 Big Pine High School and Grammar Schools |
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All photo cards and photographs on this page courtesy of Rich McCutchan archives unless otherwise noted. The photographs of the Smith and Tate family, and other early Big Pine residents, are from two personal Big Pine photo albums in Rich's Archives. See USE NOTICE on Home Page. |
 Unknown Big Pine residents |
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 Perca Ramden in Grub Gulch - 1899 |
 Howard and Dottie Wilson |
 L/R: Marie Hough, Ardys & Faye Smith |
 Bill Smith and his wife |
 Bill Smith |
 Faye Smith - 1912 (4 years old) |
 Grandma May in Big Pine |
 Howard Smith |
 Dolly Smith |
 Faye Smith |
 First airplane landing in Big Pine, CA - 1918 (Faye Smith is the young girl standing near the plane's tail ailerons.) |
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 Faye Smith - 1908 |
 Faye Smith |
 Bill Smith |
 Unknown |
 Big Pine, CA basketball team - 1915 |
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 Unknown Big Pine residents |
 Millard Smith's market in Big Pine, CA |
 Mother May's house in Big Pine, CA |
 Packing up in Big Pine, CA |
L/R: Faye Smith, Ardys Smith, Marie Hough |
 Unknown |
 Unknown Big Pine resident |
 Unknown Big Pine residents |
 Unknown Big Pine resident |
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 Unknown Big Pine resident |
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 Part of the WWI Allied army Howard Smith with French orphans - 1919 in France |
 Nellie Kispert (married as Nellie Smith) |
 Ardys Smith |
 Harvesting crops in Big Pine for shipment on the Carson & Colorado, either at the Monola, or Manzanar siding |
 Carson & Colorado Railroad siding at: Monola, or Manzanar |
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 Big Pine's "big flood" of 1914 |
 Big Pine's "big flood" of 1914 |
 Big Pine's "big flood" of 1914 |
 Hall's hall in Big Pine, CA |
 Hall's hall after the big snow of 1916 |
 Howard Smith's turkey ranch in Big Pine, CA |
 Howard Smith's turkey ranch in Big Pine, CA |
 The first airplane to land in Big Pine, CA |
 Howard Smith's ranch - 10 miles southwest of Big Pine, CA |
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 Our house in Big Pine, CA |
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 Ardys Smith |
 L/R: ? Lewis and Howard Smith |
 Big Pine, CA "Harvestival Band" - 1913 |
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 Big Pine residents |
 L/R: Ardys, Helen Reichenback, Marion Rhode |
 At the mine |
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 Big Pine, CA residents |
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 Wishing well postcard |
 In the WWI military band: L/R: ?, ?, Howard Smith, ? Lewis |
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When Big Pine was "nearly" still a pioneer town (1900) |
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 Main Street Big Pine, CA |
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 Big Pine, California - 1914 |
 Big Pine School |
 Big Pine Hall |
 Owens River Poultry Company |
 Big Pine, California |
 Big Pine, California |
 Main Street Big Pine, California |
 Hotel Butler, Big Pine, CA |
 Crocker Avenue, Big Pine, CA |
 Hotel Butler, Big Pine, CA |
 Welch's Cafe - Big Pine, California |
 Big Pine Station |
 Hotel Butler, Big Pine, CA |
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 Big Pine, California |
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 Big Pine, California |
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 Big Pine, CA - circa 1928 |
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Wing Foo and the Hotel Butler (1893 - 1969) |
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 News article courtesy of Hal Eaton Thanks should be given to Dee Hildebrand for documenting Ong Wing Foo's history. He appears often in the local newspaper going on back country hunting and fishing trips with other locals. He is also in the JD Black collection as part of attempts to get reparations from Los Angeles. In later years he is often mentioned in the local oral histories as being the only Asian person in the Valley before Manzanar, but it truth many if not the majority of cooks and vegetable farmers in the towns and on large ranches were Chinese or Chinese-Americans until the 1930s. |
 News article courtesy of Hal Eaton |
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"A Near View of the High Sierra"
by John Muir
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 Main Street |
 Town Hall |
 Grammar School |
 Pioneer Pageant |
 Movin' out the sheep |
 Big Pine Swimming Pool |
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 Joseph's Groceries |
 The Fire House! |
 Unknown residents |
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| Hi
Ray, I read with interest your commentary on early Big Pine. My dad was born in Big Pine in 1908, the youngest of five children. His name was Allen and his twin sister was Alliene. All five of the Crocker children are deceased. My dad married Helen Montrose of bodie in the late twenties and my sister and I are a product of that marriage. His older brother Albert was the most senior game warden in the state of Califronia when he retired. I've researched the history of the Owens Valley to some degree and my family goes back several generations. I went to school in Big Pine from 1946 until the year my dad passed on in 1952. A little insight in my childhood, when I was about ten (1948) the pack station on Big Pine creek was owned by Ed and Marge Sargent. Their son, Jim, was my best friend (we were nine months apart in age) and we roamed the hills from the pack station to all the lakes of the chain on upper Big Pine Creek and into the Baker Creek area also. My grandfather, I was told, donated the land for the cemetery, school, and church in Big Pine in the early nineteen hundreds and his grand dad was involved in one of the last Indian skirmishes on the north end of Owens Lake in the late eighteen eighties. The Greggs and Crockers ran cattle under four brands on a ranch in the east slope, Nevada side of the White Mountains. I have some family history written by family members as memorabilia on incidents and people. My dad, Allen Crocker (known as "Chum") was born in Big Pin in 1908. There was a twin sister and two older brothers and another older sister. I'm related to about half the valley by marriage, the Rossi's, the Mitchell's, the Gregg's, and a number of other pioneer families. I left the valley in 1952 after my dad passed away and my mom had to go to So. Cal. to find work. My dad and my uncle, Albert (the local state fish and game warden) worked off and on for Ed Sargent at the pack station as a wrangler and camp cook. Jim and I roamed the mountains at the age of ten to fourteen without any adult supervision, just fishing exploring. This activity would be frowned on in today's society. Anyhow, just wanted you to know kind of what my history was and if you could find any information on my family background. A.M. Crocker December 2008 |
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by Clarice Tate Uhlmeyer |
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 Tom Tate on his horse Billy which he rode to and from his farm in Big Pine during the 1920s |
 Esther Tate (Tom's wife) |
11/21 Winter in Big Pine, CA |
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Vintage Eastern Sierra Brochures | |
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Cerro Gordo | |
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More Big Pine |
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Early Bishop Residents |
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Mary Austin |
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The Carson & Colorado Railroad in Owens Valley |
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This page was last updated on
23 April 2024