Exploring a Ghost
Railroad
by
For 77 years, the Carson & Colorado narrow gauge railroad
line ran along the east side of
By 1900 the Carson & Colorado was sold to the Southern
Pacific Railroad Company (SP). Due to a
disagreement with the Virginia & Truckee RR, the SP shifted the northern
terminus from Mound House to Fallon. In
1910 they built a new standard gauge line north from Mojave,
By the mid 1920s, a major decrease in rail traffic
caused the northern section from Fallon to Benton STATION,
The 70.4-mile stretch between Keeler
and Laws
remained open, but by the 1950s it was more a nostalgia line than a profitable
railroad. On April 30, 1960 the last train
rumbled north from Keeler to Laws.
Within a year the rails were pulled, and the old Carson & Colorado
was history.
Our first stop along this ghost railroad is Keeler,
the southern terminus, on the northeast shore of
In 1880, the Owens Lake Mining & Milling
Company purchased the holdings of the Union Mine Company at
Unfortunately, their recently refurbished steam
ship Bessie
Brady burned. It was to be their transportation
showpiece, and its destruction put the brakes on the company's grand
goals. Hawley still remained a milling
center, although on a much reduced scale.
On August 1, 1883, the narrow gauge Carson & Colorado Railroad
reached the small community. A post
office, train station and freight depot were established, and soon Keeler
(as it was now called) ended up as the southern terminus for the busy little
railroad.
Around the end of WW I, a number of soda-ash
processing plants were built along the drying lake's shore, and through the
1920s and 30s Keeler was a major soda-ash processing town, as well as a busy
railroad repair facility.
In 1938, with the closing of the northern part of
the line, traffic slowed, and in 1943 the Keeler railroad repair shops closed and were
moved to Owenyo. In 1960 the trains stopped running.
By 1994, Keeler was just a quiet skeleton of what it used
to be. The hulking Sierra Talc mill
still (1995) dominates the town's "skyline", and a number of
abandoned structures still stand. The
old school is behind chain link fence, the wood frame Keeler Store still caters
to townsfolk, the post office is still open, but the train depot, auto body
shop, gas station and many abandoned buildings stand in mute testimony to the
past. Today (1990 census), 135 residents
live in this town located on the southwest side of SH 136, 13 miles southeast
of Lone Pine.
Just 3.3 miles northwest of Keeler,
is the old site of
Somewhere between
A mile northwest of
Next to the northwest is the old marble mining
town of
In the 1970s, the movie set and remaining
buildings were open to the public, but in 1994 renewed marble mining operations
had put this interesting old ghost behind "Keep Out" Signs. The buildings are still visible a half mile
north of the highway.
About 1.2 miles northwest of Dolomite
is the barren site of Alico. In 1976 there were still a few rusty cans and
broken glass marking the site, but in 1994, I couldn't locate it.
The old railroad grade swings north here, and in
five miles
Just a mile and a half west is Lone Pine Station,
northern terminus for the now abandoned standard gauge Southern Pacific
Railroad. 1.6 miles west of that is the
town of
3.5 miles north of Mt. Whitney Station (6.5 mi N. of Lone
Pine) is the rubbled site of Owenyo. Owenyo
was originally established around 1900 as a small Quaker farming community and
shipping station. A post office was
established on March 20, 1902, and after two moves was discontinued on November
30, 1905. In 1905 the Quakers sold out,
and in 1910 the station became an important junction with arrival of the
standard gauge Southern Pacific tracks.
They ended along the west side of the station platform and the narrow
gauge passed by on the east. During the
booming 1920s, there were railroad repair facilities, a restaurant and hotel.
In 1960, after the narrow gauge shut down, the
station closed, and the northern terminus shifted south to Lone Pine Station. By 1975 nothing remained but scattered
rubble, rusty cans and broken glass.
4.6 miles north of Owenyo is the site of Manzanar Station. Manzanar
started around 1900 as a small agricultural community surrounded by apple and
peach orchards. A station was established
for fruit shipping, and in 1911 a general store run by a Mr. Ira Hatfield
opened. The post office was established
On May 13, 1911 with Hatfield as postmaster.
During the 1920s the town faded, and on December 31, 1929, the post
office shut down. Manzanar
was also the location for the
5.2 miles north of Manzanar Station the railroad grade road intersects with
the Mazourka Canyon Road 4.5 miles east of the county
seat of
On the northwest corner of the intersection, and
stretching both north and west is the site of the 1860s mining town of
A couple miles north of
15 miles north of Kearsarge Station was Aberdeen Station. Here a water tower supplied water to the
steam powered locomotives. It was
located on the grade, about one mile east of US 395 at
1.9 miles east of Big Pine, is Zurich Station. Again, not much remains but rubble and
memories.
Our last stop is the station
at LAWS. Here was
another major railroad repair facility and yard. It was also the station for Bishop, and was
as busy as Keeler or Owenyo. After the system
shut down, some of the rolling stock and a number of buildings were moved to
Laws. In 1966 a railroad museum opened
here. The buildings have been
used as a movie set, and the museum is one of the best in the state for folks
who want to see what an old western railroad town looked like.
The
railroad continues north through
Next up the road is the siding and station
at HAMMIL, which is no longer shown
on maps. Today, the site is the location
of a tiny, loose-knit ranching community.
Just to the east of HAMMIL was
the rural post office of Mocalno. Nothing remains of it
either.
The next station on the line was at Benton STATION. From there the railroad continued up the valley
and crossed over into
Today, the old route is nearly forgotten by
all but those who seek the old that Ghost Town USA
has to offer.
SEE
US 6 for
more details of the LAWS through
This was our GHOST
TOWN OF THE MONTH for November 2001.
GPS LISTINGS:
|
SITE
NAME |
LATITUDE |
LONGITUDE |
TOWNSHIP/RANGE |
|
Aberdeen Station (Inyo Co.) |
36.9918780 / 36° 59' 31" N |
-118.2120417 / 118° 12' 43" W |
W-Ctr Sec 13, T11S, R34E, MDM (Mount Diablo Base Line & Meridian) |
|
Alico (Inyo
Co.) |
36.5696560 / 36° 34’ 11” N |
-117.9631400 / 117° 57’ 47” W |
SW¼
Sec 4, T16S, R37E, MDM |
|
Bend City (Inyo Co.) |
36.805634 |
-118.122532 |
NW¼ Sec 13, T13S, R35E, MDM |
|
Benton (Station) (Mono Co.) |
37.8190990 / 37° 49' 09" N |
-118.4765094 / 118° 28' 35" W |
W½ Sec 32, T1S, R32E, MDM |
|
Bishop (Junction US 6/395)
(Inyo Co.) |
37.374523 |
-118.395367 |
N-Ctr Sec 6, T7S, R33E
MBM |
|
Cerro Gordo Landing (Inyo Co.) |
SEE KEELER |
SEE KEELER |
SEE KEELER |
|
Chalfant (Valley) (Mono Co.) |
37.5293738 / 37° 31' 46" N |
-118.3634454 / 118° 21' 48" W |
NE¼ Sec 8, W½ Sec 9, T5S, R33E, MDM |
|
Dehy (Mono
Co.) |
NOT LISTED IN GNIS |
NOT LISTED IN GNIS |
NOT LISTED IN GNIS |
|
Hammil (Mono
Co.) |
37.6785423 / 37° 40' 43" N |
-118.4037274 / 118° 24' 13" W |
NW¼
Sec 24, T3S, R32E, MDM |
|
Inyo/Mono
County Line |
37.6785423 / 37° 27’ 45” N |
-118.350048 / 118° 20’ 58” W |
|
|
Kearsarge Station (Inyo Co.) |
36.8068763 / 36° 48’ 25” N |
-118.1173143 / 118° 07’ 02” W |
E½
Sec 13, T13S, R35E, MDM |
|
Keeler (Inyo Co.) |
36.4871576 / 36° 29’ 14” N |
-117.8759694 / 117° 52’ 26” W |
NW¼ Sec 4, NE ¼ Sec 5, T17S, R38E, MDM |
|
Laws (Inyo Co.) |
37.4007622 / 37° 24’ 03” N |
-118.3456639 / 118° 20’ 44” W |
NW¼ Sec 27, T6S, R33E, MDM |
|
Laws – Railroad Museum (Inyo
Co.) |
37.3993734 / 37° 23' 58" N |
-118.3462195 / 118° 20' 46" W |
NW¼ Sec 27, T6S, R33E, MDM |
|
Lone Pine Station (Inyo Co.) |
36.6179887 / 36° 37' 05" N |
-118.0406429 / 118° 02' 23" W |
NE¼ Sec 22,
T15S, R36E, MDM |
|
Manzanar Relocation Center (Inyo Co.) |
36.7263211 / 36° 43’
35” N |
-118.1537035 / 118° 09’
13” W |
Secs 10, 11, 14, 15, T14S, R35E, MDM |
|
Manzanar Station (Inyo Co.) |
36.7399318 / 36° 44’
24” N |
-118.0806457 / 118° 04’
50” W |
SE¼ Sec 5, NE¼ Sec 8, T14S, R35E, MDM |
|
Mocalno (Mono
Co.) |
NOT LISTED
IN GNIS |
NOT LISTED
IN GNIS |
NOT LISTED IN GNIS |
|
Mock (Inyo Co.) |
36.5435454 / 36° 32’ 37” N |
-117.9334164 / 117° 56’ 00” W |
NE¼
Sec 15, T16S, R37E, MDM |
|
Mt. Whitney Station (Inyo Co.) |
36.6274329 / 36° 37' 39" N |
-118.0148091 / 118° 00' 53" W |
SW¼ Sec 13,
T15S, R36E, MDM |
|
Owenyo (Inyo
Co.) |
36.6782657 / 36° 40' 42" N |
-118.0442548 / 118° 02' 39" W |
NE¼ Sec 34,
T14S, R36E, MDM |
|
San Carlos (Inyo Co.) |
36.839103 (APPROX) |
-118.143196 (APPROX) |
Center Sec 2, T13S, R35E, MDM |
|
Shealy (Mono
Co.) |
NOT LISTED
IN GNIS |
NOT LISTED
IN GNIS |
NOT LISTED IN GNIS |
|
Swansea (Inyo Co.) |
36.5246569 / 36° 31' 29" N |
-117.9039708 / 117° 54' 11" W |
S-Ctr Sec 24,
T16S, R37E, MDM |
|
Tramway (Inyo Co.) |
NOT LISTED
IN GNIS |
NOT LISTED
IN GNIS |
NOT LISTED IN GNIS |
|
Zurich Station (Inyo Co.) |
37.1827079 / 37° 10' 58" N |
-118.2601009 / 118° 15' 36" W |
NE¼ Sec 9,
T9S, R34E, MDM |
***************
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2001
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UPDATED: January 04, 2010
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