One Hundred Years in Yosemite: The Story of a Great Park and Its FriendsRussell, Carl Parcher
History
One Hundred Years in Yosemite: The Story of a Great Park and Its Friends
Russell, Carl Parcher
Yosemite National Park (Calif.) -- History; Yosemite Valley (Calif.) -- History
The partners apparently remained on the ground and equipped themselves
to work their claims. In March, 1860, Body and “Black” Taylor went to
Monoville for supplies, and en route were overtaken by a severe
snow-storm. Body became exhausted, and Taylor attempted to carry him but
was forced to wrap a blanket around him and leave him. Taylor returned
to their cabin, obtained food, and then wandered about all night in a
vain search for his companion. It was not until May that Body’s body was
found, when it was buried on the west side of the black ridge southwest
of the present town. Taylor’s fate has already been mentioned.
Other miners came into the vicinity, and at a meeting, with E. Green
presiding, “Body Mining District” was organized. Subsequent usage
changed “Body” to “Bodie.” In the summer of 1860, prospectors located
lodes a few miles north of Bodie that were destined to put the Bodie
find “in the shade” for some years to come. This was the Aurora
discovery, upon which the Esmeralda District, organized in 1860,
centered. Aurora forged ahead and became a wildly excited camp, but its
bloody career was little more than a drunken orgy. The rich ores which
had induced extravagance and wild speculation disappeared when shafts
had been sunk about one hundred feet, and the “excitement” came to a
sudden end.
It is worthy of note that the first board of county supervisors of the
county of Mono met in Aurora, June 13, 1861. By 1864 it was discovered
that the camp was some miles within the state of Nevada; so Bridgeport
was named the county seat. Just before the move was made, a substantial
courthouse had been built in Aurora, and the old building still stands.
E. A. Sherman, first editor of the _Esmeralda Star_ of Aurora, journeyed
to the Eastern States prior to 1863-64, and took with him a fifty-pound
specimen of rich Aurora ore. This chunk of rock had been sold and resold
at mining-camp auctions to swell the Sanitary Fund, the Civil War “Red
Cross.” Thousands of dollars were added to the fund by this one
specimen, just as had been done through repeated sale of the celebrated
Austin (Nevada) sack of flour.
Mr. Sherman met Mr. Davis of the Pilgrim Society in Plymouth,
Massachusetts, and exchanged the Aurora ore for a piece of Plymouth
Rock. This fragment of Plymouth Rock was brought back to Aurora, and
when the Mono County courthouse was built there, the Plymouth Rock
fragment was placed in the cornerstone. The fifty-pound chunk of Aurora
ore still may be seen in the Plymouth Society’s venerable museum.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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