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Olancha / Dirty Sox / Grant / Dunmovin
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Dirty Sox Panorama, above, courtesy of Ray DeLea
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All
photo cards courtesy of Rich McCutchan unless otherwise noted.
See USE NOTICE on Home Page.
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 09/21
Barney Sears
(From and Irma Cline Collection acquired by Rich McCutchan) |
Barney Sears' cabin in Monache Meadows - circa 1920s
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05/21
Oaks Pack Station
out of Olancha |
Woody Raper Cafe
(Courtesy of Randy Tolle)
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Downtown
Olancha, California circa 1940 |
Cowboys
Have Always Been Heroes
by Lynn Clay
Offerings Gleened off of Ebay |
A. F. Castner Texaco Service Station - Olancha, CA. |
W. W. Raper Chevron Service Station - Olancha, CA. |
Olancha,
The Oasis circa 1920s.
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Olancha
Cafe 1934 |
Olancha,
Dick's Cafe
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Olancha,
Dick's Cafe
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Olancha, Farmhouse
Cafe 1939
[Photo courtesy of the Online Archive of California]
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Olancha
Post Office and Store
W.H. Walker - Postmaster
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Dick's Cafe - Olancha, CA |
Dick's Cafe - Olancha, CA |
Airborne Pack Station
(Courtesy of Randy Tolle) |
Adamson's Cafe
(Courtesy of Randy Tolle) |
White Mountain Lodge
(Courtesy of Randy Tolle) |
Dunmovin
by Jane A. Thomann
Dirty Sox
Dirty Sox is an unusual name for an equally unusual swimming pool. Water from an Artesian well on Owens dry lake flows continuously into the pool. The name originated from the hanging socks of miners who came from the hills to wash. Inyo County maintains the pool (or doesn't) and adjoining camping and picknicking area. Dirty Socks is 5 miles east of Olancha, CA.
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Dunmovin Post Office |
Dave Woodruff writes in Tales Along El Camino Sierra Two!
Motorists traveling on El Camino Sierra about 14 miles south of Olancha, have probably noticed the ruins of a few dilapidated rock buildings with accompanying other small structures and mobile homes on the west side of the highway. This would be Dunmovin. First known as Cowan's Station, it served as a way station for the Cerro Gordo feight wagons, a supply center for nearby mines, a work camp for LADWP construction workers and finally as a gas station, garage, motel and cafe for travelers on El Camino Sierra.
When Charles and Hilda King purchased the property in 1936, Hilda was relieved to finally be "settled down" and renamed the property as Dunmovin...according to this little poem credited to Hilda.
"We’ve moved from yon to hither
Now we’re set and provin
In all the world we are perhaps
The only folks dunmovin"
Like many such establishments, fuel efficient and more reliable cars spelled the end of Dunmovin. It closed for good in the early 1970s...and now stands as a sentimental reminder of times gone by along El Camino Sierra. |
Barb Caffee Lasky writes:
Other owners of Dunmovin' in the 1950's and 60's were Mary McLaughlin and the Fricki family. There were several cabins for traveler in back of the cafe. My folks owned one of the small homes from 1962 until the early 80's. The Kings, Mom and Pop Warner, THe Babineau family, the Byrnes were some of the neighbors I remember. Adequate water supply was always a problem for the homeowners and the cafe.
September 2020 |
Dunmovin Desert Garden |
Dunmovin store and gas station
Dunmovin TODAY - 2020
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Dunmovin bottle house |
Jordan Hot Springs |
The Oaks Pack Station - Olancha, CA |
Olancha Train Depot - 1934-35
Back (L/R): Elenor Lange, Roger Lange,
Herman Lange
Front: Richard Lange
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06/21
Cabins at Dunmovin
(Photo - courtesy of Bryan Cocoran)
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06/21
Dunmovin - 2021
(Photo - courtesy of Len Daniello) |
Jael Hoffman - the "Land of Ono"
Cartago School in 1922. The school, long closed, remains today boarded up and only a reminder f the past. Marjorie Chance Gillis is the third child from the left in the center row and is dressed as "Bo-Peep."
(Photo - courtesy of Jane A. Thomann from "The Zig-Zag Post Office and Its Neighbors") |
Olancha School in 1944 - The one teacher for this school was Mrs. Baker.
L/R (front row): Beth Hider, a Brown child, Edna Lee Gill, Bob Peterson, John Lacy, John Sander
L/R (middle row): Bill Peterson, Marylyn Beck, unknown, Mickey Covington, Barbara Lewis, George Brown
L/R (back row): Billy Williams, unknown, Margarite Loder, Mary Drew, Richard Lewis, Dale Beck, Junior, Don, unnown, unknown
(Photo - courtesy of Jane A. Thomann from "The Zig-Zag Post Office and Its Neighbors") |
07/24
Dunmovin Memories |
Chuck Campbell writes:
I used to travel by Dunmovin’ on a regular basis for work in 1967-1968. On one occasion, a guy I worked with introduced me to a very nice gentleman there, who he said was the owner, and also an attorney as I recall. We were both served coffee, and had a very nice chat about his future plans for the place. I wish I could remember more, but that’s about it.
July 2024
Debbie Fischer Kratz writes:
There was a wonderful lady named Emily, she drove a yellow 67’ Mustang, which she bought new! She’d come and sit in our donut store, when it was Foster’s, for hours. That was in the late 80s- 92. Anyhow, her family were the original Dunmovin’ inhabitants. She said she was little and the family moved a lot, when they got there, her Dad declared, “this is it, we’re done movin’”Cute story, she was in her 80s then.
July 2024
Bill Davis writes:
There was a little park across 395. We would occasionally meet some of my mother’s family from Southern California there when Dunmovin was still operating. That was back in the 1950s.
July 2024
April Hamlin writes:
I rode the bus past Dunmovin everyday going to school from Pearsonville to Lone Pine.
July 2024
Prudy Hall Eckert writes:
My classmate Susanne Byrne lived there til her family moved to Rovana.
July 2024
Barb Caffee Lasky writes:
I worked there one summer cleaning cabins in the 50's. Was paid .50 a cabin. If I remember right, the owners at the time were Mr and Mrs. Foote. We lived about 5 miles from Dunmovin' in Tunawee Canyon. Some of the families that lived there were: The Kings, The Babineaus, The Byrnes family, an older couple (can't recall their names) My folks bought a small home and lived there in the early 60's until they moved to Inyokern. It was a close knit community. The cafe had a wonderful desert museum attached. There was a trailer park across the highway with huge cottenwood trees. Other folks who ran the cafe and gas station were Mary McLaughin, The Frickes and in earlier years, I think the Kings owned it. My husband and I drove around a bit last April. Such a sad sight for what was once a thriving community.
July 2024
Len Daniello writes:
As a kid, traveling up and down 395 on fishing trips with my dad, I would laugh at the name of that place...I asked my dad, "How'd that place get it's name?" And, he told me the early settlers ended up there because they were tired, and they were "Dunmovin!" So many of those original establishments along 395 are gone now...It's sad to see the dilapidated remains disintegrating as years go by...The latest to bite the dust...The Ranch House Cafe...The last holdout from a bygone era. RIP RHC.
July 2024
Art Uhlmeyer writes:
There was a Ralph Byrne that lived there and was in the class of 52. We were good friends.
July 2024 |
Olancha matchbook covers
(Courtesy of Rich McCutchan archives) |
Olancha matchbook covers
(Courtesy of Rich McCutchan archives) |
Olancha matchbook covers
(Courtesy of Rich McCutchan archives) |
Olancha matchbook covers
(Courtesy of Rich McCutchan archives) |
Grant matchbook covers
(Courtesy of Rich McCutchan archives) |
Olancha Post Office |
Olancha |
Olancha |
Callaway's Cafe in Olancha, CA |
Barney Spears pack train, out of Olancha, fording the Kern River. |
Olancha Village Tavern
Owned and operated, at this time, by Robert K. Brown and Annabelle E. Pietschman-Brown. Steven Lewis' great, great, grandparents.
(Photo courtesy of Steven Lewis)
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Barney Spears pack train, out of Olancha, fording the Kern River. |
Ranch in Olancha |
Reservoir near Olancha |
Looking over the wash-out after the 1920 cloudburst. |
Looking over the wash-out after the 1920 cloudburst. |
Looking over the wash-out after the 1920 cloudburst. |
Olancha visitors |
Olancha visitors |
Olancha visitors |
Olancha visitors |
Olancha residents |
Olancha residents |
Olancha residents |
Olancha residents |
Winter snowstorm in Olancha |
Winter snowstorm in Olancha |
Olancha residents |
Bonita Guard Station - located in Sequoia National Forest at Bonita Meadows which is approximately 6 miles SSW of Casa Vieja Meadow |
Vintage Map Courtesy of Hal Eaton |
Forgotten place names along the El Camino Sierra - from 1926 map |
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Near View from soda marsh at which south end is Owens Lake, looking west at Olancha Peak in the Sierra Nevadas. 1901 |
South end of Owens Lake near Olancha, looking west at Olancha Peak.
Sandstorm in the distance. 1901 |
Rest-A-While-Inn - Olancha, CA. - 1928 |
Olancha, CA. - 1926 |
Beaus (the dog) and Hollie on the trail to Monache Meadow - 1926 |
Olancha, CA. - 1926 |
Olancha, CA. when it was nothing but a freighting and stage stop |
Deer camp in Monache Meadow - 1926 |
On the trail to Monache Meadow, Hollie is in the plaid shirt - 1926 |
On the trail to Monache Meadow, Hollie is in the plaid shirt - 1926 |
Grant - Airflight Cafe |
The "Jot-Em-Down Store in downtown Olancha, CA |
Store across the street (U.S. 395) from the "Jot-Em-Down Store in downtown Olancha, CA. A local guy named Johnny Vick had an antique store in the late '90s before moving it to Lone Pine. |
Art Deco gas station across from the Ranch House Cafe
(Photo courtesy of Randy Stevenson)
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Photos Courtesy of Andrew King
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Andrew King writes:
Years ago while dropping alfalfa off in Olancha to a woman name Diane Chontos I stayed in a canyon west of Olancha Called Walker Creek which can be approached by driving up a dirt road named Walker creek Road. At the base of the canyon my girlfriend and I found more than a couple large building foundations under a oak tree. Further investigating when I came home was it appeared to be the ruins of "The Oaks pack station". The pictures I took matched up to the one and only photo I had of the place in the 30s. I was wondering if you could help identify the building and foundations at the mouth of Walker Creek. They are a few yards up from the creek and there are several foundations with one small study building missing a roof. Are these the original Walker homestead buildings or from the pack station. I first bumped into them at night on a disastrous solo attempt at climbing Olancha peak in the winter almost 10 years ago only revisiting the site 2 years ago for a better look.
September 2020 |
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Wilfrid Cline holding the first rabbit that he killed at Ash Creek - 1916
The Clines were in-laws of Harriet Maria Teel Cline, the sister of H. H. West's first wife, Mary Adelbert Teel West
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L/R: H. H. West Jr., Mertie West, H. H. West at campsite - 1930 |
L/R: H. H. West and H. H. West Jr. at campsite - 1930 |
L/R: Agnes Whitaker, Mertie West, FOrrest Whitaker, William Shaw - 1930 |
L/R: Al Schmitz, Wilfrid Cline, Glen Velzy near Ash Creek - 1916 |
George Saum in camp near Haiwee - 1920 |
Schmitz, Velzy and H.H. West deer hunting packtrain heading up Haiwee Pass on their way to Walker Pass - 1914 |
H. H. West's campsite at Hessian Meadows
(near Monache Meadow)
Allie Robinson's son is standing near the horse. - 1914
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Store in Olancha, CA - 1947 |
08/22
06/23
Ranch House Cafe
(Photo courtesy of Ray DeLea) |
Buildings behind the Ranch House Cafe
(Photo courtesy of Ray DeLea) |
Ranch House Cafe
(Photo courtesy of Ray DeLea) |
Silo behind the Ranch House Cafe
(Photo courtesy of Ray DeLea) |
Ranch House Cafe Business Card
(Photo courtesy of Karen Stone) |
Ranch House Cafe Business Card
(Photo courtesy of Karen Stone) |
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