Dunsmuir, California, has persisted as a vibrant magnet for business and visitors primarily because of its unique location as a transportation corridor including the railroad and the Interstate-5 freeway. The railroad provided infrastructure and jobs at a time when the West was a wild place, and it continued to contribute to the community over the decades. The freeway provides easy access for residents and visitors.

It’s location astride the Sacramento River at the base of majestic Mt. Shasta provides recreation and easy access to our natural environment, enriching the lives of the community and the numerous visitors to our waterfalls and historic downtown.

Within Siskiyou County, Dunsmuir is unique as a city, founded and formed by the railroad with streets and sidewalks unlike the mill towns with a more rural character. It was a major railroad hub for the Southern Pacific Railroad and was at one time the largest city north of Sacramento. The town was established in 1887 and was originally named Cedar Flats. The SP railroad built a roundhouse where steam engines were serviced, and additional engines were connected to freight trains to push the trains up the steep grades north of the area.

The refurbishment of the historic SP Engine #1727, which sits at the entrance of our Dunsmuir City Park and across the street from the I-5 freeway, aims to revive the noble locomotive, establish it as a significant exhibit of rail history and provide a place family friendly and fun for visitors to enjoy viewing the monument and learning about its history. The #1727 was gifted to the City of Dunsmuir by Southern Pacific Railroad in1950.

Through generous gifts and the tireless work of volunteers, the engine and tender have been cleaned, primed, painted and re-lettered, and a new, attractive fence installed. Electricity has been brought to the locomotive exhibit and security lighting installed. Detail items like the headlight, indicator number lights and classification lights are being refurbished and will be lit after dark. Items which had disappeared over the years, such as the whistle and other detail items have been donated to make the locomotive complete. Complementing the 1727, a double-mount union switch and signal lower-quadrant semaphore at the exhibit site has been refurbished as well and will be lit at night and fully functional.