Every Memorial Day weekend since 1969, the town of Bishop, nestled on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains, comes alive with the annual presentation of Mule Days. The outfitters and packers of the region wanted an event to start off the packing season and the businessmen wanted to draw vacationers to the Owens …

A BRIEF OUTLINE ON THE HISTORY OF THE MULE Someone once wrote that a mule is “without ancestry and posterity”.   Well, quite the opposite is true. The exact origin of the mule may be somewhat difficult to determine, but its ancestry must begin with the origin of its parents – – the wild ass (donkey) …

Commercial pack trains in the Sierra Nevada began operating during the California “Gold Rush” days. There were no roads into the mountains where miners were pursuing GOLD. Owners of valley stores, livery stables etc. hired independent commercial packing companies to transport the needed machinery, supplies and merchandise to these remote areas. Trains or strings of …

Repairing the Waugh Lake Dam: Packers and Mules Strings Haul 500 Tons of Sand and Cement Southern California Edison Company is the owner of power dams on the Rush Creek series of lakes, Alger, Gem and Waugh Lakes. In 1977, the company made plans to repair the uppermost dam located at Waugh Lake in the …

The mule packing industry in the eastern High Sierra had its beginnings in the early 1860’s. The valley meadows were discovered by cattlemen and sheep men in the 1860’s and livestock owners moved their herds into the natural pastures for summer grazing. Long Valley with the Owens River flowing through it provided lush grazing for …