"It seems to me I've either built this line 300 miles too long ... or 300 years to soon."The Carson and Colorado Railroad, dubbed the "Slim Princess" due to the mere 36" span of its rails, was conceived and funded by Darius O. Mills, a New York financier with a penchant for railroads. Construction of this narrow-gauge line began at Mound House, Nevada, on May 31, 1880, and ended at Keeler, California, on August 1, 1883. Faced with sweltering heat during an inspection tour that same month, Mills lost his enthusiasm for his project. The C & C ran for 77 years, connecting mining camps and small towns on the eastern side of Owens Valley in Inyo County, on into Mono County, and across the California state line into Nevada. Although some of the stops along the route through Owens Valley are still populated today, others are names known only to history enthusiasts. At one time or another during its 77 years of operations-whether under the original name, Carson & Colorado, or the Southern Pacific in later years-the following California communities were stations along the line: Keeler, the southernmost station-with a population today of about 70 people-Tramway, Owenyo, Manzanar-site of a Japanese relocation camp during WW II-Kearsarge, Aberdeen (formerly Tibbets), Monola (formerly Alvord), Zurich, Bigelow, Laws, Lone Pine, Cartago, Olancha, Loco, Little Lake, Brown, Inyokern, Code, Searles, Rand, Garlock, Ceneda, Cantil, Neuralia, Chaffee, Mojave, Piute, Hammill, and Benton. Additionally, the railroad serviced Queen, Summit, Basalt, Candelaria, Belleville, Rhodes, Sodaville, Mina, Luning, Kincade, Hawthorne, Thorne, Walker, Gillis, Schurz, Rio Vista, Wabuska, Churchill, Dayton, and Mound House in Nevada. Using original photos taken from the late 1940s through today, From Keeler to Laws: A Historic Journey in Pictures and Words, looks at the portion of the line that ran through the Owens Valley. It visits the southern terminus, Keeler, then progresses north-with a side trip to Cerro Gordo, one the richest mine sites in the area-then through Owenyo, Kearsarge, Zurich, and finally ending at the northern terminus, Laws. Also included are numerous original articles and newspaper clippings from the 1950s that give the reader a glimpse into a world most have forgotten. This book is a must for the libraries of railroad enthusiasts and armchair historians alike.
About the Author: It would be easy to dismiss L.T. Gotchy as just another "desert rat" of the Mojave, but his written accounts and pictorial records provide a significant if not unique addition to the history of Death Valley, the Mojave Desert, and surrounding Southern California areas. A long-time resident of California, he served as a medic during World War II, worked for the U.S. Forest Service as a firefighter, then spent 37 years with the Automobile Club of Southern California, patrolling desert roads and helping stranded motorists. A self-styled "documentary photographer," he continually added thousands of negatives and prints to his increasingly vast pictorial archives of interesting, unique, or little-known places throughout the deserts of Southern California and Nevada. OTHER L.T. GOTCHY PUBLICATIONS INCLUDE: Death Valley, the Manual From Keeler to Laws: A Historic Journey in Pictures and Words