Silver Archive #4 - By One Bolt

The Old Sugar Mill, where this photo was taken, is located in Clarksburg approximately 10 minutes south of Sacramento.  In the 1920s the New Holland Land Company began subdividing the tracts in the area and formally established Clarksburg. The Old Sugar Mill was originally owned by the Amalgamated Sugar Company which was founded in 1897 in Logan Utah. Due to blight and drought, only four of Amalgamated sugar factories operated in 1931. One of those factories, “The Smithfield” Utah factory, closed permanently in 1933 and moved to Clarksburg California. The factory was brought to Clarksburg piece by piece via railroad. The factory in Clarksburg began its operation on July 31, 1935. Amalgamated sold the Clarksburg factory to American Crystal Sugar Company in 1936.  The American Crystal Sugar Company sold the Clarksburg plant in 1982 to the Delta Sugar Company.  The Delta Sugar plant closed in 1993. Today the facility is mostly renovated and houses approximately 10 wineries, and is a popular destination on the Sacramento Delta

In 2003, the owner of The Darkroom, a rental darkroom facility in Sacramento, was able to provide access to the Old Sugar Mill building in Clarksburg, for a Photo Workshop. I was invited to be an assistant in putting on this workshop.  At that time, much of the old equipment, tanks, gauges etc... were still present, and only the warehouse had been renovated.  This scene, of a cover plate hanging on it flange, was found at the top floor of the building. I clambered up rickety metal steps and scaffolding until I reached this spot. The sun was beginning to set in the west and blasted its light on to the tank. The white cover just glowed against the rusty tank,  I had packed my 8x10 Kodak Master View up the steps, I was hell bent to get this photograph. I used my 10 3/4" Golden Dagor and all the elements of the image where perfectly in frame.

At that time I was still able to get Kodak Azo printing paper. Azo is a very slow, Silver Chloride paper that is used for contact printing - the negative is in contact with the paper, and then exposed using a very bright light. It has some very unique properties and is a very popular paper for those that wish to make prints the same size as their negatives. If I recall correctly, this image was made on Grade 3 paper - which is more contrasty than Grade 2 (the only other grade available at that time).

I am pretty happy with this image, and even 13 years later it is still one of my favorites...