Our Board meetings are the first Thursday of each month and start at 1:30 p.m. at the General Services Administration Building, which is located at 12200 Airport Road in Martell.
Heritage Committee | Genealogy Group
Since the fall of 2006, the Society has been waging a continuing battle to save the eastern 1.5 miles of the Amador Central Railroad (ACRR) from the developer "wrecking ball." Our attempts to negotiate with the owner, Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI), has not been successful to date.In the original environmental impact report (EIR) that SPI filed in 2001, SPI stated that they were going to operate the ACRR. However, in 2004 SPI reversed their decision and filed an application for abandonment with the Federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) but did not file an amended EIR. Both the Amador County Transportation Commission and the Amador County Board of Supervisors were on record opposing the abandonment, but this opposition was not general public knowledge.
In February 2005, the STB made a decision in favor of SPI with very limited conditions. ACHS became aware of the abandonment in November 2006 and made demand of the STB for a historic study of the ACRR under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. That study was completed in August 2007 and sent to the California State Office of Historic Preservation (SOHP). The SOHP agreed with the study that the ACRR was eligible for the National Registry of Historic Places as a Historic District. However, SPI ignored the requirements of the STB and started to dismantle portions of the track age between Lower Ridge Road and Highway 49. It was obvious that SPI was going to ignore the law so long as neither the federal nor state governments were on hand to enforce it. Therefore, we have asked the County to ensure that SPI follow the law and the ACHS has asked for a focused amended EIR on the ACRR.
The SPI resident engineer has stated that they started pulling out the tracks after the STB ruling in 2007, which was during the time the Section 106 historical study was in progress.
The Section 106 process has not yet been completed, as the STB had sent their recommendations in the form of a Memorandum of Agreement to the SOHP for their approval. As of this writing they had yet to make a determination.
The County Planner has stated that she was unsure as to who had jurisdiction in the matter and she will contact the SOHP to try and resolve the "turf" question.
The Society is doing everything in its power to not only preserve our past, but also to retain the ACRR for future use as "light rail" to connect us to the metropolitan areas to our north and west. The past history of the ACRR is a testament to those peoples of many cultures, backgrounds, and abilities who have contributed to the economic and social diversity of Amador County and we believe that the ACRR can do this again in the future.
The Genealogy Group meets on the second Wednesday of each month at 1 p.m. at the General Services Administration Building at 12200 Airport Road in Martell.
The Genealogy Group is involved in tombstone transcriptions of the 27 historic cemeteries in the county. So far we've transcribed the four cemeteries in Sutter Creek, the two in Drytown, the two in Pine Grove and Jackson City Cemetery. The results are posted free on rootsweb.com at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~cemetery/california/amador.html
The Genealogy Group is also reviewing early newspapers of the county to extract vital information on residents. These births, marriages, and deaths will then be posted on the Web and placed in the libraries in the county.
We also have other projects that you may want to join. For information, please contact Marian Randolph at lanmar@apedaile.net.