Byway Main Page

Byway Sites (Traveling South to North)

1. Topaz Lake
2. Walker River
3. Bridgeport
4. Conway Summit
5. Virginia Creek
6. Mono Lake
7. Mono Craters
8. June Lake
9. Crestview
10. Mammoth Lakes
11. Crowley Lake
12. Sherwin Grade
13. Round Valley
14. Bishop
15. Bristlecone Pines
16. Division Creek
17. Owens Valley
18. Dehy Park
19. Manzanar
20. Lone Pine
21. Diaz Lake
22. Coso Junction
23. Fossil Falls

 

Site No. 4 — Conway Summit

Highlights

• Dog Town: Eastern Sierra's first gold hot spot took moniker from miners' term for camps with huts/ hovels.
• Discovery of gold in 1859 sustained rush that started at Dog Town in 1857.
• Largely responsible for development of Bodie.

Dogown: Mining History

Seven miles south of Bridgeport, the first placer gold mining settlement in the Eastern Sierra was formed at Dogtown in 1859 . A settlement of 70 Mormon families sprang to life in short order, but the small town lasted just a few years; the gold played out, and the miners moved a few miles further south to Monoville.

In the late 1850’s, rich gold and silver deposits were also discovered in nearby Bodie, Masonic and Aurora. Modern day prospectors continue to look for gold on the slopes of 12,374 foot-high Dunderberg Peak, considered the source of the Dogtown placer gold.

 

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