Laws Railroad Museum; A Gem in Owens Valley

four miles north of bishop california in the remarkable owens valley is the laws railroad museum it is a treasure trove of history and artifacts from a bygone era when miners ranchers and railroads were expanding westward [Music] you know they made this movie yeah uh was steve mcqueen uh nevada smith and this this was the bar so they donated this to us wow how cool and and over here is a mining display those guys are out there today they're well worth making it over there the first train arrived at bishop depot in 1883. the narrow gauge line was owned by the carson and colorado railroad and dubbed the railroad that was built 300 miles too long or 300 years too early 1959 the only structures left were the depot the agent's house oil and water tanks and the turntable [Music] and again nowhere ended nowhere and stopped all night to think it over okay [Music] today there are 50 structures on 11 acres many were saved from demolition and relocated to the property some were donated after the filming of the 1966 film nevada smith starring steve mcqueen [Music] oh my gosh how fascinating i've never seen a coffin made out of wicker [Music] [Music] in 1953 they installed a motorola two-way radio [Music] oh my gosh look at that forget getting a permanent curler that's for giving a permanent john oh my god these dance these dances i've never heard of the shotisk [Music] the newport i'll have to look some of these up vars varsuviana [Music] the phone was specially made and colored for jeanette mcdonald the golden voice was used by her in her home in beverly hills between 1948 and 1960. if you're interested in a train ride check the museum's website for the train schedule the price is five dollars for the 15 minute ride [Music] if you stop here and look over there you'll see a man-made portal and there's a recording inside there when you walk up close to it that when it sends your motion it will start talking start uh you'll hear uh drilling in the mine local mine and then fire in the hole we'll run out the highlight of our visit was probably the mining tour from a very knowledgeable volunteer hole in a pattern like this for the dynamite one and one half ounces of gold per ton and seven ounces of silver okay do you know where it came from yes it it also came from uh colorado oh the silverton area they couldn't get anything from bodhi huh yeah wow wow that is awesome i had had a piece before it got buried oh here it is that they never showed us gold in school this this is a an example of hydrothermal deposition because you have have the quartz crystals uh in this in the center so you're a zen nerd too huh yeah we call us dent nerds okay but look at the that's so neat to see these crystals this this would be called an avid this is a show yeah uh and uh it's at the head of a shaft uh and it's a frame and that's just an assumption of why it's called what it's called [Music] here this is a aerial tram the way one would have been used and constructed hot dog or sausage he said it's not a hot dog until you put it in a bun [Laughter] so that is slick inside and not 30 feet away from this perhaps was this so basically it was along a fall yeah that's when that's what made it this is a piece of the gold ore that uh i've never seen gold ore by the way what's your name jay jay i'm better known as uh in some cases is not so because my last name is smart so here's the rock that comes through the grizzly up here and into our production crusher here this is a jaw crusher [Music] so that's a flask of mercury this is a flask which is a liter okay 76 and a half pounds on the commodities market it was going for 375 dollars wow it's like starting an airplane now it's firing every time it comes up on the compression stroke pretty soon when it says operating speed it's going to begin to miss one purpose now it's at oh yeah again [Music] the lighter material with the lubrication of the water flows across the riffles so what would they use that for this that's the same thing as all that millions okay [Music] [Music] yeah but see how it's self-feeding one of the things that makes this place so special is that you can actually walk in and you know be with the stuff [Music] [Music] these beautifully crafted replica borax wagons were built by ingles coat shop in jolly at montana the wagons were pulled by a matched set of 20 mules owned and trained by bobby tanner of bishop california i'll include a link in the description box to the video where you can see their maiden voyage [Music] [Music] it's a westinghouse flavor zone oven oh look at all the points arrowheads artifacts nice really nice what a nice display [Music] oh yeah i am so impressed with this place they have done so much in the last 40 years and it was just interesting the people are fabulous there's nobody here but you can't miss this when you come through bishop law's railroad museum right off us-6 and u.s six goes all the way from bishop california to provincetown massachusetts that would be a neat road trip and they went broke a lot of the ranchers invested in the hike waterson brothers okay and anyway when the one brother died he also took that combination with him so they say anybody that can open that lulls will split it with you [Music] you

Channel: From She to Me

Views: 3,824

Rating: 4.9808612 out of 5

Keywords: laws railroad museum, bishop california, owens valley, mining tour, slim princess, pleasureway ascent, history of owens valley, carson and colorado railroad, mining equipment, arrastra, adit, things to do in owens valley

Id: KjiWWKEbKPo

Length: 12min 43sec (763 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 01 2021