_EAST-SIDE MINING EXCITEMENT_
Frequently each summer, those who climb to the Sierra crest within the
Yosemite National Park come upon the remains of little “cities” near the
mountaintops. Because the story of these deserted towns, now within the
boundaries of the park is so interwoven with the story of Mono mining
affairs in general, this chapter will of necessity take some account of
the events of the Mono Basin, immediately east of Yosemite.
The first white men to visit the Mono country were undoubtedly the
American trappers, followed shortly afterward by the explorers and
immigrants. The first records of mineral finds in this region, however,
are those that pertain to Lieutenant Tredwell Moore’s Indian-fighting
expedition to the Yosemite in June, 1852 (see p. 46), which crossed the
Sierra at the northern Mono Pass and brought back samples of gold ore.
The miners who soon followed and, with a few others, continued to work
in the Mono region, were apparently unthought-of by their former
associates west of the Sierra.
John B. Trask, in his report on mines and mining in California, made to
the legislature of California in 1855, says: “In my report of last year,
it was stated that the placer ranges were at that time known to extend
nearly to the summit ridge of the mountains; but this year it has been
ascertained that they pass beyond the ridge and are now found on the
eastern declivity, having nearly the same altitude as those occurring on
the opposite side. Within the past season, many of these deposits have
been examined, and thus far are found to be equally productive with
those of similar ranges to the west, and, with a favorable season
ensuing, they will be largely occupied.” It is probable that Trask’s
statements were based on reports of the work done by Lee Vining’s party.
At any rate, in 1857 it became known among the miners of the Mother Lode
that rich deposits had been found at “Dogtown” and Monoville, and a rush
from the Tuolumne mines resulted. The Mono Trail from Big Oak Flat,
through Tamarack Flat, Tenaya Lake, Tuolumne Meadows, and Bloody Canyon,
following in general an old Indian route, was blazed at this time and
came into great use. The Sonora Pass route was used also, and it was
over this trail that the discoverer of the famous Bodie district, later
to become the center of all Mono mining, made his way.
It is not my purpose, however, to write the history of Mono County, or
even to make this a lengthy story of Mono mining camps. Rather would I
present a concise account of the origin of the relics found by Sierra
enthusiasts, and, incidentally, tell something about the astonishing
town of Bodie.
The name Tioga and the beautiful region which its mention suggests are
now familiar to thousands who annually drive over the route that bisects
Yosemite National Park. The original location of the mineral deposit now
known as the Tioga Mine was made in 1860. Consequently, it is here that
our present chronicle of Yosemite summit events should begin. In 1874,
William Brusky, a prospector, came upon a prospect hole, shovel, pick,
and an obliterated notice at this place. The notice indicated that the
mine had been located as “The Sheepherder” in 1860. It was presumed by
Brusky that the original locators were returning to Mariposa or Tuolumne
from Mono Diggings, Bodie, or Aurora when they made the find. He
flattered the claim by supposing that “the original locators probably
perished, as it is not likely that they would abandon so promising a
claim”; he relocated it as the “Sheepherder.”
In 1878, E. B. Burdick, Samuel Baker, and W. J. Bevan organized the
Tioga District. Most of the mines were owned by men of Sonora, although
some Eastern capital was interested. The district extended from King’s
Ranch, at the foot of Bloody Canyon, over the summit of the Sierra and
down the Tuolumne River to Lembert’s Soda Springs. It was eight miles in
extent from north to south. At one time there were 350 locations in the
district. Bennetville (now called Tioga) was headquarters for the Great
Sierra Mining Company offices, which concern was operating the old
Sheepherder as the “Tioga Mine.”
The company apparently suffered from no lack of funds, and operations
were launched on a grand scale. Great quantities of supplies and
equipment were packed into the camp at enormous expenditure of labor and
money. At first the place was accessible only via the Bloody Canyon
trail, and Mexican packers contracted to keep their pack animals active
on this spectacular mountain highway. A trail was then built from the
busy camp of Lundy, and that new route to Tioga proved most valuable.
The _Homer Mining Index_ of March 4, 1882, describes the packing of
heavy machinery up 4,000 feet of mountainside to Tioga in winter:
The transportation of 16,000 pounds of machinery across one of the
highest and most rugged branches of the Sierra Nevada mountains in
mid-winter, where no roads exist, over vast fields and huge
embankments of yielding snow and in the face of furious wind-storms
laden with drifting snow, and the mercury dancing attendance on zero,
is a task calculated to appall the sturdiest mountaineer; and yet J.
C. Kemp, manager of the Great Sierra Consolidated Silver Company of
Tioga, is now engaged in such an undertaking, and with every prospect
of perfect success at an early day—so complete has been the
arrangement of details and so intelligently directed is every
movement. The first ascent, from Mill Creek to the mouth of Lake
Canyon, is 990 feet, almost perpendicular. From that point to the
south end of Lake Oneida, a distance of about two miles, is a rise of
845 feet, most of it in two hills aggregating half a mile in distance.
The machinery will probably be hoisted straight up to the summit of
Mount Warren ridge from the southwest shore of Lake Oneida, an almost
vertical rise of 2,160 feet. From the summit the descent will be made
to Saddlebags Lake, thence down to and along Lee Vining Creek to the
gap or pass in the dividing ridge between Lee Vining and Slate creeks,
and from that point to Tunnel, a distance of about one mile, is a rise
of about 800 feet—most of it in the first quarter of a mile. The
machinery consists of an engine, boiler, air-compressor, Ingersoll
drills, iron pipe, etc., for use in driving the Great Sierra tunnel.
It is being transported on six heavy sleds admirably constructed of
hardwood. Another, or rather, a pair of bobsleds, accompanies the
expedition, the latter being laden with bedding, provisions, cooking
utensils, etc. The heaviest load is 4,200 pounds. Ten or twelve men,
two mules, 4,500 feet of one-inch Manila rope, heavy double block and
tackle, and all the available trees along the route are employed in
“snaking” the machinery up the mountain—the whole being under the
immediate supervision of Mr. Kemp, who remains at the front and
personally directs every movement. It is expected that all the sleds
will be got up into Lake Canyon today, and then the work will be
pushed day and night, with two shifts of men. Meantime, the tunnel is
being driven day and night, with three shifts of men under Jeff
McClelland.
Such difficulties prompted the Great Sierra Mining Company to construct
the Tioga Road, that they might bring their machinery in from the west
side of the Sierra. The road was completed in 1883 at a cost of $64,000.
In 1884, one of those “financial disasters” which always seem to play a
part in mining-camp history overtook the Great Sierra Mining Company,
and all work was dropped. Records show that $300,000 was expended at
Tioga, and there is no evidence that their ore was ever milled.
Persons who have climbed into that interesting summit region above
Gaylor Lakes have no doubt pondered over the origin of the picturesque
village of long-deserted rock cabins clustered about a deep mine shaft.
This is the Mount Dana Summit Mine, one of the important locations of
the Tioga District. Its owners were determined to operate in winter, as
well as in summer. In the _Homer Mining Index_, Lundy, of October 30,
1880, we are told that the superintendent of this mine visited Lundy and
employed skilled miners to spend the winter there. In December of the
same year one of them descended to Bodie to obtain money with which to
pay those miners. “He got tripped up on Bodie whisky and was drunk for
weeks. Some of the miners returned to Lundy from the Summit Mine. The
distance is but seven miles, but they were two days making the trip and
suffered many hardships.” Later F. W. Pike took charge of the Summit
Mine, but no record appears to have been handed down of the final demise
of the camp.
Another camp of the main range of the Sierra that received much notice
and actually produced great wealth was Lundy, situated but a few miles
north of Tioga. Prior to 1879, W. J. Lundy was operating a sawmill at
the head of Lundy Lake. His product helped to supply Bodie’s enormous
demand for timber. In the spring of 1879, William D. Wasson took his
family to Mill Canyon, near Lundy Lake, and engaged in prospecting. He
was followed by C. H. Nye and L. L. Homer, who located rich veins of
ore. J. G. McClinton, of Bodie, investigated and was persuaded by what
he found to bring capital to the new camp at once. Homer District was
organized at Wasson’s residence at Emigrant Flat, in Mill Creek Canyon,
September 15, 1879. Prior to this time the region was included in the
Tioga District, but because the books of the Tioga recorder were kept at
an inconvenient point, a new district was formed. L. L. Homer, for whom
the district was named, bowed down by “financial troubles,” committed
suicide in San Francisco a few months later.
It is worthy of mention that in 1881 the Sierra Telegraph Company
extended its line from Lundy to Yosemite Valley, where it made
connection with Street’s line to Sonora.
A trail was built from Tioga over the divide from Leevining Canyon into
Lake Canyon, thence down Mill Creek Canyon to Lundy. In 1881 Archie
Leonard, renowned as a Yosemite guide and ranger, put on a ten-horse
saddle train between Lundy and Yosemite. The trip was made in a day and
a half, and the fare was $8.00 one way.
Reports of the State Mining Bureau indicate that something like
$3,000,000 was taken from the May Lundy Mine. The town of Lundy proved
to be substantial for many years, and the _Homer Mining Index_, printed
there, is the best of all the newspapers that were produced in the
ephemeral camps of Mono. Something of the spirit of mining-camp
journalism may be gathered from the following note taken from a
December, 1850, number of the _Index_:
The _Index_ wears a cadaverous aspect this week. It is the unavoidable
result of a concatenation of congruous circumstances. The boss has
gone to Bodie on special business. The devil has been taking medicine,
so that his work at the case has been spasmodic and jerky. The
printing office is open on all sides, and the snow flies in wherever
it pleases. In the morning everything is frozen solid. Then we thaw
things out, and the whole concern is deluged with drippings. It is
hard to set type under such conditions. When the office is dry, it is
too cold to work. When it is warm, the printer needs gum boots and
oilskins. In fact, it has been a hell of a job to get this paper out.
Like the other camps, Lundy is now defunct. The May Lundy Mine has not
operated for some years, and the building of a dam has raised Lundy Lake
so that a part of the townsite is submerged.
Another old camp that many Yosemite fishermen and hikers come upon is
the aggregation of dwellings about the “Golden Crown.” At the very head
of Bloody Canyon, within Mono Pass, are to be found sturdily built log
cabins in various stages of decay. From the _Homer Mining Index_ it has
been possible to glean occasional bits of information regarding this old
camp. It is stated in an 1880 number of the _Index_ that Fuller and Hayt
(or Hoyt) discovered large ledges of antimonial silver there in 1879.
The _Mammoth City Herald_ of September 3, 1879, contains a glowing
account of the wealth to be obtained from the “Golden Crown,” as the
mine was christened, and predicts that thousands of men will be working
at the head of Bloody Canyon within one year. The _Mammoth City Herald_
of August 27, 1879, under the heading, “Something Besides Pleasure in
Store for Yosemite Tourists,” contains an enthusiastic letter regarding
these prospects.
When one observes the great number of mining claims staked out
throughout the summit region about White Mountain, Mount Dana, Mount
Gibbs, and Kuna Peak, it is not surprising to learn that some Yosemite
Valley businessmen ventured to engage in the gamble. Albert Snow,
proprietor of the famous La Casa Nevada between Vernal and Nevada falls,
owned a mine in Parker Canyon; and A. G. Black, of Black’s Hotel, owned
the Mary Bee Mine on Mount Dana.
Some twenty miles south of the Tioga District, in a high situation quite
as spectacular in scenic grandeur as any of the camps of the main range
of the Sierra, was Lake District, in which Mammoth and Pine City
flourished for a time—a very brief time.
In June of 1877, J. A. Parker, B. N. Lowe, B. S. Martin, and N. D. Smith
located mineral deposits on Mineral Hill at an altitude of 11,000 feet.
Lake District was organized here that same summer. Activity was not
great until 1879, when great riches seemed inevitable, and a rush of
miners swelled the population of Mammoth and Pine City. A mill was built
for the reduction of ores that were not in sight, and two printing
establishments cut each other’s throats, the _Mammoth City Herald_,
first on the ground, and the _Mammoth City Times_.
For a time hope was high. J. S. French built a toll trail from Fresno to
Mammoth City. French’s saddle trains met the Yosemite stages at Fresno
Flats, and traveled to Basaw (or Beasore) Meadows, Little Jackass
Meadows, Sheep Crossing, Cargyle Meadow, Reds Meadow, through Mammoth
Pass, and then to Mammoth City, a distance of fifty-four miles.
Livestock to supply the Mammoth markets was driven from Fresno Flats
over this trail, also.
The first winter after propaganda had inveigled capital to take a chance
on Mammoth, all activities persisted through the winter. Like those
hardy men who suffered the hardships of winter on Mount Dana, the
inhabitants of Mammoth contended with great difficulties.
After the winter of 1879-80, it became apparent that the Mammoth
enterprise was unwarranted. The mill, constructed with such optimism,
was poorly built. Had it been mechanically perfect, the fate of the camp
would have been no better, for the expected ore was not forthcoming.
Mammoth was another of those camps which engulfed capital and produced
little or nothing. In the winter of 1880-81 the place closed.
Benton, Bodie, and Aurora are quite removed from the area likely to be
reached by Sierra travelers, yet to close this account without some
mention of their birth, growth, and death would be to omit some of the
most important affairs of Mono mining. The first settlement in the
region immediately south of Mono was made by George W. Parker, who
located the Adobe Meadows in 1860. In 1861 E. C. Kelty sent “Black”
Taylor, a partner of the discoverer of Bodie District, to winter some
cattle in Hot Springs Valley, where he was killed by Indians. William
McBride entered the region in 1853 and engaged in ranching. Float rock
was found in October, 1863, by Robinson and Stuart in the foothills of
the White Mountains, east of Benton. In February, 1864, these men
organized the Montgomery District and succeeded in attracting some
attention to their find. The region flourished for a season, but soon
declined and became deserted. A few very rich deposits existed, but
there seem to have been no continuous veins.
[Illustration: SKETCH MAP OF YOSEMITE REGION
SHOWING EARLY ROUTES & CENTERS, & WITH PRESENT-DAY PLACE NAMES
INCLUDED FOR REFERENCE.]
EXPLANATION OF SKETCH MAP OF YOSEMITE REGION
DISCOVERY
In 1833 the Joseph Walker party crossed the Sierra, entering the
Yosemite National Park region from the northeast and approximately
following the route shown (Green Creek-Glen Aulin-present Tioga
Road route). Several members looked into Yosemite Valley on a
scouting trip from a camp along the Merced-Tuolumne divide. The
party discovered the Big Trees (Tuolumne or Merced groves).
FIRST ENTRY
In 1849-50 J. D. Savage maintained a trading post and mining camp below
Yosemite Valley at the confluence of the Merced and its South
Fork. In the spring of 1850 this station was attacked by Indians.
Savage then removed his post to a safer location on Mariposa Creek. In
December, 1850, Indians destroyed this post and murdered those in
charge. Savage had established a branch store on the Fresno River,
and this station was also burned in December, 1850.
As a result the white settlers organized a volunteer company to punish
the Indians. A camp of 500 Indians was found on a tributary of the
San Joaquin River. The savages were routed.
Governor McDougal then authorized organization of the Mariposa
Battalion. On March 19, 1851, they set out for Yosemite
(Mariposa-Wawona-Old Inspiration Point). The Battalion’s first
Yosemite Valley camp was near Bridalveil Creek. Their second was
at Indian Canyon. They explored the valley to the vicinity of Snow
Creek Falls and the foot of Nevada Fall.
Later in 1851 Captain Boling and party returned to Yosemite to make
final disposition of the Indians (Fort Miller-Mariposa-Wawona).
After two weeks of scouting they located the Indians at Tenaya
Lake (via Indian Canyon). The entire tribe was captured and
brought to the reservation on the Fresno River. Old Chief Tenaya
was later permitted to take his family back to Yosemite. Other
members of his tribe soon ran away to join him.
In 1852, eight prospectors entered the valley and two of them were
killed by the Yosemites. As a result regular soldiers from Fort
Miller, under Lt. Moore, made a third expedition to Yosemite. They
followed the fleeing Indians to Mono Lake (Tenaya Lake-Soda
Springs-Mono Pass) but captured none of them. On Moore’s return
(Soda Springs-Little Yosemite-Glacier Point vicinity-Wawona) to
Mariposa he exhibited mineral specimens found in the summit region
and Lee Vining was induced to go to the region to prospect. In
1853, according to Bunnell, wrathy Mono Indians, trailing stolen
horses, came over the mountains and ended all Yosemite Indian
troubles by virtually exterminating Tenaya’s band. But Maria
Lebrado, a survivor, denied this (see p. 47).
EAST-SIDE MINING EXCITEMENT
In 1857, five years after Lt. Moore’s findings, word reached miners west
of the range that rich placers had been found at Mono Diggings
(Monoville). A rush from the Tuolumne Region followed. This
excitement lasted but a few years.
In 1860 the Sheepherder Mine was located at Tioga. A prospect hole,
shovel, pick, and obliterated notice were found in 1874 by William
Breuschi, who relocated the lode. The Tioga District was organized
October 18, 1878.
In 1859, Brodigan, Doyle, Garraty, and W. S. Body had located rich
ground at Bodie. By 1879 there were 8,000 people in Bodie. More
than $24,000,000 has been produced here.
In 1879 the Homer District was organized at Lundy, on ground discovered
by C. H. Nye.
In 1882-83 a wagon road, following the old alignment of the present
Tioga Road, was built from Crockers to Bennetville (Tioga) in
order that machinery might be brought up the west slope. Road
construction cost $64,000, and approximately another $300,000 was
spent on development at Tioga. The mine never produced.
PRESENT-DAY CULTURE
The sketch map also shows the Yosemite National Park Boundary as of
1946. The boundaries at one time included Mount Ritter and the
present Devils Postpile National Monument.
“Cherokee Joe” found lead ore in a long, low granite hill, which rises
abruptly out of the valley west of the White Range, and it was here that
Benton started in 1865. James Larne built the first house, and soon the
camp became quite populous. Like the others, it attracted a printer, and
for a time the _Mono Weekly Messenger_ flaunted taunts at neighboring
camps and exploited the virtues and possibilities of Benton. Like the
others, too, the camp failed, and the printer moved, this time to
Mammoth, where he founded the short-lived _Mammoth City Herald_.
When, in the late ’seventies, the turbulent town of Bodie was attaining
its reputation as a tough place, a newspaper of Truckee, California,
quoted the small daughter in a Bodie-bound family as having offered the
following prayer: “Good-by, God! I’m going to Bodie.” An editor of one
of the several Bodie papers rejoined that the little girl had been
misquoted. What she really said was, “Good, by God! I’m going to Bodie.”
According to accounts printed when excitement at Bodie was high, the
discoverer of the Bodie wealth, W. S. Body, came to California on the
sloop _Matthew Vassar_ in 1848. He had lived in Poughkeepsie, New York,
and there left a wife and six children. In November, 1859, Body,
Garraty, Doyle, Taylor, and Brodigan crossed Sonora Pass to test the
Mono possibilities. On their way back to the west side of the mountains,
they dug into placer ground in a gulch on the east side of Silver Hill,
one of those now pock-marked hills just above Bodie.
The partners apparently remained on the ground and equipped themselves
to work their claims. In March, 1860, Body and “Black” Taylor went to
Monoville for supplies, and en route were overtaken by a severe
snow-storm. Body became exhausted, and Taylor attempted to carry him but
was forced to wrap a blanket around him and leave him. Taylor returned
to their cabin, obtained food, and then wandered about all night in a
vain search for his companion. It was not until May that Body’s body was
found, when it was buried on the west side of the black ridge southwest
of the present town. Taylor’s fate has already been mentioned.
Other miners came into the vicinity, and at a meeting, with E. Green
presiding, “Body Mining District” was organized. Subsequent usage
changed “Body” to “Bodie.” In the summer of 1860, prospectors located
lodes a few miles north of Bodie that were destined to put the Bodie
find “in the shade” for some years to come. This was the Aurora
discovery, upon which the Esmeralda District, organized in 1860,
centered. Aurora forged ahead and became a wildly excited camp, but its
bloody career was little more than a drunken orgy. The rich ores which
had induced extravagance and wild speculation disappeared when shafts
had been sunk about one hundred feet, and the “excitement” came to a
sudden end.
It is worthy of note that the first board of county supervisors of the
county of Mono met in Aurora, June 13, 1861. By 1864 it was discovered
that the camp was some miles within the state of Nevada; so Bridgeport
was named the county seat. Just before the move was made, a substantial
courthouse had been built in Aurora, and the old building still stands.
E. A. Sherman, first editor of the _Esmeralda Star_ of Aurora, journeyed
to the Eastern States prior to 1863-64, and took with him a fifty-pound
specimen of rich Aurora ore. This chunk of rock had been sold and resold
at mining-camp auctions to swell the Sanitary Fund, the Civil War “Red
Cross.” Thousands of dollars were added to the fund by this one
specimen, just as had been done through repeated sale of the celebrated
Austin (Nevada) sack of flour.
Mr. Sherman met Mr. Davis of the Pilgrim Society in Plymouth,
Massachusetts, and exchanged the Aurora ore for a piece of Plymouth
Rock. This fragment of Plymouth Rock was brought back to Aurora, and
when the Mono County courthouse was built there, the Plymouth Rock
fragment was placed in the cornerstone. The fifty-pound chunk of Aurora
ore still may be seen in the Plymouth Society’s venerable museum.
Mark Twain at one time resided in Aurora and engaged in his humorous
exaggerations. His cabin there, which even in 1878, when Wasson wrote
his _Bodie and Esmeralda_, had become somewhat mythical, was recently
located and moved to Reno, Nevada, where it is now exhibited. At any
rate, an Aurora cabin was found which might have been occupied by Mark
Twain. One part of the original Mark Twain cabin certainly did not reach
Reno, according to the _Mammoth Times_ of December 6, 1879. Bob Howland,
who had lived with Mark Twain in Aurora, returned to their old domicile
in 1879 and took down the flagpole. He had it made into canes, which he
distributed among his friends.
The truly important activity in the Esmeralda region prompted the
building of the Sonora Pass wagon road. The Mono County supervisors
ordered that road bonds on the “Sonora and Mono road” be issued on
November 5, 1863. The road was projected in 1864 and opened to travel in
1868.[11]
Bodie, in the meantime, had not given up the ghost, although only a
comparatively few miners occupied the camp. From its discovery until
1877 an average of twenty votes were polled each year. In 1878, however,
the Bodie Mining Company made a phenomenally rich strike of gold and
silver ore, and the entire mining world was startled. Stock jumped from
fifty cents to fifty-four dollars a share. The news swept all Western
camps like wildfire, and by 1879 Bodie’s crowd and reputation were such
that the little girl’s prayer of “Good-by, God! I’m going to Bodie” was
representative of the opinion held by contemporaries.
Even W. S. Body, whose body had moldered in a rocky grave for nearly
twenty years, was not undisturbed by the activity. In 1871 J. G.
McClinton had discovered the forgotten Body grave while searching for a
horse. He made no move to change the burial site, however, until some
one of Bodie’s several newspapers launched erroneous reports of the
whereabouts of Body’s remains. In the fall of 1879 McClinton and Joseph
Wasson exhumed the skeleton, exhibited it to Bodie’s motley populace,
and then gave it an elaborate burial, not excluding an eloquent address
by Hon. R. D. Ferguson. Now these honored bones occupy a grave that is
quite as neglected as the sage-grown niche in which they originally
rested, but at least they share a place with the other several hundred
dead disposed of in Bodie’s forgotten cemetery.
To make Bodie’s story short, let it suffice to say that for four years
the camp maintained the same high-pressure activity. Men mined, milled,
played, fought, and hundreds died. Some fifty companies tunneled into
Bodie Bluff and all but turned it inside out. Probably twenty-five
millions in bullion were conveyed in Bodie stage coaches to the railroad
at Carson City, Nevada. Perhaps an amount almost as great was sunk into
the hills by the numerous companies that carried on frenzied activity
but produced no wealth. Only the Standard and the Bodie had proved to be
immensely profitable, and in 1881 the stock market went to pieces.
Bodie’s mines, one after another, closed down. In 1887 the Standard and
the Bodie consolidated and operated sanely and profitably for some
twenty years longer. But the camp’s mad days of wild speculation and
excessive living were done. Gradually activities ceased, and a few years
ago the picturesque blocks of frame buildings were consumed by flames.
To meet the opportunities of 1941 some several hundred people occupied
Bodie to salvage minerals from her old mine dumps. But there was little
progress in rebuilding the town. It is interesting to note, however,
that the Bodie Miners’ Union Hall of the ’seventies still stands. Within
it Mr. and Mrs. D. V. Cain have exhibited the relics of Bodie’s boom
days.