The Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture is all-volunteer run and depends on contributions from friends and supporters in order to accomplish the ambitious number of projects we have going on. You can help out by volunteering time at our site, donating needed equipment, tools or other materials, or with a financial donation. We have already received a great deal of community support and many specific contributions - both from people in and around Weed and Black Butte and from others much further away.

We are in need of both people who can stay for multiple days and get involved with major projects - carpentry, plumbing and electrical work, railroad car restoration work, sign/other painting and artwork, forest restoration (including trails, tree planting/ limbing/fuel reduction/non-native invasives removal, etc.), as well as people able to help out for just a few hours or a day - helping with brush removal, painting, trash clean-up, meals, organizing recycling runs, and many other tasks. Musicians are welcome as we have regular acoustic music jam nights. We also are moving towards hosting traveling bands for shows several times per year. Note, however, that we will have relatively little activity at Black Butte during the Winter months. It is likely that we will need a lot of help by late Spring 2009 for work on our recently acquired boxcar and reefer as well as other projects. We may try to organize a work party or two in late Spring and early Summer.

While our needs in this regard are constantly changing, we are especially in need of:

Woodworking tools and equipment
Used but decent 3 1/2" tongue and groove flooring boards, painted and unpainted
Other cut lumber of various sizes and shapes
Cutting torch and welding equipment
Working solar panels and related gear
Railroad lanterns, signs, etc.
Firewood for caretaker's shack for the winter
Books and 'zines on railroad workers, unions, boomers, hobos and tramps, the Southern Pacific, McCloud River, Siskiyou Line, ecology of the Mt. Shasta region, etc.

In taking on the boxcar and reefer project we have bit off a lot and we are asking for donations to help with the move of the cars to the site (we still owe the crane company a second payment) as well as other running costs at our site. We are looking into grant possibilities to help with the restoration of our cars and the development of an arts/resource center/info shop. However, we are mainly dependent on individual contributions from our community of supporters both locally and across the country. We realize these are tough times for many people and getting involved here certainly does not require giving money. However, if you can, or if you know someone you can that you can steer our way, that would be greatly appreciated. For the moment the best way to donate is to send a check made out to "BBCRC" to our address at:

800 Black Butte Road Weed, CA 96094

We now have a Paypal account where you can just donate electronically - just send funds to "donations@ bbcrc.org". All donations to the BBCRC are tax-deductible.

Thanks for your help!