Bodie State Historic Park

Good morning! Please enjoy these sunrise scenes from Bodie and have a terrific Tuesday.

Here is the last collection of photos from inside the Standard Mill’s motor room. Featured are the AC motor that would have synchronized with generator at Green Creek and the DC dynamo that would have powered the mining equipment and anything else that needed direct current. The motor is falling through the floor as it seems that part of the floor was not reinforced with bricks. According to Thomas Leggett, in the original mill, they first put in an oak floor as an insulated surface, but when that cracked, they added lined the floor with rubber when they fixed it. There is no sign of rubber now. Perhaps the 1898 replacement motor did not create a massive sparking arc of electricity when the system was unplugged? (Leggett describes the original system as doing so.)

Here is the next collection of photos from the Standard Stamp Mill’s motor room. This set includes devices on the walls (the first is said to be a voltage stepper) and smaller motors (one of them must be the one used to start the larger AC motor and bring it up to speed for synchronization). Plus, Thomas Haight Leggett’s article on using electricity in mining: https://books.google.com/books

As a follow-up to the earlier Live History Talk ( https://fb.watch/2bI8-gDRsZ/ ), here is the first collection of photos inside the motor room of the Standard Mill. These are things on or around (and probably used to be on) the gauge & instrument panel. The voltmeter is resting next to the DC dynamo, but as it is an AC voltmeter, that was probably not its original location. The lightning arrester is on the back and difficult to see on guided tours. The Westinghouse device is on the floor behind the rheostat and you can find a similar device in the field behind the Red Barn in Bodie.

Thank you to the brave men and women who have served and continue to serve our country today. #CAStateParks is honoring the military community on this #VeteransDay with free admission to 133 state parks with a valid military ID. To learn more, visit www.parks.ca.gov/VeteransDay2020.

Bodie bird rescue! Off-duty staff spotted this poor grebe in the snow along the 270 on Sunday. Our on-duty Ranger, in consultation with a local wildlife center, rescued the poor, half-frozen bird and kept it warm. Grebes, almost entirely aquatic, are unable to take off from land and this poor guy would certainly have perished without help. Park staff gave the bird the wet and the warmth it needed before passing it on to a wildlife volunteer yesterday. Here’s hoping this grebe quickly recovers and finds its way to a warm, watery winter home!

The Green Creek Hydroelectric Plant

It’s a bright sunny day in Bodie! There are about 5 inches of snow on the ground, it got down to -5 overnight, and it’s about 5 degrees now. We’ll let you know if Highway 270 reopens! If it does, bundle up and bring the sunblock & sunglasses!

In advance of tomorrow’s Live History Talk on the Standard Consolidated Mining Company’s hydroelectric plant at Green Creek (9:30am PST), here is a post that is... actually not as related as some think. The common idea about the electrical equipment that rests beside the trail to the Bodie Cemetery is that it comes from the Green Creek plant. The walking tour brochure that is available at the park suggests that it was from the Mill Creek (Lundy Canyon) plant at Jordan that su...pplied power to Bodie and towns beyond. Based on available information, however, neither seems to be the case. Tucked into the folder in our Bodie staff library that contains copies of Thomas Leggett’s articles about the Green Creek plant is a copy of an informal report by a Lynn N. Wendell. This report and a letter that came with it make a very strong case for this equipment being from the smaller hydroelectric plant in Lundy Canyon (that preceded the plant at Jordan by a decade or so) which supplied power to the May Lundy Mine and mill. Other information also supports this. In his articles, Leggett says that the Westinghouse Company provided the generator at the Green Creek plant in 1892-1893. The alternator pictured here is a Stanley Electric Mfg. Co. device. Considering that it was around 1890 that William Stanley Jr left Westinghouse and set up a competing company, it seems unlikely that Westinghouse would use Stanley’s machinery in a plant they were setting up. This machine also does not match pictures of the Green Creek machinery in the 1890s. So, unless they put in new equipment at the Green Creek plant later to match all the Stanley Electric Mfg. Co. S.K.C. Systems equipment that went in at the Stamp Mill after the 1898 rebuild, it seems unlikely that this equipment is from Green Creek. As for the 1910 plant on Mill Creek at Jordan? Bridgeport Chronicle Union articles at the time state that the generator was to be supplied by the Allis-Chalmers Company. Also, by this time, the Stanley Electric Manufacturing Company had become part of General Electric and the Stanley name stopped appearing on products around 1907. So, unless the Jordan plant used some old equipment as well as new, it seems highly unlikely these parts are from there. In any case, the Pelton water wheel and generator here are quite impressive!

We have just gotten word from CalTrans that they will be closing the 270 (Bodie Road) at 8pm tonight.

Well, a little more snow than was forecast fell overnight about 2 inches. CalTrans has not closed the 270, but are advising against unnecessary travel. If you do travel, please be prepared for winter road conditions.

Live History Talk: Water in Bodie

Brrr. Strong, chilly winds all day today and the clouds are moving in. Snow this weekend? We’ll find out.

Good morning! If you are looking to come to Bodie in the next few days, today is the day! It is sunny and relatively warm and the slight wind is forecast to be from the south. Tomorrow through the weekend, however, cold winds and snow that may even accumulate are in the forecast. Yosemite NP (which no longer requires day use reservations) is closing the Tioga Road at 6pm today and CalTrans will close Sonora Pass (108) and Monitor Pass (89) tomorrow morning at 10am.... https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php

Here’s a reflective Wildlife Wednesday post. Here are some photos of Bodie wildlife that park staff took over the summer. These beautiful non-human visitors were found in town or along the road to the park. If you were to visit now, most of these critters have migrated (mostly just to lower elevations where food is more available) or are already hibernating. You might spot flocks of bluebirds in the junipers lower down, a few Dark-Eyed Junko flitting from brush to shrub, or a busy chipmunk topping off its winter store. Some ravens and birds of prey might still fly overhead or call out as deer and grouse browsing the hills more extensively now that the cows have been rounded up. Photos courtesy of Morgan Wright.

November and the clocks have fallen back. Earlier this morning, the full moon was hiding itself behind Bodie Mountain at about the same time as the sun was emerging from behind the ridge. Reminder: with the time change, Bodie changes to winter hours of 9AM-4PM.

One might suppose that Bodie’s cemetery is a scary place at night, especially tonight. Yet, by the light of the full moon, it is a place of solemn beauty where it is very easy to recall that this time of year can also be a time of remembrance and that, for many people, is a time when those lost are closer than other days. Rest well, people of Bodie.

Virtual Halloween continues! We’re not great singers here at Bodie, so we spared you all and did not join this live segment.