Photos From the Road: Lone Pine Cemeteries

Our summer road trip took us to a number of interesting places! I've previously written for Classic Movie Hub about Western movie locations we visited in Keeler, California, and around Moab, Utah. Here at this blog I've also shared our visit to Marie Windsor's gravesite in Marysvale, Utah.

We started our trip with a hike in Red Rock Canyon, a frequent location seen in Westerns and sci-fi films, on our way to a weekend in Lone Pine, California. After a couple days in Lone Pine we drove east toward Utah, where we visited three national parks and a state park, returning home via Flagstaff and Kingman, Arizona.

It's always nice to spend time in Lone Pine separate from October's Lone Pine Film Festival, as it gives us the opportunity to do some exploring there isn't time for during the fest.

One of the things we did during our summer trip was visit Lone Pine's historic cemeteries. It may be a small town, but Lone Pine has four different cemeteries: The Depot Cemetery, Pioneer Cemetery, Mt. Whitney Cemetery, and the mass grave for victims of the 1872 Lone Pine Earthquake. All four cemeteries are managed by the Mt. Whitney Cemetery District.

As I wrote after our visit to Lone Pine in the winter of 2021, the earthquake gravesite seems to be inaccessible to the public. 16 of the 27 people killed by the quake are buried at that site. Here is a photo we took from a distance during the winter of 2021; click to enlarge it for a better view of the American flag marking the site.  (October 2022 Update: Photos From the Road: Lone Pine Earthquake Cemetery.)

A closer view from a different angle on this summer's trip:

Although unable to visit that gravesite, we did visit a fascinating remnant of the earthquake which we'd never seen on all our previous visits. To find it, visit the alley behind this store, which is on the left of Main Street (Highway 395) as you travel north.

Carefully fenced off behind the store is an adobe wall. It's what remains of the Lone Pine general store which was built in 1869 -- which in turn is all that remains of Lone Pine as it existed before the earthquake struck on March 26, 1872. Modern estimates (guesstimates?) place the earthquake's strength anywhere between 7.4 and 8.3.

I've seen photos online for a historic site marker at the wall, which was dedicated in 2000, but there was nothing visible during our visit. Despite having visited Lone Pine many times over the years, this was my first time to see this interesting historic relic.

Pioneer Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in Lone Pine. According to this historical marker, the cemetery began in January 1865 with the burials of a mother and son who were killed during the last battle of the Owens Valley Indian Wars.  Visiting a site such as this has a way of making "history" very real.

The most interesting grave marker in Pioneer Cemetery is for Charles Begole, one of the founders of Lone Pine who was also one of the first three men to summit Mt. Whitney. With an elevation of 14,505 feet, Mt. Whitney is the highest spot in the continental U.S.

What I found profoundly moving is that the point on Begole's grave marker was arranged so that it points directly to the summit of Mt. Whitney. Although Lone Pine Peak, towards the left of this photo, seems to be higher, it's an optical illusion as Mt. Whitney is further back from the camera.

Members of the Diaz family, for whom nearby Diaz Lake was named, are also buried in Pioneer Cemetery, which was in use until 1905.

I noticed that some of the wooden markers in Pioneer Cemetery seemed to have been recently engraved.

The Depot Cemetery, also known as the Old Lone Pine Cemetery, is a stark location found off Narrow Gauge Road.  I've previously written about the Narrow Gauge Road area in a 2019 post on Lone Pine locations and in my 2020 review of ARMY GIRL (1938).

One of the unusual things I learned about the Depot Cemetery is that it was frequently used as a temporary burial site when the water table at Pioneer Cemetery was too high for burials. When the water table dropped during warmer weather, those interred at the Depot Cemetery were sometimes then moved to the Pioneer Cemetery. There are still at least 11 gravesites remaining at the Depot Cemetery, which has not been used since 1914.

The Mt. Whitney Cemetery is Lone Pine's main cemetery, still in use today.  

One of the notable people buried in Mt. Whitney Cemetery is Gustave Marsh, who designed and engineered the trail to the peak of Mt. Whitney in 1904.

The marker below is for the Lubken family plot; the Lubken name is prominent in Lone Pine thanks to Lubken Ranch and Lubken Canyon Road.

Thanks to visiting these cemeteries I learned a considerable amount of information about Lone Pine's history and founders.

More photo posts are planned, including a look at Southern California's Red Rock Canyon, a visit to Bryce Canyon National Park, and more.

October 2022 Update: Photos From the Road: Lone Pine Earthquake Cemetery.

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