Haven't been from Reno to Truckee lately, have you? They tore down the original and built a new one last year. All traffic lanes (including autos) on I80 go through it. It's beautiful and larger. My guess is it cost >$15 million.
I was close:
0670103 Department of Food & Agriculture 13,906,598.00
SPWB Lease Revenue Bonds
Truckee Inspection Station –
Relocate Truckee Inspection Facility
http://www.treasurer.ca.gov/pmia-laif/pmib-agenda/20070221.pdf
A part of California history, during the dust bowl years
you had to have a certain amount of cash in order to enter the state, these inspection stations are a remnant.
Woodie Guthrie sang about it in , “Dough re mi.”
Lots of folks back East, they say, is leavin’ home every day,
Beatin’ the hot old dusty way to the California line.
‘Cross the desert sands they roll, gettin’ out of that old dust bowl,
They think they’re goin’ to a sugar bowl, but here’s what they find —
Now, the police at the port of entry say,
“You’re number fourteen thousand for today.”
CHORUS:
Oh, if you ain’t got the do re mi, folks, you ain’t got the do re mi,
Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee.
California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see;
But believe it or not, you won’t find it so hot
If you ain’t got the do re mi.
You want to buy you a home or a farm, that can’t deal nobody harm,
Or take your vacation by the mountains or sea.
Don’t swap your old cow for a car, you better stay right where you are,
Better take this little tip from me.
‘Cause I look through the want ads every day
But the headlines on the papers always say:
If you ain’t got the do re mi, boys, you ain’t got the do re mi,
Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee.
California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see;
But believe it or not, you won’t find it so hot
If you ain’t got the do re mi.
Sometimes I think it would be a blessing if California just sank into the ocean.