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How a summer cabin became a museum |
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Friday, 06 June 2008 |
By Evanne Jardine
 Construction began on Emmett Hayden's cabin in 1928, and, with a little help from his friends, it was completed in 1938.MAMMOTH TIMES PHOTO/SUSAN MORNING
Located on the south side of Mammoth Creek, it can be reached by following Old Mammoth Road from Highway 203. Cross the creek and turn left on to Sherwin Creek Road, then turn left again at the sign for the museum. Traveling down that narrow road is itself a journey into Mammoth’s history.
Mammoth Meadow had been attracting summer visitors for more than 20 years when Emmett Hayden received a permit to build a summer cabin in 1927. Charles Wildesinn built the first hotel in 1905.
The first tourists and summer residents came from Bishop, seeking the cool mountain climate. The increasing popularity of the automobile soon brought more tourists from the southland. Mammoth’s first gas station was built in 1923.
In 1917 the Mammoth Ranger District of the Inyo National Forest set out three residential tracts, granting almost 100 99-year leases by the early 1920s. When Emmett got his permit he designed a log cabin to harmonize with its setting next to Mammoth Creek.
That summer he felled 52 lodgepole pines and hauled them one by one from the Dead Man Summit area to the cabin site. Each one was peeled and then left to dry for a year. Using only hand tools, Hayden began construction in 1928. Numerous friends helped with the project but even so it dragged on until 1938. Ranger Doug Robinson said the incomplete cabin and temporary living quarters were “...unsightly and cause us much embarrassment.”
The cabin was closed for the duration of World War II while map-maker Hayden worked as a draftsman at Lockheed. After the war a kitchen and bathroom were added and a bunkhouse built nearby. Starting in 1952 modern conveniences such as running water and sewage disposal were installed. Electricity came in 1959.
In 1966 a provision of the Wilderness Protection Act converted all 99-year leases to annual leases. Emmett’s term lease was set to expire December 31, 1983, with no extensions. Over the years Forest Service policies changed. Abandoned cabins were being torn down or burned. Frame cabins along Mammoth Creek were burned. In 1985 the Southern Mono Historical Society, formed to save the historic cabin, signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Forest Service.
“August 6, 1985, was the date of the long planned event — the grand opening of the Museum of the Southern Mono Historical Society. The event was a spectacular success, with more than 130 people attending a grand Fiesta, with Mexican food and music, and even a Pinata for the children.” As Chris Martin wrote in the SMHS Newsletter that year..
Since that day the Museum has received many donations of historic significance for its collection. The society made much needed major repairs to the cabin in 1994. The Hayden Cabin is open daily in the summer from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Great events at the Hayden Cabin already scheduled for this summer are: Jazz Jubilee BBQ with Band TBA, 11 a.m. - 2 p.m., Thursday, July 10; Annual Old-timer’s BBQ, from 5 – 9 p.m., Saturday, July 26; Country Western Dance and BBQ, 5 – 9 p.m., Saturday, August 23. Check this newspaper for announcements of other special events, or call the Museum at (760) 934-6918.
The Southern Mono Historical Society is a nonprofit organization, which relies on the donations it receives from visitors to the Museum and from its members to supplement grants from the town of Mammoth Lakes and Mono County. To join, call (760) 934-3480.
Evanne Jardine, a Mammoth resident for 16 years and member of the Southern Mono Historical Society Board, writes about local history and occasionally teaches a class, Settling the Eastern Sierra. For more information contact her at
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Last Updated ( Friday, 13 June 2008 )
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