November 4, 1970 (12 pages)

2 The Nevada County Nugget — Wednesday, November 4, we Mono Lake silent seer “cy and impressive: long, emit: oie rigpstt, . "This ‘solemn, silent, sailless sea this lonely tenant of the loneliest spot on earth.” This was Mark Twain's reaction as he gazed across the desert at the blue expanse of Mono Lake a hundred and more years ago. Sometimes called the "Dead Sea of America," Mono Lake is still an impressive sight, though its shores are no longer lonely and its waters have receded considerably. The great escarpment and snowcapped peaks of the Sierra rise abruptly from beside its western shore. In other directions is the haunting emptiness of the desert landscape of Eastern California and Nevada, Although the lake covers about 100 square miles, no fish live in its bitter waters and boats rarely disturb its surface. Mono Lake has no outlet and much of the water from the mountain streams that feed it has been diverted to the Los Angeles aqueduct, Evaporation has concentrated its. chemicals and shrunk its shoreline. Along its edge rise strange tufa towers, knobby white formations standing like so many Lot's wives, actually coral like lime depositis of a tiny calcareous algae. 3 Yet its bitter waters are not entirely dead, They support a tiny brine shrimp and the shellencased larva of a small fly. These were staple foods of the Paiute Indians who once lived in great numbers beside the lake, who mined high quality obsidian . for arrowheads and knives and wove baskets of amazing intricacy. Mono Lake has two treeless islands as unusual as the lake itself. One is-small and black, the other-is big and white, The former, Negit, is a volcanic cone of cinder and lava and though separated from the ocean by a mighty mountain range and a hundred miles, it is a nesting place for thousands of seagulls who fly in from the coast every April and return in October, The other island, Paoha, is two miles NEVADA COUNTT NUGGET] PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY BY NEVADA COUNTY PUBLISHING CO, 1 Broad Street levada City, Ca. 95959 Telephone 265-2471 Second class postage paid at Nevada City, California. Adjudicated a legal newspaper of general circulation by the Nevada County Superior Court , Juce 3, 1960. DecreeNo, 12,406, Subscription Rates: one year, $3,00; two 1967 yee RRS steam fr fumaroles? For all itS. lonely aspect, Mono Lake is rich. in history. In 1843, Joseph Wali ledariemi-. § grant wagon train d eastern base of the Sierra, past . Mono Lake, to cross the Sierra through Walker Pass which he @ had discovered earlier, It was 4 the second such party to make a successful Sierra crossing and it led to the opening of the famous California Trail over which tens of thousands of ‘49ers were eventually to travel. The old Mono Trail, an ancient Indian trade route across the mountains, started at Mono Lake. Gold wasdiscoveredalong ©. the trail in 1852 by Leroy Vining, for whom the present lakeside town,of Lee Vining was named. His strike was the first of many fabulous finds made inthe mountains above Mono Lake but none could compare with the wealth mined from the high desert hills nearby where the ghost towns of Bodie and Aurora‘stand today. Gold’ was discovered at Bodie in 1859 by W, S. Bodey and three partners. Two of them drifted off before the severe winter of ‘59 but Bodey stayed, only to ¢. freeze to death in a snowstorm, later killed at a new “claim by Indians, But Bodie (its citizens like that © spelling better) boomed. In 1879 its grateful residents collected © $500 for a tombstone for their town's founder, bought a handsome granite shaft and imported a sculptor from the East to chisel a suitable inscription. But he arrived at the same time the news of the assassination of President Garfield did and Bodey’s gravestone became, instead, a memorial to the slain president. It still stands today in the-cemetery on the hill above the decaying buildings of Bodie. A steamer plied the blue waters of Mono Lake during Bodie's heyday. In 1879 J. S. Cain of Bodie bought the steamer "Rocket" which had barged supplies around San Francisco Bay and had it hauled to Mono Lake, He used it to carry suppliesmostly timber for the mineshafts -to the treeless town of Bodie, When hundreds of Chinese were hired to build a railroad to Bodie, some of the rougher element saw this as a threat to their jobs, They organized a posse to dispose of the intruders, but word leaked out and the Chinese were ferried to Paoha Island in Mono Lake to wait until more sober heads should prevail, The liquor supply, even in Bodie, having its limits, the Chinese had to stay onthe island only briefly before returning to work, Today Bodie is a ghost town, guarded by the State Department of Parks and Recreation, whose} rangers are keeping the silent city in a state of "arrested disintegration."" Mono Lake no longer is a gateway to the mines but is a tourist attraction of importance and stuated at the juncture of the Tioga Pass highway §. and Highway 395 is as much a —, eevee cade 08 8 ove eee : Leck Bi Remember When? OLD CHINA Town in Grass Valley used to be quite a site. :WHEN THIS sheriff's possee visited Nevada City? IN 1963 it was the Clampers who spread good will in Nevada City. “ +S Se ae ex 4 LARD 48 ee Kine Ee we ee eee LLL MAME RM MME ALR LEER ARE ee 4

2 The Nevada County Nugget — Wednesday, November 4, we Mono Lake silent seer “cy and impressive: long, emit: oie rigpstt, . "This ‘solemn, silent, sailless sea this lonely tenant of the loneliest spot on earth.” This was Mark Twain's reaction as he gazed across the desert at the blue expanse of Mono Lake a hundred and more years ago. Sometimes called the "Dead Sea of America," Mono Lake is still an impressive sight, though its shores are no longer lonely and its waters have receded considerably. The great escarpment and snowcapped peaks of the Sierra rise abruptly from beside its western shore. In other directions is the haunting emptiness of the desert landscape of Eastern California and Nevada, Although the lake covers about 100 square miles, no fish live in its bitter waters and boats rarely disturb its surface. Mono Lake has no outlet and much of the water from the mountain streams that feed it has been diverted to the Los Angeles aqueduct, Evaporation has concentrated its. chemicals and shrunk its shoreline. Along its edge rise strange tufa towers, knobby white formations standing like so many Lot's wives, actually coral like lime depositis of a tiny calcareous algae. 3 Yet its bitter waters are not entirely dead, They support a tiny brine shrimp and the shellencased larva of a small fly. These were staple foods of the Paiute Indians who once lived in great numbers beside the lake, who mined high quality obsidian . for arrowheads and knives and wove baskets of amazing intricacy. Mono Lake has two treeless islands as unusual as the lake itself. One is-small and black, the other-is big and white, The former, Negit, is a volcanic cone of cinder and lava and though separated from the ocean by a mighty mountain range and a hundred miles, it is a nesting place for thousands of seagulls who fly in from the coast every April and return in October, The other island, Paoha, is two miles NEVADA COUNTT NUGGET] PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY BY NEVADA COUNTY PUBLISHING CO, 1 Broad Street levada City, Ca. 95959 Telephone 265-2471 Second class postage paid at Nevada City, California. Adjudicated a legal newspaper of general circulation by the Nevada County Superior Court , Juce 3, 1960. DecreeNo, 12,406, Subscription Rates: one year, $3,00; two 1967 yee RRS steam fr fumaroles? For all itS. lonely aspect, Mono Lake is rich. in history. In 1843, Joseph Wali ledariemi-. § grant wagon train d eastern base of the Sierra, past .

Mono Lake, to cross the Sierra through Walker Pass which he @ had discovered earlier, It was 4 the second such party to make a successful Sierra crossing and it led to the opening of the famous California Trail over which tens of thousands of ‘49ers were eventually to travel. The old Mono Trail, an ancient Indian trade route across the mountains, started at Mono Lake. Gold wasdiscoveredalong ©. the trail in 1852 by Leroy Vining, for whom the present lakeside town,of Lee Vining was named. His strike was the first of many fabulous finds made inthe mountains above Mono Lake but none could compare with the wealth mined from the high desert hills nearby where the ghost towns of Bodie and Aurora‘stand today. Gold’ was discovered at Bodie in 1859 by W, S. Bodey and three partners. Two of them drifted off before the severe winter of ‘59 but Bodey stayed, only to ¢. freeze to death in a snowstorm, later killed at a new “claim by Indians, But Bodie (its citizens like that © spelling better) boomed. In 1879 its grateful residents collected © $500 for a tombstone for their town's founder, bought a handsome granite shaft and imported a sculptor from the East to chisel a suitable inscription. But he arrived at the same time the news of the assassination of President Garfield did and Bodey’s gravestone became, instead, a memorial to the slain president. It still stands today in the-cemetery on the hill above the decaying buildings of Bodie. A steamer plied the blue waters of Mono Lake during Bodie's heyday. In 1879 J. S. Cain of Bodie bought the steamer "Rocket" which had barged supplies around San Francisco Bay and had it hauled to Mono Lake, He used it to carry suppliesmostly timber for the mineshafts -to the treeless town of Bodie, When hundreds of Chinese were hired to build a railroad to Bodie, some of the rougher element saw this as a threat to their jobs, They organized a posse to dispose of the intruders, but word leaked out and the Chinese were ferried to Paoha Island in Mono Lake to wait until more sober heads should prevail, The liquor supply, even in Bodie, having its limits, the Chinese had to stay onthe island only briefly before returning to work, Today Bodie is a ghost town, guarded by the State Department of Parks and Recreation, whose} rangers are keeping the silent city in a state of "arrested disintegration."" Mono Lake no longer is a gateway to the mines but is a tourist attraction of importance and stuated at the juncture of the Tioga Pass highway §. and Highway 395 is as much a —, eevee cade 08 8 ove eee : Leck Bi Remember When? OLD CHINA Town in Grass Valley used to be quite a site. :WHEN THIS sheriff's possee visited Nevada City? IN 1963 it was the Clampers who spread good will in Nevada City. “ +S Se ae ex 4 LARD 48 ee Kine Ee we ee eee LLL MAME RM MME ALR LEER ARE ee 4