A moment in time was captured 105 years ago by a early photographer equipped with a motorized camera with its wide-angle lens to shoot a dairy farm operation on South Union Road just north of present day Wawona Avenue.The photo for years hung on the wall of Lucca’s Bar on Oak Street just south of downtown Manteca across the railroad tracks.Manteca had a population of about 300 people when the picture was snapped in 1913, a vast increase in the number of residents in the town site in 1910 when it had a population of some 80 folks.Longtime rural South Manteca dairy farmer Arnold Rothlin had kept on eye on the photograph for years asking to buy it but it was not for sale. Then the drinking establishment changed hands and he was able to buy the photograph for $50. Now he wouldn’t part with it for 10 times that amount, he said.The farm was located just north of Wawona Street on the west side of Union Road.
Snapshot in time: Mantecas sandy plains recalled