Calif. Mtn. Safeway Location?

Uh...California.

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storewanderer
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Re: Calif. Mtn. Safeway Location?

Post by storewanderer »

Let's contact Stranger to ask if he has the file somewhere.
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TiManny
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Re: Calif. Mtn. Safeway Location?

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Are we absolutely sure this location was in California? There don't seem to be any areas in California that have the right terrain with a grocery building with a dock on the left front side. The Jensen's in Wrightwood has a left front dock, but was never a Safeway, and looks more gabled. I even wondered if it was the current Crestline post office building; the post office didn't move there until 1986, and there are buildings to the left in a similar shape as those in the Safeway photo. But Historic Aerials show the building in the same configuration in the 70s, with a roofline that looks piecemeal along with an annex jutting out where the dock would have been. Plus the building looks like it has wooden walls which the Safeway doesn't have. There are left dock Safeways near Tahoe, but if it was one of those, the lake would be in the picture, because the stores are that close to the lake. And unless it burned down, I doubt the building was torn down.
Old_Dragon
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Re: Calif. Mtn. Safeway Location?

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TiManny asked a valid question. Here is what I am working with.
- Memory, but after 40+ years this is suspect
- The photos themselves. The panorama shot in question is one of a set of 21 slides developed in January 1978
- The panorama shot (#19) plus two others #17 and #18 (front and rear of a house/cabin respectively) are sandwiched between two well defined activities
- Image #16 was taken at the end of a Christmas 1977 ski trip to Mammoth Lakes. The shot captures my vehicle, chains, ski rack, etc with Mammoth Mtn in the background and major snow on the road and in the areas in the photo. No ambiguity as to location.
- Image #20 was taken from the passenger side of a vehicle heading north in Colorado towards Steamboat Springs in very snowy conditions. My roommate at the time in question had flown home to his family’s house in metro Denver to celebrate Christmas and to take delivery of a new car. Post Christmas week I flew to Denver to accompany him on the drive back to LA. He picked me up at Stapleton. We may have spent the night at his family’s home or headed directly back to LA by way of Steamboat? In any event its extremely unlikely that we would have rented a house/cabin for one night - given the proximity of Steamboat to Denver and the availability of his family’s house for lodging.
- The photos which follow the slide box in question capture our arrival in Steamboat Springs. No ambiguity as to location and again very snowy conditions.

The terrain in the panorama shot strikes me more likely to be California versus Colorado. In Colorado one can “generally” find a grove of Aspens somewhere in the terrain but I am not seeing anything of this sort in the photo. Likewise the absence of any significant snow in the two building photos and the panorama leads me to believe that #17, #18 and #19 are unrelated to either of the two bracketing events. I’m still strongly leaning to somewhere local to LA .
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storewanderer
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Re: Calif. Mtn. Safeway Location?

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Thinking Idaho Springs, CO may be it... tough as there is now an Interstate highway behind the store. Terrain likely modified.

Yet another non-Lifestyle store in Denver Division... (recently given a cheap remodel to the Florida decor).
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TiManny
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Re: Calif. Mtn. Safeway Location?

Post by TiManny »

storewanderer wrote: 03 Oct 2022 01:29 Thinking Idaho Springs, CO may be it... tough as there is now an Interstate highway behind the store. Terrain likely modified.

Yet another non-Lifestyle store in Denver Division... (recently given a cheap remodel to the Florida decor).

I looked at Idaho Springs. It looks right, except the portion of I-70 behind the store was built in 1961, and there is no freeway visible in the photographs. I-70 does dip low behind the store, so it could just be not visible in the pictures.
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storewanderer
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Re: Calif. Mtn. Safeway Location?

Post by storewanderer »

TiManny wrote: 04 Oct 2022 18:43
storewanderer wrote: 03 Oct 2022 01:29 Thinking Idaho Springs, CO may be it... tough as there is now an Interstate highway behind the store. Terrain likely modified.

Yet another non-Lifestyle store in Denver Division... (recently given a cheap remodel to the Florida decor).

I looked at Idaho Springs. It looks right, except the portion of I-70 behind the store was built in 1961, and there is no freeway visible in the photographs. I-70 does dip low behind the store, so it could just be not visible in the pictures.
It sure doesn't look like there could possibly be an interstate highway behind the store. But thinking of the I-80 between Truckee and Colfax I could see how it may be hidden if you are looking at it from not too far away... like an offramp at Gold Run (West bound rest stop specifically), Dutch Flat, Nyack where you exit to a roadside rest stop or gas station right at the offramp and you don't even know the I-80 is right there based on sight, so it is possible. Still, I think the search continues...
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Re: Calif. Mtn. Safeway Location?

Post by Old_Dragon »

Appreciate the continued interest. I’ll admit the the Safeway structure in Idaho Springs looks like a promising match. Unfortunately I just cannot make the geography nor travel experience work. If the panorama shot was taken in that area it should contain a ton of snow as the following photos exhibit such a feature. Along this line I removed the film from the respective frames and observed 1) the film numbers 16 - 20 are consistent and 2) the cuts in the film strip appear to align correctly. On the off chance that the film developer somehow mixed up my photos with someone else’s (unlikely) I wanted to check. As of today I have not contacted Stranger to see if its possible to get another copy of the map posted somewhere.
TiManny
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Re: Calif. Mtn. Safeway Location?

Post by TiManny »

It might be a location that was redeveloped to the point where it's unrecognizable today. That wouldn't be uncommon for LA. There was a Lucky in Burbank down the street from the old NBC studios that was torn down and redeveloped into entertainment company high rises decades ago. You'd never know there was ever a Lucky in that spot, it's completely unrecognizable.
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Re: Calif. Mtn. Safeway Location?

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I saw a couple of folks in this thread messaged me about the 1976 Safeway map (which I scanned back in my college years at UC Davis, as it was in their library). Not sure if it is anywhere, multiple moves and computers and years later.
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Re: Calif. Mtn. Safeway Location?

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Early on in this process I asked my local library if they could locate a copy of the map TheStranger identified through the inter-library loan program. Unfortunately they were unsuccessful. Hence my inquiry to TheStranger as to its possible location. So, at the moment I’ll continue to look for likely California possibilities. I’ve also expanded my search to Colorado to include candidate routes from Denver to Steamboat Springs but have come up empty so far. Geography to include visible mountains, roads and potential elevations for the camera location are a primary consideration and so far I have not found any good candidates. TNX
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Re: Calif. Mtn. Safeway Location?

Post by Jason B. »

A little known resource is the digital photo collection of aerial photos at U.C. Santa Barbara. See: https://mil.library.ucsb.edu/

It takes some work to find the aerial photos, but it's amazing what you can find from your own computer terminal without visiting the U.C. Santa Barbara campus.

Another resource is www.historicaerials.com

I'm sure that someone will resolve the mystery of the location of this photo in due time.
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