Lone Pine history
Okay I am really dating myself but here goes. Back in the early sixties there was a fellow named Bob White. He owned Bob White Flying Service out of Lone Pine and was recognized as "the authority" on flying along the Eastern Sierras. There were a couple of airports actually in the local mountains, Templeton Meadows, and Monache Meadows as I recall. Both of these airports had taken their toll on lives and airframes. Not sure if either of them are open these days. I had only been into Monache Meadows once with a fellow that had a lot more experience than I. Bob White was famous for a lot of things but probably one of the biggest was finding a DC3 that had crashed up against Mt. Whitney in the winter of 1969?
They were coming from somewhere (Hawthorne, Searchlight, NV?) to Burbank in the middle of a snowstorm. 26 pax, two pilots, and a stew. They were tryng to sneak over on to the western side of the mountains. The storm was so powerful that even though this happened around Christmas, they did not locate the airplane until the following summer. Probably a lot of DC3 parts still up there on the mountain side. It was a very big deal in the Calfornia papers at the time. I think a Google search would provide more details but none the less, Bob White was the man that found the wreckage.
Outside of Lone Pine, right up against the mountains there is a road refered to as "movie road". There were probably dozens if not more western movies shot up in these locations. Watching westerns from the 60's era, you can see some of the local sights in the background. Be sure to do the Whitney Portal climb someday. About half way up in the middle of no where you might come accross a stone cabin. This supposedly had originally belonged to Lon Channey, the early movie actor that specialized in early horror movies in the thirties. Not sure if this is true, but that was the story told in those days. You can do a Google search for all the movies made in and around Lone Pine. Quite a few.
Okay I am really dating myself but here goes. Back in the early sixties there was a fellow named Bob White. He owned Bob White Flying Service out of Lone Pine and was recognized as "the authority" on flying along the Eastern Sierras. There were a couple of airports actually in the local mountains, Templeton Meadows, and Monache Meadows as I recall. Both of these airports had taken their toll on lives and airframes. Not sure if either of them are open these days. I had only been into Monache Meadows once with a fellow that had a lot more experience than I. Bob White was famous for a lot of things but probably one of the biggest was finding a DC3 that had crashed up against Mt. Whitney in the winter of 1969?
They were coming from somewhere (Hawthorne, Searchlight, NV?) to Burbank in the middle of a snowstorm. 26 pax, two pilots, and a stew. They were tryng to sneak over on to the western side of the mountains. The storm was so powerful that even though this happened around Christmas, they did not locate the airplane until the following summer. Probably a lot of DC3 parts still up there on the mountain side. It was a very big deal in the Calfornia papers at the time. I think a Google search would provide more details but none the less, Bob White was the man that found the wreckage.
Outside of Lone Pine, right up against the mountains there is a road refered to as "movie road". There were probably dozens if not more western movies shot up in these locations. Watching westerns from the 60's era, you can see some of the local sights in the background. Be sure to do the Whitney Portal climb someday. About half way up in the middle of no where you might come accross a stone cabin. This supposedly had originally belonged to Lon Channey, the early movie actor that specialized in early horror movies in the thirties. Not sure if this is true, but that was the story told in those days. You can do a Google search for all the movies made in and around Lone Pine. Quite a few.
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The airstrips you mentioned are still there but unusable. Monache Meadows is the lowest in elevation and the next up is Templeton Meadows and a third one, higher still, is Tunnel Meadows. They are all consumed by or surrrounded by the Golden Trout Wilderness Area. Monache actually has a few hundred acres of private land, or did when I backpacked up there over 20 years ago. But half the stip is in the wilderness area. The cabins and such from the old ranch are still there. The route in is through Olanche and Olanche Pass. It is a one-way strip because of the hill on north side of it. Land one way, and takeoff the opposite direction.
