Loss of Padre Crowley's Cabin Recalls Memories of Early Days

To many who visit the Whitney Portal, the ruins of a cabin destroyed by fire are just the remains of a 
misfortune, of the futile defense against the elements and today are nothing more than the blackened 
embers of the blaze.

"Wasn't that the Putnam cabin?" is the oft repeated question.

"Yes, she lived in it.  But Padre Crowley built it and with his own hands in great part."

And those thoughts of Father Crowley bring back others of the old timers here in the Valley.

We are carried back on the wings of imagery to the days of the one-blanket-single jack prospector of 
the ilk of Shorty Harris, Jimmy Dayton and Johnney Mills - back to the days when Doc Baxter of 
Independence sneaked away between "pullings" to stake a claim or sift a pan.  It brings  back via some 
wagging tongues the Gunsight, Skidoo,  Modock and Minietta and of Pete Osdick at Randsburg and Pete 
Aguerberry in Death Valley.

Men like Wash Cahill hover on the horizon and Holiday Murphy, Joe Sheerin and the boys at Darwin and 
Ballarat.  Goller, Greenwater, Harrisbury Falt, Leadville, Joeburg loom into view.

Not to mention our own Cerro Gordo and the Swansea smelter and the "Swansea Queen" that furrowed the 
waters of the now disappeared Owens Lake.

Did someone mention Rhyolite, Tonopah and Goldfield?

The connection is Carmen Olivas and his brother Joe, and the fire at the Olivas place on July 4 and 
Padre Crowley and the Putnam cabin, which burned on July 5.

Carmen Olivas, his brother Joe, and all those good Mexican people to the third, fourth, fifth and 
sixth generations who make up a good portion of the population of Lone Pine came here "muy" early - 
so early in fact that many of them remembered the "Lone Pine" and lived in adobe houses so that they 
are buried on the wrong side of the road as you leave town to the north.  The earthquake of 1872 did 
that to them.  They came to mine the silver which they accomplished with their crude methods of the 
mill wheels and "Senior, the Donkey" going round and round until the ore was crushed.

Carmen and Joe, the old Mexican gentlemen, found horses and pack animals more profitable than the 
hunt for gold.  They soon became an institution.  So when Padre Crowley wanted to go to Whitney what 
was more natural than that he should go to Carmen and Joe.  They accompanied the Padre to Hunter's 
Flat.  Thence the Padre made the hazardous ascent of Whitney over the old trail in 1923.

It was Carmen and Joe who supplied the stubborn mule some years later in 1935 when the Los Angeles 
Times made the Padre's Mass on Whitney the rotogravure pictures of the month.

And it was Father Crowley who buried Shorty Harris and most of those old timers.  It was he who 
publicized them in his column "Sage and Tumbleweed."  It was he who delved into this phase of 
California and resurrected and rehabilitated the exploits of the hardy successors of the pioneers 
until they stood forth in 3 dimensions.

"But the cabin? What has all of this to do with the cabin?"

Out of Death Valley there came a stonemason.  There was only one.  There will never be another.  If 
you don't believe the writer take a look at the Catholic Church in Lone Pine, which the Desert 
Padre built.  Look at those steps.  And then go to Furnace Creek Inn and take a look there.  And you 
will agree there was only one stonemason.

Not only that - he had a name for every stone - a cuss name.  And the Padre pushed him.

"Dobie, get me that blankety blank stone over there."

And Dobie is Dobie Gunnerson.

And Steve is gone.  And the Padre is gone.  And Carmen and Joe are gone.

You will find monuments along the highway to the Padre.  Some are tokens from his friends and some 
are tributes from his enemies.  The Putnam cabin is gone.  Let it remain under the name for the 
Padre built for eternity.  Ask Steve Esteves or his spirit.

It was Steve and Dodie who laid the foundation for the Putnam cabin at Whitney Portal.  And the 
stonework was completed in 1935.

The Inyo Register, Bishop, Inyo County, California
Thursday, July 16, 1953
Transcribed by Pat Houser for Inyo County GenWeb, Sunday, April 8, 2005