In 1900, Joseph Green, a 16-year-old boy from Bodie, found rich gold samples in the middle of the Masonic gulch and staked his claim as the Jump Up Joe Mine. Not having sufficient capital to develop the property, Green soon sold the mine to veteran Bodie miner Warren Loose in 1901.
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I've spent a lot of time in Masonic between I don't know how many day trips and more than a few weekend trips when I was able to string a couple days in a row off. I used to camp right at the foot of the ruins of the Pittsburg-Liberty mill pictured at the link.
Masonic's a great place to explore with plenty of ruins, remains of miner's cabins and mining tunnels, but the best part is, nobody knows about it. I bet in 10 years or more, I've ran into exactly one other person there and she was researching western mining history, just like I was doing. We shared a beer and notes, then we went off in different directions.
By the way, if you go there and happen to run across a lanyard of coyote calls in the vicinity of the old post office, I'd appreciate you mailing it back to me. I lost it on my last trip, and I don't doubt it's still there.
Wow, looks like a cool place to be. As a kid I used to locate old Lumber Jack Camps. Mostly by talking to old timers. This was the late fifties and early sixties. I had no drivers license at the time so I'd hitchhike as close as I could get to a camp then hump back usually several miles and set up camp on site. I ran into a couple that no one I talked with knew about. I loved exploring and always looked for thier dump. By the seventies I believe they had all collapsed and gone back to the earth. Some left old equipment that I'm sure is still sitting there rusting.
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