US Route 395 is dotted with historical landmarks and on this trip south, we decided to take two days and see some amazing sights.
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| We were forced to take a detour heading south because of the Carter Springs Fire, which has grown to more than 2,000 acres, in the Pine
Nut Mountains. |
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| Our first stop was in Bridgeport at the Mono County Museum, located in the original Bridgeport Elementary School (1880). The entire town is rich in history. |
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| This was the 1881 home of James Stuart Cain (a man who went to Bodie at the age of 25 looking to make his fortune in business. He built an empire one piece at a time). |
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| We came here two decades ago and have been trying to get back since then. Bodie State Historic Park is a genuine California gold-mining ghost
town. Being a visitor allows you to walk down the deserted streets of a town that once
had a population of nearly 10,000 people. It is named for Waterman
S. Body (William Bodey), who had discovered small amounts of gold. In 1875, a mine cave-in revealed pay dirt,
which led to purchase of the mine by the Standard Company in 1877.
People flocked to Bodie and transformed it from a town of a few dozen to
a boomtown.
By 1879, Bodie had around 2,000 buildings and was possibly California's second or third largest city. |
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| When the mines dried up, the people left. To wander through town and peer into the windows is unbelievable. The residents simply left, leaving their belongings behind. |
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| In its boom, Bodie was an incredible, vibrant town. Today, less than 10% of its buildings survive but what remains paints a pretty accurate picture of life in this thriving mining camp. |
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| Tonight we sleep in history at the Dow Hotel, built in the early 1920s. Even then Hollywood was looking for movie
locations where there was a variety of scenery. Where better than the Owens Valley,
with its snow-capped Sierra, its ancient Alabama Hills, its deserts and mountain lakes
and streams. And when they came on location, they needed lodging. Mr. Walter Dow, a
Lone Pine resident, could see ahead and knew what it could mean to the valley to have the
big movie business, so he built the Dow Hotel.
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In its day, it hosted countless producers, directors and stars. To name a few of the stars, John Wayne,
William Boyd, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, Pat Buttrum, Stewart Granger, Errol Flynn,
Robert Mitchum and Clayton Moore.
What a day of discovery!
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1 comments:
Love it! I went to Bodie on a family trip with Jessica's family. It was fun. We both stole something (a pebble or something) but there is a story about people who take stuff from there and have terrible luck for the rest of their lives and so we both couldn't go through with it and threw it out the window. Ah, to be young...
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