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From elivermore.com:
In this area when you hear the word "Altamont" the first thing
that comes to mind is windmills. Other thoughts are of the Altamont
Pass, a major corridor to the central valley. The way to get to
Tahoe, Yosemite, and the path to I-5 to Sacramento and Los Angeles.
In recent years a major commuter route, as the "Bay Area" expands
to Tracy and beyond. It is also the path of the original
transcontinental railroad, as is Livermore, Pleasanton, Sunol, and
Niles Canyon. There are currently no tracks on the transcontinental
right of way through the Altamont, but it can still be seen,
especially from the ACE Train, which takes the Union Pacific tracks
that roughly parallel the transcontinental railroad right of way.
If you ever get a chance to take the Ace Train through the
Altamont, it is worth the trip. The train stops in Tracy and
Lathrop. The drive on Altamont Pass Road (instead of 580) is also
well worth it for the scenery.
Outside of this area, Altamont is famous for its wind power, but
is probably more famous for the Altamont Concert, held on December
6, 1969. It is not fondly remembered. It is always at or near the
top of the list of Rock and Roll Tragedies and referred to as "The
Day the 60s Died". It is for this that Altamont is chronicled in
several film documentaries, and in the song "American Pie" by Don
McLean. The following very brief description of the concert is
based on a variety of sources on the web, and reviews of the
documentary "Gimme Shelter'.
The Altamont Concert was set up by the Rolling Stones as a free
concert at the end of their very successful North American tour,
attempting to be "Woodstock West". The Stones had not played at
Woodstock. The concert was originally slated for San Francisco's
Golden Gate Park, but moved to Sears Point when it was realized
that the attendance would be too large. It moved again to the site
of the Altamont Speedway, with the speedway being contacted less
than 24 hours before the concert. 100,000 people were expected.
About 300,000 showed up. In addition to the Rolling Stones, there
were performances by Santana, Tina Turner, Jefferson Airplane, The
Flying Burrito Brothers, and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. The
Rolling Stones were the final act.
There was a lot of violence at the concert, caused by very poor
planning, overcrowding, the security situation, and other factors.
About 850 people were hurt, and an 18 year old man was beaten and
stabbed to death in the front row as the Stones played. Three other
people died, but this was afterwards, and not of violence. Two men
were run over by a car as they slept in sleeping bags in a field.
Many people spent the night in the surrounding fields and cars were
everywhere. Another person drowned in the California Aqueduct. The
Altamont concert is seen as the end of the 60's culture. Everything
that Woodstock was, or appeared to be earlier that same year,
Altamont was not.
The documentary movie "Gimme Shelter" is mainly about the
Altamont concert, but also chronicles other parts of the Rolling
Stones tour. It was being filmed at the time with the cooperation
of the Rolling Stones. The song "New Speedway Boogie" was written
and performed by the Grateful Dead shortly after the concert.
In 1999 there was a hand painted sign along 580 approaching
Tracy going east that seemed to be trying to drum up support for a
30 year anniversary concert. It never happened, as this is an event
that people did not want to remember, let alone repeat. The
Altamont Concert is often referred to as being "in Livermore." The
Altamont speedway is in Alameda county (just barely), and the area
has a Livermore address and zip code. The telephone numbers in the
area are also Livermore exchanges, which means they are served by
the Livermore switch. The Speedway is about 7 miles from the
Livermore city boundary, and about the same from Tracy. |
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The Altamont
Raceway is now very active, with races every weekends. Their
web site does not make mention of the concert. It does state that
the track has been in existence since the 1930s, and changed to its
current configuration in 1963. The current owners bought it in 1994
and brought back a full season of racing. It can be seen from the
freeway when driving through the Altamont pass on 580 just as 580
and 205 split, on the south side. It has gone major reconstruction
in 2006 and will soon feature various professional races including
NASCAR.
On a personal note, my husband is an avid racefan and we plan to
participate in next year's 24 hours of LeMons , an
endurance race with cars that cost less than 500$. We almost
participated this year, but it took a lot of time to get the safety
requirements in check. Obviously safety is the most important
factor in these kind of endurance races. Anyway, maybe you can come
see and support us next year.
Cache is an easy to find 35mm film cannister. My main purpose is
to bring you to this location. You do not need to enter the Motor
Park to retrieve the cache. Permission was granted from Altamont
Motorsports Park to place the cache. |