From: Steve Bailey February 22, 2008

It's great that the mountain is getting the much needed precipitation this year. It also seems you are getting your share of snow also.   Here are some photos of the big 1949 snow. I'm not sure what the final total was but it was around 4 feet. These pictures were taken at the end of Bailey Meadow Road, around the Bailey homestead which was also the Post Office in those days.

Yes, that's me standing on the snow pile and at the end of the road. The picture in front of the house is my grandmother Adalind, my mother Jeanne and my sister Stephanie Bailey. The other picture in front of the Post Office is Adalind and my sister Stephanie. Boy were we young then. How long do you think it took that pile of snow to melt at the end of the road?   A long, long time I'll bet.

Steve Bailey

From: Robert Gonsett
Them there '49 snow photos might really be from '49 based on the old-timey electric power pole,
but were them photos colorized? Most photos were black & white back then.

From: Steve Bailey
Those color photos came from color slides that my dad took. He used to have an Argus C-3 camera that he took pictures with. I took the color slides and scanned them into digital format. I believe that the 1949 snow was one of the largest snows on record for the mountain.

From: Robert Gonsett
Thank you for the background information on the Palomar pictures. Let's see, Kodachrome, Ektachrome and even Kodacolor should have been available in the late 40s, so I'll bet one of those films was used. (Some B&W pictures from that era were later hand colored, but you are fortunate to have genuine color slides.) The Argus C-3 was a very popular camera -- also known as "the brick" by many.  In any event, those are terrific photos.  Thanks for sharing.   Bob Gonsett, Fallbrook