Oroville California-1938: Car Driving On Road About To Pass Through A Tunnel

$149 · CommercialDirect license: commercial and editorial use. $149 flat from Stockfilm. Royalty-free worldwide license for commercial and editorial use, delivered as the restored 4K master.

Year1938
Decade1930s
LocationOroville, California, United States
Duration6s
Price$149 USD
Collection1938 Oroville California

$149 · CommercialDirect license: commercial and editorial use

$149 USD flat · royalty-free worldwide · 4K restored master (MP4)

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Stockfilm licenses the rights identified in the applicable agreement. Additional use-specific review may be required. See the Licensing Guide and Archive Integrity.

Car Driving On Road About To Pass Through A Tunnel — Clip Details

Shot on 8mm film in 1938, this vintage home movie captures a car driving along a winding mountain road toward a stone tunnel in Oroville, California. The footage, rendered in a distinctive purple-blue tint, shows the road approaching the dark tunnel entrance carved into rocky terrain. The camera moves steadily forward, creating a sense of anticipation as the vehicle nears the tunnel. The scene evokes mid-20th century Americana, with visible film grain and the characteristic look of early home movie footage. This archival clip offers a nostalgic glimpse of historic transportation and road infrastructure.

Licensing & Technical Details

Original Format: 8mm / Super 8 Home Movie
Resolution: 4K restored master (MP4)
License: Direct license: commercial and editorial use
Delivery: Instant Digital Download
Duration: 6s
Price: $149 USD
Clip ID: 127264176

Rights & Clearance

$149 · Commercial Direct license: commercial and editorial use. $149 flat from Stockfilm. Royalty-free worldwide license for commercial and editorial use, delivered as the restored 4K master.

No recognizable people, logos, or music are flagged. Lower-risk for commercial use, subject to your own review.

People visible: No
Logos / trademarks: No
Audible music: No

Flags come from automated catalog metadata, not a legal opinion. The source is an original 8mm / Super 8 Home Movie reel. For high-stakes commercial use, request a full rights review.

Source & Documentation

Source reel: Reel 1153 · 8mm · 5″ reel
Original reel label: bucks lake,lake tahoe,emerald bay,martins lodge
Reel-level year note: 1938
Reel-level location note: california
Date: 1938 Estimated (Catalog estimate from the footage and file metadata; not independently confirmed.)
Date evidence: Catalog estimate. A reel-level note shows the same year, but the clip-to-reel link is itself a catalog match, so this is not counted as independent confirmation.
Location: Oroville, California, United States Estimated (Catalog estimate from the footage and file metadata; not independently confirmed.)
Location evidence: Catalog estimate. A reel-level location note is linked, but the clip-to-reel link is itself a catalog match, so this is not counted as independent confirmation.
Licensing route: Direct license available from Stockfilm

Confidence labels are defined on Archive Integrity. Fields without a recorded value are shown as not recorded rather than assumed.

View source reel context Open Clip Documentation Record Request source information

Topics & Keywords

Archive Intelligence

Archive brief fit: Supports 1930s transportation, road travel, and California infrastructure requests for documentary inserts, educational timelines, or period travel sequences.
Period detail: The frames show an older two-lane mountain road, stone tunnel portal, rocky cut slopes, and a purple-blue 8mm home-movie look consistent with the 1938 metadata.
Home-movie behavior: The forward-moving viewpoint suggests a traveler filming from inside or near a moving car as it approaches the tunnel, giving the scene an unstaged road-trip perspective.
What appears in frame: Visible elements include a paved mountain road, center line, dark tunnel entrance, stone or rock portal, rocky roadside walls, shadows, and film-frame borders.
Film character: The clip has visible 8mm grain, soft focus, exposure variation, gate edges, and a pronounced purple-blue cast that read as physical home-movie texture.
Edit role: An editor could use it as a brief travel insert, transition into a tunnel or mountain route, or memory beat for prewar California road footage.
Historical context: The scene visually documents automobile travel through a mountain road tunnel in Oroville, without showing identifiable people, brands, or specific named landmarks beyond the metadata location.
Research note: No people, logos, or audible music are indicated, but copyright, location identification, and any roadway or property permissions should still be reviewed for the intended use.
Research search match: Likely search matches include 1938 8mm Oroville road tunnel, California mountain driving home movie, vintage car travel tunnel footage, and prewar road infrastructure.
Archive pairing path: Pair first with same-reel travel footage, then other 1938 Oroville or California road scenes, then broader vintage automobile and tunnel approach material.

Still Frames From This Clip

1938 Oroville, California home-movie frame showing a paved mountain road approaching a stone or rock tunnel entrance. — A road curves through rocky terrain toward a tunnel entrance.

Forward-moving 8mm view in Oroville showing the road closing in on a dark tunnel portal in rocky terrain. — The camera nears the arched tunnel entrance along the mountain road.

1938 home-movie frame with a closer view of the Oroville road tunnel, showing the dark arch and rocky roadside walls. — The vehicle approaches the dark tunnel opening at close range.

Close 8mm frame from Oroville showing the road entering a dark arched tunnel with rock and stone texture around the portal. — The tunnel entrance fills most of the frame as the road reaches the arch.

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