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Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Tuesday, January 6, 2009
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Prospectors establish Mammoth City |
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Thursday, 29 May 2008 |
By Evanne Jardine
Special to the Mammoth Times
 The historic Hayden Cabin in the location of the Southern Mono Historical Society.FILE PHOTO
In the late 1870s, prospectors from Bodie discovered gold in the hillsides behind Mammoth Rock — in those days called Monumental Rock. As many as 600 people flocked up the canyon, set up tents, built cabins or dug out the hillsides to construct simple shelters.
Today some clues to this activity are still visible. Stop by the Society’s Museum at the Hayden Cabin, located on Mammoth Creek, off the Sherwin Road. Buy a copy of Gary Caldwell’s Mammoth Gold, and follow his directions for an auto and walking tour of the old town, mine and mill sites.
The site of Mammoth City is a good place to begin, because you can actually find evidence of the town described in the July 10, 1880, Mammoth City Herald. We are fortunate to have photo copies of the Mammoth City Herald preserved at the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, Calif. They are part of Genny Smith’s collection. The Herald’s editor describes the community:
“In assessing the many and various business houses of Mammoth City and its environs, we find contained therein eleven general merchandising houses with large stocks on hand, two tin and hardware establishments, ten boarding houses and hotels, three restaurants and chop houses, three lodging houses, five stables, three blacksmith shops, two barber shops, one bath room, three varieties and news depots, one drug store, two millinery and dress making establishments, one photograph gallery, two assayers, eleven saloons and breweries, one printing office, eight laundries, two saw mills, one forty stamp quartz mill, and numerous professional men, miners and mechanics, and quite a number of families, making population at nearly six hundred persons, not counting a considerable floating population from outside mining camps who are dependent on Mammoth City for their supplies. Although the number of inhabitants does not compare with this time one year ago, we stand today upon a more substantial basis.”
Start your expedition at the historic marker, which identifies the site. Look up the hillside behind the marker and you will see traces of the old dugouts the miners used to simplify home construction. The hole provided three walls. All they needed to add was a roof and front door.
Across old Mammoth Road you will see mounds of debris that mark the four levels of mine development. If you walk parallel to Old Mammoth Road, uphill of the historic marker—there is a faint trail—you will find the remnants of terraces leveled for buildings.
Mammoth Gold has good maps of the Mammoth City site, and historic photos taken after 1900. Imagine the noise and activity of 130 years ago. Please do not touch or remove anything.
This is the first in a series of articles describing historic sites. Contact Evanne Jardine at
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Backtracking from Mammoth City to Mill City
By Evanne Jardine
Special to the Mammoth Times
Our first article described the Mammoth City historical site. This time we’ll backtrack down Old Mammoth Road to the Mill City site. Drive up Old Mammoth Road beyond the last residential development, the Bluffs. You will find a small, dirt parking area to your left.
Adjacent to the parking area is a grave site, apparently belonging to Mary Townsend. Mrs. Townsend and her husband decided to spend the winter of 1880-1881 in Pine City, near Lake Mary, since he and his partner had claimed a promising mine site in the Lake Mining District.
During a blizzard, Mr. Townsend accidentally shot his wife while cleaning his shotgun. When the ground thawed in the spring he buried her near Mill City and marked the grave with a picket fence, since stolen. Gary Caldwell relates the whole story in his book, Mammoth Gold.
Across Old Mammoth Road from the parking area, a sign points to the trail leading to the site of the 40 stamp mill, a mill much too large for the output of the mines. All that remains is a huge fly wheel that once was powered by the water wheel you can see outside the Snow Creek Rental Office. (More on the life of that water wheel in another article).
Offices of the Mammoth Mining Company were located at Mill City. The Mine’s name was meant to suggest the magnitude of the gold discovery, “the largest bonanza outside Virginia City.” In those days, Mammoth Mountain was called Pumice Mountain. For all the juicy details about the Mammoth Mine Company, read Gary Caldwell’s account.
Mammoth Gold, by Gary Caldwell, and Old Mammoth, by Adele Reed, both feature photos of the mill site. These books are available at the Southern Mono Historical Society’s Hayden Cabin Museum, the Mammoth Lakes Visitor’s Center and the Booky Joint.
This article is the second in a series on historic sites around Mammoth. Contact Evanne Jardine at
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Last Updated ( Friday, 06 June 2008 )
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