[Home Movies: Wathen Collection: “Frisco Fair / Pacific Northwest”, 1939-1940]

This home movie captures various locations and events from the late 1930s and early 1940s, including scenic drives and cultural highlights. The film starts with logging trucks on the Redwood Highway in Northern California and Oregon, featuring large redwood trees, a car driving through a cutout tree, and chainsaw sculptures. The journey moves through Gold Beach, Oregon, and hop fields near Salem, showing the Oregon State Capitol and a black bear in a tree.

The film documents a forest fire from a distance before showcasing the “Smallest Catholic Church” and the coastline at Cape San Sebastian State Park. Scenic drives along the Redwood Highway follow, with dark shots of towering redwood trees and views of McCoy Creek Bridge. There are more chainsaw sculptures, including a bear and a bull, and a visit to the Italian Swiss Colony vineyard in California.

The movie concludes with footage from the 1940 Golden Gate International Exposition in San Francisco. It includes shots of the fairgrounds, flowers, fountains, and marchers from the Mexican community, as well as views of the iconic “Tower of the Sun.” The final scenes show a woman named “Claudia” riding in a covered wagon and a visit to the Treasure Island Women’s Club.

We digitized and uploaded this film from the Prelinger Archive. Email us at footage@avgeeks.com if you have questions about the footage and are interested in using it in your project.