56 years ago, Bill & Delberta Murphy had a vision to bring retired cabooses and box cars to this valley to form a museum…
… a vision that quickly shifted instead to a Dining Car and the west coast’s most unique lodging experience! After many years of use, these antique traincars were in need of some deep repair, and so between January and May 2025 we closed for renovations.
We are happy to now be open, and to be able to share more about our updates.
The Dining Car is actually eight separate railcars!
Before you enter the railcars, from the parking lot, you step onto an outdoor dining deck perched up on a bogie/under-carriage, atop of the tracks! The overhead beams and much of the trim has been replaced and everything has fresh paint.
Once you enter, to the right inside, you’ll find our newly updated Southern Pacific 602 car - equipped with a bench seat up in the pergola for “trainmen” to keep an eye ahead, and fold-out beds connected up to the ceiling in back for overnighting. In our renovations, we had to address some decay below the steps on the southern wall, and we were able to repurpose them into our new “to-go” counter, plus morning “espresso & smoothie station”! We have a photo from the old Dunsmuir train station, as well as the old ticket sign and vintage phone, (your kids can try it!) Plus, note the original bench from the downtown Dunsmuir Amtrak station touting the “Daylight to Dunsmuir”, and the 1986 photo of a boy watching that same train go by. We are lucky to also be able to display an original art piece from renowned folk artist Jimmy Lee Sudduth: “Peace Train”.
If you were to continue through the back door from the 602, you’d see the two train cars that make up our newly updated galley kitchen. This is the area where we had the most serious and long-deferred need for maintenance, and during these past winter months with the help of many local contractors (THANK YOU), we have replaced the roof, (including a white reflective liner for hot summer months), all the electrical, plumbing, floors, and we added a walk-in cooler for all our new ingredients from local farms! The chefs & kitchen team are reveling in the cleanliness, the working equipment, and the best possible environment to put some love into the food.
Through the other kitchen door out to the dining cars, you could enter the Club Car. (Your guest entrance is around the corner from the host stand.) This is an original luxury Pullman Club Car, which was known for having made trains into more of a luxury passenger experience. A hotel on wheels, where you could be served multi-course meals and wine while traveling the countryside. Note many vintage photos from the Dunsmuir region on the walls, as well as the original lighting fixtures, and the old water cooler near the door. Also of historical note: under the leadership of A. Philip Randolph, the “Pullman Porters”, who were hired to work these luxury cars before the 1960s, and were almost exclusively black men, formed the first all-black union, the “Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters”, which was instrumental in the advancement of the Civil Rights Movement! Today you can reserve our Club Car for your private special events,
As you enter the bar area, you see our new centerpiece bartop! A 16-foot wood bar made from a locally grown douglas fir tree, locally milled, and made for us by local craftsman Smokey Dowling from Fort Jones. We had to repair various floor-rot sections in the cars and so we have new fancy train car carpet, plus vintage wallpapers, and ... a piano! Also, take note of the original art by local Jubilee College cofounder, Pom Tuiimyali: “Big Foot in Spirit World” by the front door, “Wintu Paintbrushes” over the bar, and “Sawalmem Bee” in the 602 car. Plus we have many original artifacts including old brass steam pressure gauges, alongside sculpted salmon art, (ceramic by Molly Schulps and brass by David Andrews), celebrating this place which once grew the world’s most vigorous, large, salmon in the world! In fact our salmon were exported to rivers in 37 States and 14 countries before the Shasta dam construction, and today still flourish in the similarly clean glacial waters of New Zealand. Getting these wild salmon that kept our rivers healthy, back home to the McCloud River is a crucial goal for many of us!
Across from the bar, is an 1893 WELLS FARGO CAR. We added a flourish to the “S” to make it an “&” and then simply re-organized the letters to become the GO WELL & FAR CAR. While the bankers had their day, we are imagining new futures that work for everyone. On the front of the car, you can see Gandhi on a train. Once, (as the story goes), he was standing behind the railing at the back of a train when it lurched into motion and his shoe slipped off and onto the tracks. Those with him saw him immediately bend over to toss down his other shoe as well. When someone exclaimed “Why!?”, (after all shoes were expensive then), he only said, “Well what would a person do with only one?” Such automatic kindness is a great inspiration. And peruse the historic photos inside the traincar - imagination trains into new futures. May you all go well and go far!
Finally, the cars closest to the Castle Crags are the Great Northerns. (Fitting, as we do think this is the greatest, as well as the most northern part of California.) For more than 7,000 years this particular Dunsmuir valley has been a waystation place for travelers. (Still today we have the Sacramento River, the train, the I-5, and the Pacific Crest Trail passing through. And we like to picture this place like the bar on Star Wars with beings from every galaxy coming through to share stories and a pint!) Over thousands of years, people traveled a trail from California up through the Pacific Northwest and our valley was a place for rest and celebration - named “the place of strong waters”. Our “water wall” of art, shows how we are situated as a source-water place for California. Note the art from Christi Belcourt, and from Frank LaPena, who was Nomti Pom Wintu, the people who are original to this Valley. And while the wallpaper in these cars is new and lovely, the real beauty is through the windows! The Castle Crags, 175 million year old, jurassic-era (dinosaur-age) granite and crystal spires, are literally the eastern gateway into what’s considered a “biodiversity hotspot” & the “wildest place on the west coast”, with hundreds of species that are found nowhere else in the world.
The menu is updated too. While our price points are similar, we have shifted who we buy from. We have new relationships with local farmers, cider makers, dairy farmers and ranchers, honey producers, coffee roasters, cheese makers, brewers, bakers, craft soda merchants & many more! Our menu is now filled with regional, high quality, natural foods. Even our mineral water is made from carbonating our own spring water - the best water on Earth!=
Lastly, of course, our name has had an update too. Jubilee is a small College that operates today with short-form programs, and will open a two-year associates degree and residential program for 28 students in the next few years. We use the lens of water and fire to teach young people to become creative thinkers, contemplative practices to become compassionate for self and others, and a robust work-service & internship program to prepare them to meet the challenges of today with confidence and maturity. Our founders were approached by the former Lodge owners, (who wanted to retire), and after a year of discussion, were able to purchase the property in January 2024. With some expansion, we plan to operate both the College and the Lodge in this valley. Amongst its definitions, jubilee means joy, celebration, jubilation, and so we have added our joy into this long-loved 56-year-old railroad park.
We are glad to have you here.
