Sunshine Station, Nevada

A few feet inside of the Nevada border, on Bodie Road, sits the ruins of a stone building. Bodie Creek runs nearby, leaving the lower elevations marshy. The walls are overgrown with wild pink roses, leaving only the four corners of the rock structure exposed.   

Why are the ruins in a canyon notorious for flash floods and washouts and so far from Bodie and Aurora? 

Bodie Aurora Toll Road

During early mining booms, roads were difficult and time-consuming to construct. The Nevada Territory did not have the resources available to build and maintain the infrastructure. Between 1861 and 1864, Nevada awarded toll road franchises to individuals or groups who bid to construct roads. In return for their investment and continued maintenance, travelers compensated the owners with tolls.  

Despite close ties and heavy traffic between Bodie and San Francisco, travel between the cities was difficult. The fastest route headed westward from Bodie was a stagecoach to Aurora, then another stage to Carson City, boarding the Virginia & Truckee Railroad to Reno, and then connecting to the Central Pacific Railway to San Francisco. A traveler could count on a several-day trip, with meals and accommodations ranging from opulent to horrid.  

Sunshine Station

Lew Finney staked a road between Bodie and Aurora in 1978. The road was in notoriously poor condition, and yet another stage accident occurred.

Finney worked with J.C. Lockwood to improve the road and build a station house halfway between Bodie and Aurora. Originally named Half-Way House, the purveyors advertised good accommodations for man and beast, with meals always available for $.50, as well as wine, liquor, and cigars.

The partnership soon dissolved, with Lockwood assuming the road and station. The station was popular and in need of larger accommodations. Lockwood and his new partner, William Davidson, constructed a new stone house. In August, they celebrated the opening of “Sunshine Station” with a grand ball.
Tax records in 1882 indicate the addition of a small mill and flume to work tailings.

In 1888, Esmeralda County Commissioners expired the toll road franchise, reverting the ownership to the county. The 1900 census shows the partners living at Sunshine Station. In 1905, Davidson married to Josie Littell, of Yerington. Tragically, on March 8, 1910, Davidson was killed in a mining accident. His wife buried him in the Yerington cemetery. Lockwood and his wife relocated to Auburn, California, where he died in 1911.

“Road Agents”

Stagecoach robberies were common in Bodie Canyon. Sharp curves, narrow passages, steep cliffs and isolation were ideal for a ne’er-do-well looking to enhance his income. It is said that robberies occurred so often that horse teams would halt themselves in the canyon to await arriving highwaymen.

Stories differ on how stagecoach robbers behaved. Some robbers were polite to passengers, neither touching them nor their belongings, as selling stolen property in the sparsely populated West was risky and rewards were frequently posted. No one wanted his likeness on a wanted poster.  

During other hold-ups, once the cash box was relieved, robbers demanded at gunpoint that passengers place all their valuables in the bandit’s hat. After freeing the passengers from their possessions, the highwaymen made a fast, clean getaway, ensuing in the finest Western cinematic form.  

Both versions of the bandits are probably true. The Hollywood movie Desperado and the Victorian gentleman thief likely coexisted; one agreeable highwayman posed for a photograph during a robbery, taking an 1880s-style selfie with his victims! 

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References

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References

• Cain, Ella M. The Story of Bodie. Fearon Publishers, 1956. Pages 157-168.
• Forgotten Nevada: Sunshine Station
• McGrath, Roger D. Gunfighters, Highway Men and Vigilantes: Violence on the Frontier. University of California Press, 1894. Pages 71, 85.
• Paher, Stanley. Nevada Ghost Towns and Mining Camps. Nevada Publications, 1970. Page 471.
• The Second Promise: STAGECOACH ROBBERY — “Halt! Your money or your life!”
• Silver, Sue. Volume 3: Mineral County, Nevada: Volume, Early Transportation, Stagecoach, Steamboat and Narrow Gauge Rail. Museum Associates of Mineral County, 2011. Pages 166, 167 168, 171, 174, 177, 178.
• Silver, Sue. Mineral County, Nevada: Volume 5, Roads and Routes of the Past. Museum Associates of Mineral County, 2012. Pages 62, 86.
• Stewart, Robert E. Aurora: Nevada’s Ghost City of the Dawn. Nevada Publications, 2004. Pages 67-70.

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