High Strangeness at Lone Pine

3/27/2025

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Lone Pine, California has only one road with a traffic light. Whitney Portal Road heads westward across Highway 395, traversing the Alabama Hills and onto Mount Whitney which is nine miles away. It is the tallest mountain in mainland United States. Like many routes that started out as trails they are witness to human traffic and tragedy, and inevitably tales of hauntings.

El Camino Sierra (dirt road) in Lone Pine, CA c.1873 (Source - Eastern California Museum)

The Paiute Indians lived there, and before the Civil War, settlers moved into the area. Many of them raised cattle and sheep. It was not long before conflicts developed as the Indians' food source was driven away. They resorted to eating the settlers' cattle, and in 1861 the Owens Valley Indian War ensued between the native tribe and U.S. soldiers.

Like many places who have witnessed warfare, a phantom reenactment of the battle takes place, and throughout the years many residents have heard the sound of gunfire close to their homes.

The following describes an incident reported by a woman in the 1960s:

She lived on Whitney Portal Road and she heard gunfire one evening. Looking out the window she saw a black man dressed as an Indian warrior. He glanced back at her, but didn't bother her or confront her. He was soon joined by several additional Indians. They all crouched behind a tree and began firing rifles, reloading as necessary. The firing went on for fifteen minutes with not a bullet hitting the woman's house. Then, just like that, they all disappeared. Apparently the tale is fairly common amongst those who have lived in the neighborhood. Those who have heard the woman's tale, believe the black man to have probably been an ex-slave, now living amongst the Native Americans. Old bullet holes were even discovered in the direction the ghosts had been firing in.

The Meysans from France were one of the earliest families who settled in Lone Pine. They opened their store in 1868 and rebuilt after the 1872 earthquake.

By 1867, rich mines were discovered and developed in the vicinity of Lone Pine.

Like all boom towns, hotels, stores, saloons and fandango houses were erected. Not all tragedies were due to battles.

In that same year of 1867, a Mexican known as Indian Jesus shot a man named William Johnson in the head, but he in turn was shot in the groin, though not fatally. It all started over a card game, and both men had a notorious reputation well known in Los Angeles.

At the same time in another household, a man jealous of the attention his wife was receiving from a male friend of the family attempted to shoot her. Her mother sprang in front of her and was shot in the side. She survived, and the husband was arrested.

During those years, conflicts still existed between the natives and the settlers. In 1868, an Indian chief known as Manassas was ambushed and murdered. The chief was well known in those parts since he led a band of "renegades and cut-throats". Three years before they shot and killed a miner named Dutchy, and a year before he rolled stones down an inclined shaft at Cerro Gordo and crushed a Mexican working there. He went to the man's body, took out his brains and shot the corpse with several arrows. Manassas' murder was believed to be retaliation.

Meysan store (R) & Lola's saloon after it had been sold to Dick Richards. (L) He stands in front of it. Charles Meysan is at the far right on the porch of his general store. c.1866 (Source - Friends of Cerro Gordo)

Another entrepreneur who settled in Lone Pine during those tumultuous years was Lola Travis, who arrived with her brother and three children. In 1868, she brought a property on the corner of Main and Water Street and built a saloon there. She then sold half of the property to Charles Meysan, who established his general store. They had become acquainted when they were both at the gold camp in Columbia, and they maintained a good business relationship until the early 1880s when she sold the saloon. It then became known as Richard's Saloon.

The American Hotel was built in 1871, and stood for 149 years before burning in 2020, a year to the date it was opened.

During the 1870s, Lone Pine provided supplies to the nearby mining camps such as Cerro Gordo, Keeler, Swansea, Darwin and Tramway. They were eventually deserted and became ghost towns. In 2019, the show Ghost Adventures filmed at Cerro Gordo.

Golden trout from Rock Creek near Lone Pine, Calif. c.1928

There's another urban myth pertaining to who is known as "Rescue Man" or "Indian Jim". He was a gold prospector who was trapped in a sudden blizzard in the Alabama Hills, and froze to death. The legends tell of how he now wards other to leave the hills and return to the town while they can. The first person to have encountered Jim was another Indian named George, who was up in the hills looking for Tungsten. He heard someone calling his name, then Jim appeared and said, "go" pointing towards Lone Pine. George took the warning to heart and returned to town, just ahead of a strong blizzard that would have killed him had he stayed where he was.

No verification can be found for the story of Indian Jim, but perhaps the urban myth is an extension of what happened to another miner.

Strangers from across the world came to Lone Pine and Cerro Gordo to work and find their fortune. Some of them died in anonymity, with nothing beyond a first name to tell their story. Such is the story of Andre that appeared in the Inyo Independent on February 14, 1880:

Last Monday John Cartheny, while on the trail from Swansea to Beveridge District, found the body of a man frozen, stuffed in the snow near the summit of the Inyos, at a point about fifteen miles from Swansea. The fact was made known to Coroner John A. Lank, who went to the spot and had the frozen body packed on a mule and sent on the road to Swansea, where it was hauled to Lone Pine, where on the 8th an inquest was held in due form.

From testimony there elicited, it was found the deceased was named Andre, a native of France, aged about fifty-three years, and that he perished from exposure to cold on Saturday or Sunday last. He was found lying face downwards on about three feet of snow; his blankets were lying within arm's length. Coroner Lank further informs us that his feet were drawn up toward his face, and that the body was frozen so perfectly solid that it was impossible to move a limb in the slightest degree, and in that form the body was hung across the pack animal and packed out of the mountains. Deceased came from Lake District not long since, and was a stranger in these parts. He was buried in the Lone Pine cemetery."

Lola Travis once described as a beautiful woman when she ran the Palace of Pleasure, retired to a respectable life in Bakersfield (Source - Friends of Cerro Gordo)

Death and life went hand in hand and so did opportunity, so Lola Travis sensing brighter horizons than those available in Lone Pine, moved on to Cerro Gordo, and established a brothel named the Palace of Pleasure. The town is situated high on Buena Vista Peak at an elevation of 8,500 feet, with Owens Valley far below. It was primarily known for silver and lead mining operations that spanned from 1866 to 1957. At one point it was California's largest producer of silver.

Lola competed with another madam named Maggie Moore who owned the Waterfall. In a place where mines produced $2 million in bullion in 1874 alone, there was plenty of money to be made by entertaining lonely miners.

However loneliness, liquor and mean tempers make bad bedfellows. In 1873, in Maggie Moore's whore house alone, seven men were shot, and four killed outright. At one point there was an average of one murder per week in Cerro Gordo. Scared for his life, the town doctor left due to the unrestrained violence, and the law was miles away. The deaths continued and its populace stumbled along until 1938, when the Union Mine closed down.

The May 7, 1875 edition of the Los Angeles Times reported on a stage robbery at Cerro Gordo:

....at a place known as the Yellow Grade, three miles from Cerro Gordo, four men simultaneously appeared armed with shot guns, and covering the driver, halted the stage while the other six unhooked the horses from the stage, and tied up the passengers. The driver was requested to step off to one side and sit down upon a rock, meantime being covered with a shot gun In the hands of one of the robbers. The robbers then went through the passengers for all they had, and taking the United States mails and Wells, Fargo & Co.'s box, they packed them on one of the horses and started off.

Article from 1889, describing where there was an old Indian tradition which spoke of the lake monster

However it wasn't only murderous miners that brought high strangeness to Lone Pine; only 5 miles south of the town is Owens Lake which measured 90 miles in length and 14 miles wide, with a depth of 30 feet. The Owens River and other springs supplied it with water.

Alkali, borax and strong elements charged it so thoroughly that it cut leather and cloth, as well as destroyed grease and soap.

Mount Whitney sits off its west side, with rugged mountains rising from the east. Southward lies a dry valley. Despite its inhospitable composition in the 1860s there were reports of a serpent-like creature that made its home there.

In 1868, The San Francisco Examiner reported the following:

The Owens Lake Monster has been seen once more. Some time before the sun went down, two young men were riding along on horseback, on the west side of Owens Lake. They live in the valley and had heard the story of the Mexicans who saw something strange on the lake one night, but was not generally believed. Both of these men had frequently scanned the surface of the lake, to verify the story, but neither of them had seen anything of the serpent until the night in question. On this occasion they observed something unusual about a mile from shore. A huge animal was swimming rapidly along, throwing out waves on both sides. It went half a mile, then went below the surface a few moments; when it came up it, and started on the back track for a mile or so. They described the creature to be 100 feet long and over four feet in diameter, and of a grayish color.

A view of Owens Lake from Cerro Gordo, California, showcasing the dry lakebed and surrounding landscape. c.1939

Colonel Stevens, Superintendent of a mining company at Lone Pine saw the monster in June 1868, and his description coincided with the report of these two men in regards to its length and color. The Colonel said he saw it throw water 50 feet high.

In 1913, the lake went dry after the Owens River was diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

During the 1870s, Owens Lake was used to transport bullion and supplies for the mines at Cerro Gordo with the steamships Bessie Brady and the Mollie Stevens.

Present day, winds stir up alkali dust storms, and shallow flooding has been used to stifle the dust. This has brought shorebirds back to the lake. In 2023, the lake flooded for the first time in over 100 years due to numerous storms that struck California during the first three months of that year.

The mystery persists though as to how a sea serpent ended up in the lake, and how it could survive in the water. Could it have been the product found at the bottom of a bottle?

Colonel Sherman Stevens' (eyewitness to the lake monster) Old Mill at lower end of Cottonwood Meadows, Sierra Nevada Mountains. Inyo County, CA

On March 26, 1872, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit Lone Pine, which did not leave a building standing. Those that survived described hearing screams and groans coming from many of the populace, which were buried beneath the ruins of the mud and adobe structures.

The first shock was followed by three more. Strong trembling was felt for over three hours. A chasm opened up extending for 35 miles down the Owen Valley ranging from 3 inches to 40 feet in width. Twenty-six people lost their lives. A mass grave, just north of the town commemorates the site of the main fault.

Hopalong Cassidy set c.1939

Lone Pine and the nearby Alabama Hills have been the location for hundreds of films, commercials and television shows.

In 1920, the films Cupid the Cowpuncher starring Will Rogers and The Last Roundup were produced there. Godzilla, Iron Man and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen are only some of the ones filmed there in the 21st century.