Boca
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Boca Hotel
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Judge Cocker was the older brother of Charles Crocker, one of the Central Pacific’s Big Four, that included Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins and Collis Huntington.
With the completion of the transcontinental railroad, there was a demand for enormous quantities of timber for trestles, ties, buildings, as well as fuel for wood burning locomotives and woodstoves. Even greater was the demand for clear, cold mountain ice.
At Boca, winter temperatures frequently dropped to 15 and 20 below zero, making it natural for the commercial ice cutting trade.
Realizing the potential for huge profits, wealthy investors built numerous sawmills and ice companies throughout the area. Hence, the first settlers came to Boca in1868 when the Boca Mill and Ice Company commenced operations.
According to Union Ice Company annual reports provided by historian Tom Macaulay, Edward W. Hopkins, nephew of Mark Hopkins, bought into the Summit Ice Company at Prosser Creek which he combined with the Boca Mill Ice Company to create the Sierra Lakes Ice Company in 1878.
Due to the furious competition between the various ice companies, they decided to combine their operations and, in 1881, they formed Union Ice Company. Lloyd Tevis of Wells Fargo Bank was named president and Edward W. Hopkins was appointed vice president. In 1891, the company officially incorporated as The Union Ice Company, Inc.
Tevis and Hopkins made arrangements to supply Boca ice for the countless railroad boxcars headed for markets both east and west. With ice from Boca, fresh California produce could be shipped anywhere in the country.
Within a few years the growing town had added a sawmill, a telegraph office, a shingle house, a schoolhouse, a hotel, a general store and by 1876 completed construction of the huge Boca Brewing Company. As many as 300 workers were employed in Boca’s various industries. The town even had its own post office that remained in business until 1945.
A dam was built on the Little Truckee creating a millpond area of 180 acres. This was used for summer storage of logs and in winter as an ice harvest field.
There were six monstrous icehouses in Boca, each capable of storing thousands of tons of ice. The ice was cut from the millpond, floated 200 yards down the canal and skidded on a tramway to where it was packed in sawdust and stored year-round.
It took about 4,000 tons of ice to keep the storage cellars cool in late July. It was reported that the company had ample facilities for storing enough ice in a single winter to supply California for a dozen years.
By 1872, Boca was shipping more ice, wood, and shingles to points east and west than any other point between San Francisco and Omaha. The town even had its own short line railroad to the lumber mill in Loyalton.
In its heyday, Boca’s brewery produced 30,000 barrels of beer each year. The brewery was located across the river from the mill and ice plant where today’s Interstate Highway 80 now crosses over the site.
Boca, being one of the coldest places in the country in winter, had five cold springs and unlimited ice that could be harvested and stored for use for over a year, ideal for a brewery site.
Boca Beer was sold worldwide and gained fame due to brewing with natural spring water and ice. It became a popular drink at the 1883 World’s Fair in Paris, France.
On a cold January evening in 1893, the Boca Brewery burned to the ground marking the end of one of the country’s most popular beers.
By the turn of the century, man-made ice began to replace natural ice and the Boca Ice Company ceased operations. At the same time, every tree near Boca had all been harvested without regard to conservation, forcing the timber industry to close down.
Boca’s last ice harvest took place in the mid 1920s when Union Ice Company constructed its refrigeration plant on west 4th Street in Reno. The old building is the current home of Glacier Ice Company.
In 1904, fire destroyed the hotel and what was left of the town was demolished when Boca Dam was built in 1939.
Today there isn’t much left of the remains of the old town of Boca except some concrete foundations from a few of the old icehouses near the railroad tracks. Other remains can be seen near the foot of the Boca dam and beneath Boca Reservoir whenever the water level is low.
A trickling natural spring that once provided clear mountain water for Boca beer can still be found above the freeway opposite the old brewery site.
In 1996 the U.S. Forest Service opened a one-quarter mile interpretive trail through what was Boca. The trail leads up the hill to the east of the reservoir to a cemetery where some of Boca’s long forgotten citizens are buried in the old cemetery.
With the completion of the transcontinental railroad, there was a demand for enormous quantities of timber for trestles, ties, buildings, as well as fuel for wood burning locomotives and woodstoves. Even greater was the demand for clear, cold mountain ice.
At Boca, winter temperatures frequently dropped to 15 and 20 below zero, making it natural for the commercial ice cutting trade.
Realizing the potential for huge profits, wealthy investors built numerous sawmills and ice companies throughout the area. Hence, the first settlers came to Boca in1868 when the Boca Mill and Ice Company commenced operations.
According to Union Ice Company annual reports provided by historian Tom Macaulay, Edward W. Hopkins, nephew of Mark Hopkins, bought into the Summit Ice Company at Prosser Creek which he combined with the Boca Mill Ice Company to create the Sierra Lakes Ice Company in 1878.
Due to the furious competition between the various ice companies, they decided to combine their operations and, in 1881, they formed Union Ice Company. Lloyd Tevis of Wells Fargo Bank was named president and Edward W. Hopkins was appointed vice president. In 1891, the company officially incorporated as The Union Ice Company, Inc.
Tevis and Hopkins made arrangements to supply Boca ice for the countless railroad boxcars headed for markets both east and west. With ice from Boca, fresh California produce could be shipped anywhere in the country.
Within a few years the growing town had added a sawmill, a telegraph office, a shingle house, a schoolhouse, a hotel, a general store and by 1876 completed construction of the huge Boca Brewing Company. As many as 300 workers were employed in Boca’s various industries. The town even had its own post office that remained in business until 1945.
A dam was built on the Little Truckee creating a millpond area of 180 acres. This was used for summer storage of logs and in winter as an ice harvest field.
There were six monstrous icehouses in Boca, each capable of storing thousands of tons of ice. The ice was cut from the millpond, floated 200 yards down the canal and skidded on a tramway to where it was packed in sawdust and stored year-round.
It took about 4,000 tons of ice to keep the storage cellars cool in late July. It was reported that the company had ample facilities for storing enough ice in a single winter to supply California for a dozen years.
By 1872, Boca was shipping more ice, wood, and shingles to points east and west than any other point between San Francisco and Omaha. The town even had its own short line railroad to the lumber mill in Loyalton.
In its heyday, Boca’s brewery produced 30,000 barrels of beer each year. The brewery was located across the river from the mill and ice plant where today’s Interstate Highway 80 now crosses over the site.
Boca, being one of the coldest places in the country in winter, had five cold springs and unlimited ice that could be harvested and stored for use for over a year, ideal for a brewery site.
Boca Beer was sold worldwide and gained fame due to brewing with natural spring water and ice. It became a popular drink at the 1883 World’s Fair in Paris, France.
On a cold January evening in 1893, the Boca Brewery burned to the ground marking the end of one of the country’s most popular beers.
By the turn of the century, man-made ice began to replace natural ice and the Boca Ice Company ceased operations. At the same time, every tree near Boca had all been harvested without regard to conservation, forcing the timber industry to close down.
Boca’s last ice harvest took place in the mid 1920s when Union Ice Company constructed its refrigeration plant on west 4th Street in Reno. The old building is the current home of Glacier Ice Company.
In 1904, fire destroyed the hotel and what was left of the town was demolished when Boca Dam was built in 1939.
Today there isn’t much left of the remains of the old town of Boca except some concrete foundations from a few of the old icehouses near the railroad tracks. Other remains can be seen near the foot of the Boca dam and beneath Boca Reservoir whenever the water level is low.
A trickling natural spring that once provided clear mountain water for Boca beer can still be found above the freeway opposite the old brewery site.
In 1996 the U.S. Forest Service opened a one-quarter mile interpretive trail through what was Boca. The trail leads up the hill to the east of the reservoir to a cemetery where some of Boca’s long forgotten citizens are buried in the old cemetery.
