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Monday 11am - 5pm Friday 11am - 5pm Saturday 11am - 5pm Sunday 11am - 5pm

http://www.monobasinhistory.org/

Mono Basin Historical Society, 129 Mattly Avenue, Lee Vining, CA (2026)

05/28/2026

Monday, June 1st
6:00 PM potluck dinner/meeting
Mono Lake Indian and Lee Vining Community Center,
296 Mattly Ave., Lee Vining
6:30 Program. (email for Zoom link)
History of Water Rights
and the Public Trust at
Mono Lake
by Marc Del Piero
Marc ran the lengthy State Water
Resources Control Board hearing
that led , in 1994 , to the decision
to save Mono Lake. The hearing was a first-of -its-kind
effort to identify and protect Mono Lake’s Public Trust
values. Marc will explain the 19th century establishment
of water rights, h istoric effort s to protect Mono Lake ,
and today’ s remaining concerns.

05/28/2026

Throwback Thursday
Did you know the town we know today as Lee Vining was originally named Lakeview? The name was changed in 1926 as another town of the same name already had a post office. Chris Mattly, who owned the land, with Gus Hess as partner, laid out the town and sold lots. The town’s name became “Leevining,” which was changed to two words, “Lee Vining,” in 1957.

The town’s namesake, Leroy Vining traveled from Mariposa to the Mono Basin in 1852 after hearing reports of gold found during the expedition led by U.S. Army Lt. Tredwell Moore. However, Vining found no gold, so returned to Mariposa. When gold was discovered at Dogtown in 1857, he returned to the area. But mining is hard work as so many have found. His weariness showed in his letter published in the Mariposa Gazette in 1859. He reported that provisions were scarce and that he had not prospered much in his mining endeavors. He closed the letter by noting, “I am writing by fire light and havn’t (sic) had a drink since I left Mariposa.”

By 1860, he built a sawmill and ranch beside the creek that would later bear his name. He was able to grow vegetables and sell them to local miners who were still trying their luck in the area.

In late April 1863, he traveled to Aurora on business and then stopped at the Esmeralda Exchange for a drink. The Mariposa Free Press newspaper takes the story from here:

“A correspondent at Aurora, Mono County, sends us the following under the date of April 28th: “I regret to inform you that our old and much esteemed friend Leroy Vining has gone to his long home; he died yesterday the 27th at 7 o’clock A.M., from the effects of a wound inflicted in the lower part of the abdomen by the accidental discharge of a derringer that he had in his pocket; he lived 36 hours after the accident occurred, during which time he suffered a great deal...Leroy was well known as one of the pioneers of this place and was universally respected as a noble hearted, generous and high minded gentleman.”

Photo of the El Mono Hotel built by Peter Gilli (at left) in Lee Vining in 1927. Courtesy of the Mono Basin Historical Society.

05/21/2026

Throwback Thursday
When you visit the Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve site just north of Lee Vining, you may notice a historic plaque in the parking lot that tells the story of a sad day in Mono County history.

On July 25, 1915, the sheriff’s department received word of two men terrorizing people on ranches in the Mono Basin. When Sheriff James Dolan arrived, he located the two men causing the problems. While attempting to arrest the men, he was shot and died of his wounds.

The plaque states that local citizens were “outraged” by the shooting of their popular third-term sheriff and formed a posse which tracked the men to a location near the Mono Craters. “Justice was served when both outlaws were killed in a shootout.”

According to Terri Lynn Geissinger’s book, “Images of America, Bodie 1859-1962”, Dolan, elected Mono County sheriff in 1906, was raised in Bodie. Prior to his law enforcement career, he attended the University at Reno and was employed as an assayer at the Standard Mill. He was survived by his wife, Cordelia, and two-year-old daughter, Alice. Cordelia continued to teach school in Aurora and Bodie and would later become a Superintendent of Mono County Schools. Alice followed in her mother’s footsteps and became a teacher and later a Dean of Schools in the Bay Area.

Photo of James Dolan courtesy of Dolan Family

05/14/2026

Throwback Thursday
Mono Movies
While watching movies or commercials, many of us often catch a glimpse of a familiar place, as the Eastern Sierra attracts many movie makers, not to mention companies selling cars.
Movies filmed in the Mono Basin area include, “Fair Wind to Java,” a 1953 pirate film that used one of the islets in Mono Lake for the scene showing the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano. The movie, starring Fred McMurray, Vera Ralston and Robert Douglas, pits a captain of an American merchant vessel against pirates in a race to find a sunken Dutch vessel containing thousands of diamonds, as a nearby volcano prepares to explode. Portions of the set remain on the islet today.

Barry McPherson recalls "My father Wallis R. McPherson served as a consultant on "Fair Wind to Java" due to his knowledge of where the model ships might hit subsurface tufa towers, and his knowledge of the wind and weather to get boats off lake when needed."

Wallis gained that knowledge from growing up on Paoha Island and driving his 34 ft tour boat "Venita" on Mono Lake for many years.

“High Plains DrIfter,” from 1973, starred Clint Eastwood and was filmed near the shore of Mono Lake west of South Tufa. According to Internet Movie Data Base (IMDb), Universal Pictures wanted to shoot the movie on the studio lot, but Clint Eastwood instead had a whole town built near Mono Lake. Many of these buildings included interiors to allow other scenes to be shot at the location. Eastwood, the director, also starred as the mysterious stranger who arrives in a small town and helps the residents fight off outlaws.

Here's a list of a few more movies filmed in Mono County: sierrawave.net/movies-filmed-in-mono.

Photo of “Fair Wind to Java,” movie from “Images of America, Mono Lake Basin” book by David Carle and Don Banta.

05/07/2026

Throwback Thursday
A Mono Lake rancher’s visit to Bodie in October 1881 merited a mention in one of the local newspapers in October 1881. The article was titled, “Why He Laughed.”
The rancher came to town with a load of vegetables from his farm at the lake. After a successful visit to one customer, “he stopped in front of the U.S. Bakery and entered to see what sales he could make there.”

While he negotiated with the baker inside, a tall, thin man walked up to the wagon, pulled out a sack, shouldered it and walked up the street. “It was a heavy load but he just turned the corner of Green street when the honest rancher emerged from the shop.”

A bystander who witnessed the theft, related what he had seen to the rancher. The newspaper reported that the rancher, “was a little surprised at first, but after looking into the wagon, he smiled.”

That puzzled the bystander. “you don’t seem to know that a sack of your potatoes has disappeared,” he said. The rancher began to laugh.

The bystander couldn’t understand the rancher’s mirth. His questions to the rancher led to louder and uncontrollable laughing.

Finally, the rancher climbed up on his wagon, caught his breath, and explained.
“That there chap thinks he’s played lucky with his sack of spuds, but as it happened, he got a hold of a sack of Lundy quartz that a man gave me to distribute among his friends. It ain’t worth two bits no how.”

The rancher was seized with another bout of laughter as he drove down the street.

Photo courtesy of Mono Basin Historical Society shows a man harvesting potatoes on Chris Mattly’s ranch near Mono Lake. Mono Basin ranchers homesteaded on land surrounding the lake beginning in the 1860s. Towns such as Bodie, Aurora and Lundy, looked to ranches in the basin for a variety of products. Among the crops grown were potatoes, cabbage, carrots, onions, zucchini, peas, beans, cauliflower and even some tomatoes.

04/30/2026

Throwback Thursday
It’s nice to have a birthday party, but even nicer to have two parties.

The Bridgeport Chronicle-Union reported that Mrs. Wallis D. McPherson arranged for a birthday party for her son, Wallis R. McPherson in early April with “delicious ice cream and cake.”

Guests included Leora, Elma and Alice Montrose, Edith and Violet McKenzie, and Rodney Montrose.

Wallis shared a birthday with neighbor Mr. McKenzie, so on April 6, Mrs. McKenzie hosted a party with a chicken dinner in honor of both Wallis and her husband.
Those in attendance at this party were Mrs. Wallis D. McPherson and son Wallis,
Jack Weier, Jack Preston, and the McKenzie family. Later in the evening, Violet DeChambeau, Leora Montrose and Dewey DeChambeau joined the party.

“The evening was spend playing five hundred (a card game) and listening to Mr. McKenzie’s new Radiola (a tube radio).”

Cakes came out at midnight, one with 14 candles for Wallis and one for Mr. McKenzie which had no candles. The reporter speculated that either the cake “couldn’t hold all the candles or else his age was unknown.”

The party ended at 2 a.m. amid final Happy Birthday wishes from the partygoers.
Photo courtesy of Barry McPherson shows Wallis and his mother.

04/23/2026

Throwback Thursday
In the early 1920s, William O. Nay was less than ten years old, but he already had a job. His father, Orvis W. Nay and partners had leased the historic Parrett Mine in Lundy Canyon beginning in 1923.

Many years later, William told his children how he was assigned to walk the mule into the mine and bring it out with a load. On his birthday, he was proud to receive his very own miner’s lamp.

An article in the Reno Gazette-Journal about the operation in 1923 related how Nay and partners had taken a 10-year lease on the mine property and had placed orders for a two-stamp mill and other machinery to carry out development work. The mine was located in 1880 by the Parrett brothers, “who have been working it single handed, taking out the high grade and packing the ore on mules to a mill for treatment…it is reported they have taken out some $70,000,” concluded the article.

Orvis was no stranger to the Mono Basin, having moved there with his parents, Winslow and Sarah Nay, shortly after 1888. The Nay Ranch had a dairy herd producing milk and butter for nearby towns. Winslow was also freighter and teamster, hauling wood and freight to neighboring communities, such as Bodie and Carson City. After Winslow’s death in a boating accident in May 1898, Orvis’ mother eventually moved to the Bay area, and Orvis moved to Coalinga, California, where he met and married May Alice Satchell. After the birth of their first daughter, they moved to Burlingame in San Mateo County where their other two children, William and Ruby, were born. Orvis was working as a machinist at that time.

By late 1920, Orvis was registered to vote in Mono County and soon brought his family to live at Mono Lake.

Orvis and family returned to Nevada in 1925 where he operated the Lincoln Garage in Reno for many years. Perhaps the winters in the Mono Basin were too hard on his family. According to descendants, Orvis participated in mining ventures until 1933. No word on how successful the operation was at the Parrett Mine.

William would go onto serve in the Navy during World War II. He later worked for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. He died in 2002.

Photo shows William at right, with his father, Orvis, seated to William’s right. The man at top may be J.T. Daniels, one of Orvis’ partners, and the other man is unidentified.

Thank you to William’s niece Linda Perry Bezdek, and William’s son Bill Nay for the photo and information.

a, USA

04/16/2026

Throwback Thursday
Note: Thank you to Joseph Elcano, for this submission about George Hawkins, who was captain in 1881 of the steamship Rocket, which hauled lumber and freight across Mono Lake from 1880-1881. Hawkins documented his adventures in letters addressed to his future wife, Clara. The Bodie Railway was completed in late 1881 and made the Rocket obsolete. To read more about Hawkins and Nevada history, please visit Joseph’s website: collateralhistory.com.

George Hawkins led a remarkable life. He was born in 1853 in Utah, but he moved to Nevada as a young man. Hawkins was a master mechanic. But in 1879 the Comstock had seen its greatest glory days and he could not find work. He soon moved on to Bodie, California to work in the mines and mills there. For two years he worked at the Standard Mill and the mines as needed.

In 1881 he was no longer needed at the mill but was given the opportunity to run the steamship “Rocket.” The Rocket ran from one side of Mono Lake to the other ferrying people, supplies, and barges.

Some excerpts from letters about his travels on the Rocket are below. (Punctuation and grammar have been left as written.)

“Mr. Holt (Superintendent Thomas Holt) came to me and said that he wished me to run the steamer Rocket and take charge of the freight and barges and see that all freight was safely landed...
..up this morning at 3:30 to get up steam in the boat and placed in the boat a water tank with its several connections to the pump. After this all being done we were in readiness to take a boat load of passengers out for a little ride. We took all on board that could ride then started for the islands which are in the center of the lake arriving there in safety all were landed. The first thing was to partake of luncheon, which was very nice, then the party wanted to see the sights on the island and nothing would do but that. I should go ashore and be there guide on shore as well as the engineer on board. I agreed and away we went. The first place we went to was the crater of an extinct volcano. This being quite a curiosity, not far from this we visited what is known as the Big Crack. It is about one hundred yards long and varying in width from two to ten feet and a deep that you cannot get in any position in which you can see the bottom…

I have just pulled in from the hardest trip I have had on the lake yet. The wind blew a perfect gale and I was as wet as though I had been rolled in the lake myself. I tell you it is very exciting at times especially when a wave washed over the deck every two or three minutes…

Tuesday morning I arose from my restless sleep on my couch at 4 am, steamed up, and crossed the lake arriving at the other side at 8 am. There I hooked on to the barge which was loaded and waiting for me and started back…

We reached the other shore. I loosened the skiff and 4 of the men jumped in. The rest stayed on board with me. As they neared the shore a wave caught them, capsized the boat, and gave them a jolly dunking…

I had one of the roughest crews that ever was in a boat. When I reached shore there were 15 men and every one of them so drunk. Some wanted to fight and some tried to keep peace…

I am going across the lake now and the engine is so unsteady that I can hardly keep my pen on the paper.”

Photos of Hawkins and a section of a letter to Clara, courtesy of Joseph Elcano.
References: Keith and Abby Mulcahy; interviews and artifacts

04/09/2026

Throwback Thursday
In January 1897, Mono County representatives appeared before the Committee on Roads and Highways in Sacramento to ask that a highway be built across the Sierra Nevada.

Mardsen Manson of the Bureau of Highways appeared by request, and Assemblyman Caples of Mono also addressed the committee, ending by saying: ‘Gentlemen, all the people of Mono ask of this Legislature is this road, which will enable us to cross the Sierras without going halfway to New York in order to reach the Southern Pacific Railroad to come to Sacramento of San Francisco. The cost of construction is computed to be about $2000 a mile.’”

The Mono representatives requested the public highway be constructed for a distance of 12 miles over the Sierra in order to connect the Tioga and Mono wagon roads.

A reporter for the San Francisco Call newspaper noted that no action was taken on the road request, but added, “it is probably that Mono will receive its appropriation.”

Yes, Mono finally got that first road across the Sierra. Construction began in the early 1900s and was finished in August 1915 as this article from the Los Angeles Express recounts.

Would you like driving over the 1915 road?

04/02/2026

Throwback Thursday
Travelers passing through Mono Basin in the early 1880s would not find as many hotels as in nearby Bodie, but we found a couple advertisements for accommodations.

One advertisement talked about an inn near the Goat Ranch in northern Mono Basin where “Lowery and Grady…are fitting it up for First-Class Hotel Station.” To accommodate travelers, the hotel station offered “a well supplied table at all hours.”

For those who wished to travel into the trees, the “Oakland House” in Lundy was available. Their ad claimed that guests “will find this a comfortable house in which to remain during their stay. The choicest wines, liquors and ci**rs are kept at the bar.”

And travelers might find some relaxation after traveling rough, dusty roads, at the Mono Lake Junction Station, where hot sulphur springs were available for “drinking or baths.” Row boats or sailboats were available for an excursion on Mono Lake. The resort was located at the junction of the Mill Creek and Mammoth stage roads.

Mono Basin Historical Society

05/28/2026

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Monday	11am - 5pm
Friday	11am - 5pm
Saturday	11am - 5pm
Sunday	11am - 5pm