Mono Lake, California Ghost Town

The historic Tioga Lodge overlooks the mystical-looking Mono Lake. Many do not realize this was once a town by the same name. Starting as a toll gate, Mono Lake grew into a store and community hub with one of the only telephone lines in the basin. Ironically, while its history pre-dates nearby Bodie, owners relocated many structures from the famous ghost towns.

While the beauty of Mono Lake is incomparable, it is also fraught with danger, including avalanches and desperados leading to shootouts and the death of the Mono County Sheriff.

Toll Gate at Mono

Long before the arrival of Highway 395 through Mono Basin, the route started as a path for Native Americans, early explorers, prospectors and wagon trains. Counties and states lacked the funds to create and maintain roads, so individuals or groups constructed roads. In return for their investment and continued maintenance, travelers compensated the owners with tolls.

Like most, Andrew Thompson and Arch McNam came to the eastern Sierra to prospect. They discovered their calling was not in mining but in building a road on the west side of Mono Lake. The partners opened a toll station where Tioga Lodge is now located and charged travelers fifty cents per horse and wagon. Andy was the older partner and sadly passed, becoming the first person buried at Mono Lake Cemetery.

Arch, cousin to Venita McPherason of Mono Inn, played the violin at dances at Lundy, but following Andy’s death, he was lonely and left the area. Tom Moyle purchased the toll station and operated a store.

Around 1897, owners relocated buildings from Bodie to Mono Lake; they are now the registration and restaurant for Tioga Lodge. In 1908, additional buildings were relocated from Lundy.

Hammond’s Station

Jack and Dick Hammond worked at Sheepherder Mine at Tioga. They started a sawmill around 1898 in Lundy and operated a toll gate at Mill Creek. The sawmill and toll station in Lundy were sold to purchase the Mono Lake toll gate and store at Mono Lake, renaming it Hammond’s Station.

Accounts of Dick’s story vary. Some report he was shot and killed by an unknown assailant outside his cabin in Lundy. Others report he purchased Hammond’s Station with his brother. Only Jack or J.P. is mentioned in the newspaper reports of Hammondn’s Station.

Post Office

The post office of Mono opened on March 21, 1882. Two years later, it moved to Bodie. In 1989, a post office opened as Mono Lake with John Mattley as the first postmaster. The office was a single room with cubby holes for mail.

John was a bachelor, despite his attempts at finding a bride. He was proud of his silver beard, which hung to his knees. Usually pinned up, he left it hanging free at dances in an attempt to woo women. Despite the power of his beard, he remained single and turned to a magazine advertisement to find his wife. Following the exchange of letters and photos, Mrs. Benadict and her son moved to Mono Lake for her to marry John. The couple had a ranch and small dairy near the Jordan Power Plant.

Avalanches

Famed Mark Twain visited Mono Lake and wrote of the weather.

Under favorable circumstances it snows at least once in every single month in the year, in the little town of Mono. So uncertain is the climate in summer that a lady who goes out visiting cannot hope to be prepared for all emergencies unless she takes her fan under one arm and her snow shoes under the other. 

Mark Twain, Rouging It

While the setting of the town of Mono Lake is beautiful, it is in a precarious position at the base of the Sierra and avalanches are all too common. Mono Lake was hit at least twice by avalanches in 1911 and 1922.

The 1911 Mono Herald and Bridgeport Chronicle-Union described the avalanche as a “huge snowball.” The snowslide destroyed the post office and “crowded it into the lake.” Additionally, it tore Mattley’s Dance Hall from its foundation.

On February 10, 1922, an avalanche struck the same location, hitting the cabins of J.W. Penders and Dan Guis. Guis had taken refuge at the McPhearson home. Penders thought it would be safe to remain at home as it had survived previous storms. Tragically the cabin’s luck ran out. The avalanche swept his cabin into Mono Lake, killing Jim. Unable to access the roads, Justice of the Peace Mrs. Hilton arrived at Mono Lake via boat. They made a coffin from the ruins of Pender’s cabin and buried him at the Mono Lake Cemetery.

Mono Lake’s Community Center

Hammond’s Station became the center of the Mono Basin. One of the area’s only telephones drew residents to the store for updates from the outside world. The telephone line owned by Mr. Bryant was a single line mounted on poles with bottles as insulators. The phone was down much of the winter.

The Kootzaduka Tribe, the southernmost band of the Northern Paiute, lives at Mono Lake. They spend their winters on the east side of Mono Lake near Warm Springs as the weather is more cooperative. They spent the summer on the west side of Mono Lake, where they gathered food for winter. On Sundays, they traveled miles to Hammond’s Station to purchase supplies and play The Handgame, a game of chance played with sticks and bones. Women wore red bandanas over their hair.

Hammond’s Station at Mono Lake became a multifunctional combination of a toll station, gambling hall, and some say a brothel. They offered high-proof “Red eye” reported to make those who partook “see double and feel single.”

Mono Lake School

The Scanavinos farmed in Dayton, Nevada, but relocated to Mono Lake and purchased Goat Ranch. The family was so large they baked bread once a week using a 50-pound sack of flour. When they had five or six children, Joe joked about sending to Italy for another wife. His wife sent him to the proverbial dog house for his cheeky comments. They must have made up, the couple went on to have twelve or thirteen children.

With a dozen children, they were in dire need of a school. The building became the social center for Mono Lake, hosting dances, parties, and traveling shows, including Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Families took turns providing refreshments.

Tioga Lodge

In 1918, William and Ruby Cummingham, previously cattle ranchers from Minden, Nevada, purchased Hammond’s Store and renamed it the Tioga Lodge. They expanded the restaurant and lodging facilities.

Mexican Outlaws and the murder of Sheriff Dolan

In 1915, Mono Lake developers hired laborers from Mexico to dig ditches. While most of the men were honorable, a few were not. Juan Fransisco, age 50, and Theodore Teddy Solido, age 22, got drunk and kidnapped a girl, Sal, from the Piaute camp near Filosena Ranch. Pete Roberts and George Filosena rescued Sal. In retribution, Fransisco and Solindao attacked their ranch that night.

The following morning, Jim Duffy opened his store at Mono Lake to find it ransacked and missing whiskey, ammo, and clothing. Word spread, and ranchers and members of the tribe gathered at Duffy’s store and Hammond’s Station.

Learning of the “Mexican uprising,” Sheriff Dolan and his driver “Pud” Waltz drove from Bridgeport to Mono Lake, stopping at the Filosina Ranch to gather information. Pete Robers prophetically warned, “They’d just as soon shoot a sheriff as not.” At Hammond’s Station, Sheriff Dolan spotted two men wearing sombreros in the distance. Believing it was safer to proceed without others, Dolan and Pud headed south to catch up with the men. Pretending to have mechanical issues, Pud opened the hood of his vehicle, Dolan announced himself and asked the men to turn themselves in.

Fransisco and Solindao, one with a rifle and one with a pistol, fired on Sheriff Dolan, hitting him several times. Pud ran to Mattly ranch for help and the pair transported Dolan to Hammond’s Station. They summoned Dr. Ware from Bridgeport along with Dolan’s wife, Cordelia. Attempting to save the young sheriff’s life, they called additional surgeons from Bishop, Carson City, and Reno.

The surgeons were not able to save Dolan from the three gunshot wounds, one of which struck his abdomen. Dolan was conscious long enough to identify the man in the gray coat as firing the first shot. Tragically, Sheriff Dolan died at 2 in the afternoon.

A posse caught up with the bandits near Crater, where a shootout ensued, resulting in the deaths of Fransisco and Solido. The posse took the bodies to the Crater school, where the justice of the peace, Pearl Mattly, ruled the killing justified.

Sheriff Dolan’s widows forty-one year battle

Amazingly, due to technicalities, it took Sheriff Dolan’s wife forty-one years to receive compensation for her husband’s death and to cover his medical expenses.

Visiting Tioga Lodge

I have not had the change to stay at Tioga Lodge, but need to change that! They have a variety of cabins and rooms to rent. I’m unsure if they still have a restaurant, but Mono Inn is supposed to have amazing farm to table dinners. Sounds like I need to plan a trip!

WANT MORE GHOST TOWNS?

For information on more than five hundred ghost towns in Nevada & California, visit the Nevada Ghost Towns Map or a list of Nevada ghost towns.

Nevada Ghost Towns Map

---

References

• Calhoun, Margaret. Pioneers for Mono Basin. Artemisia Press, 1984.
• La Braque, Lily Mathieu. Man from Mono. Lily Mathieu La Braque, 1984.
• Mono Herald and Bridgeport Chronicle-Union Jul 18, 1891
• Mono Herald and Bridgeport Chronicle-Union Jun 25, 1892
• Mono Herald and Bridgeport Chronicle-Union Jun 8, 1889
• Mono Herald and Bridgeport Chronicle-Union Nov 9, 1901
• Mono Herald and Bridgeport Chronicle-Union Mar 28, 1903
• Mono Herald and Bridgeport Chronicle-Union May 16, 1903
• Mono Herald and Bridgeport Chronicle-Union Oct 5, 1907
• Mono Herald and Bridgeport Chronicle-Union Sep 26, 1908
• Mono Herald and Bridgeport Chronicle-Union. Jul 31, 1915
• Mono Herald and Bridgeport Chronicle-Union Feb 12, 1916 
• Mono Herald and Bridgeport Chronicle-Union Fri, Aug 3, 1956
• Owens Valley History
• Sierra Nevada Geo-Tourism: Tioga Lodge at Mono Lake
• Wedertz, Frank S. Mono Diggins: Historical Sketches of Old Bridgeport Big Meadows and Vicinity. Chalfant Press, 1978.

Follow me on social media:

• 
• 
• 
•