Bridgeport, California

 This isn't the weather we imaged our summer trip having

Rock art Bridgeport style 😎

East fork of the Walker River

Masonic Mine

The town was founded by Freemasons, hence its name.  The town consisted of an upper, middle, and lower town.  Most of the few ruins remaining are in the middle town. Gold was first discovered in the 1860s, but production ceased near the start of the 20th century. The town's population peaked at about 1,000.  Even though the camp population grew to about 1000 people, there were no churches, fraternal organizations, or brothels in the district.

In 1913, a cable and bucket aerial tramway was installed that brought the ore about a half-mile across the gulch from the mine.

The remains of this structure is lined both inside and out with flattened metal cans.  We had never seen both sides lined before.

Chemung Mine

Located off the Masonic Road between Bridgeport and the Masonic town site, are the remains of the Chemung gold mine.  The Chemung gold mine operated from from 1909 to 1938 and produced over one million dollars in gold.  In the 1920s, the Chemung mine was producing low grade and high grade ore.  The ore was processed onsite, and then shipped to near by Bodie for smelting.