Weimar's history trails from vineyards to health care centers

In the late 1800s, Weimar was known for its recuperative care center. More than a century later, it still is.Now home to the Weimar Institute of Health and Education, the community is rooted in agriculture. While the transient residents of neighboring mining camps focused their efforts on harvesting gold, men like George Giesendorfer were concentrating on reaping food crops.He, his wife and family settled in the territory that would become Weimar in 1850, planting vineyards in the undulating divide between the North Fork of the American River and the Bear River. A vintner by profession, Giesendorfer established a winery there, producing wine and brandy, that quickly became a magnet for social events. The old bottling plant stood until 1956 when it was demolished to make way for Interstate 80.Giesendorfer was an educated man who wanted his children to have the same opportunity for learning. Determined to make the best life possible for his seven children, he constructed a sawmill to manufacture lumber for a school house.The New England Mills School opened its doors in 1870 and within 11 years there were 68 students at-tending class there, led by a solitary instructor. In the 1920s, the original one-room schoolhouse was replaced by a more modern two-room structure that served area children until 1960.The steam-powered circular-saw mill had the capacity to produce 1.2 million board feet of wood annu-ally for the lumber, lath and shingles needed for the growing number of settlers to build homes, barns and stores. It also provided materials for the ditch companies to erect and repair the miles of elevated wood flumes that transported water from high-country reservoirs to mining camps in the lower elevations.Like most villages, the burgeoning town took on the name of a common landmark ? the lumber yard ? and became known as New England Mills. The villagers? mail was delivered to Colfax, then brought to each home in the back of the butcher?s wagon that made its rounds three times each week. In 1885, the citizens petitioned for a local post office but were told the name was too long. A decision was made to rename the community for ?Wemah?, a respected Native American elder. With many German immigrants in the region, the eventual spelling of Weimar could be tied to the city of the same name in Germany; the birthplace of Johann Wolfgang Goethe, a noted German poet and dramatist.With its new, shorter moniker, the community got its post office, which was housed in Mary Harris Mitchell?s general store. Years later, she added another store building and warehouse, with a telegraph and ticket office for the Southern Pacific Railroad situated at one end and the postal station and market at the other.With the train tracks stitched like a zipper through its pine, fir and cedar forests ? and wedged between the paths leading to Grass Valley, Marysville, Colfax and Foresthill ? Weimar was snagged in the middle of a tangle of crossroads, keeping it busy with foot, pack and rail traffic. And, it received its share of tourists.Sitting above the unctuous skies and polluted waterways of the Sacramento delta at about the 2,250 foot elevation ? but below the winter blizzards blowing across the crest of the Sierra Nevada ? Weimar?s clean air and pure water were discovered and touted as ideal conditions for recuperating from respiratory ailments.In 1907, local physician Dr. Robert A. Peers opened the Colfax School for the Tuberculous near Weimar. He started with just eight beds but expanded the facility as the waiting list of patients needing care lengthened. Dr. Peers? growing reputation for successful treatments attracted attention from all over the Western U.S.By 1924, the hospital had grown into a complex with six units and 180 beds ? the largest center of its kind in the nation. More units followed, with one facility ? the Weimar Joint Sanitorium, which was funded jointly by 15 counties ? surviving into the middle of the century.Constructed circa 1919 as a tuberculosis treatment hospital, the center eventually transformed into a medical clinic. After the Vietnam War, it was used unofficially dubbed ?Hope Village? and used as a shelter for refugees.Today, the site is home to the Weimar Institute and its New Start health program. The 457-acre complex houses a private high school and college campus, the Weimar Inn ? a low-key lodge for rest and passive recreation ? a vegan cafeteria, market and bakery, where the emphasis is on the health and nutrition tenets of the Seventh-Day Adventist sect. The mountainous tract also holds a web of hiking trails that are open to the public, with maps available at the Weimar Institute?s welcome center. But with names like Cardiac Hill, Fire Bowl and the Mountain Misery Trail, guests can expect a challenging work out.Most of Weimar?s oldest commercial structures were razed during the construction of Interstate 80. Now, the community is comprised of country homes spread across acreage, with just a short row of com-mercial buildings, the institute, a fire station and the contemporary Weimar Hills School for sixth- through eighth-grade students at its core.With aerie home sites above the river canyons, deep vales and shaded dales, Weimar still offers a peaceful place to get some R&R.