountain side. It runs near Fish Camp, close to the south entrance of Yosemite, on country tied to old narrow-gauge logging routes. Instead of reading about timber railroads from far away, visitors can hear the engine, smell the pine, and see why rail lines mattered in steep Sierra terrain.

The modern railroad also has its own comeback story. Rudy Stauffer began rebuilding the place in the 1960s, bringing back track, a ticket office, an engine house, and museum pieces so people could ride through the landscape again. One of the railroad’s Shay locomotives, No. 10, was built in 1928 and came from the West Side Lumber Company in 1967.

The ride has a nice blend of scenery and local memory. It is a family outing, but it also explains why Madera County’s mountain communities grew the way they did. The county is often talked about as a gateway to Yosemite, which is true, but this little train helps show the working history along that gateway too.