Stovepipe Gang

History

Much of what gets repeated about Stovepipe Wells comes from a handful of later retellings, and some of it is wrong. The ten chapters here follow the newspapers, letters and public records of the day. Where the legend and the record disagree, we go with the record, and we say so. Each chapter ends with its sources.

Read it in order, or jump in anywhere.

Chapter 1

A Well with a Stovepipe in It

A prospectors’ waterhole and a borrowed name, 1897–1925

Chapter 2

Engineering a Legend

An electrician from a mill town, 1883–1925

Chapter 3

The Road to Nowhere

Four trips to the county board, 1925–1926

Chapter 4

Avalon in the Desert

A resort that was not supposed to stand here, 1926–1927

Chapter 5

The Legend Machine

Selling the valley, 1927–1932

Chapter 6

Helene’s Valley

The First Lady of Death Valley, 1932–1936

Chapter 7

The Desert Beacon Goes Dark

Motor lodges, a highway and a dark hotel, 1936–1947

Chapter 8

Back in the Saddle

A publisher buys a hotel, 1947–1950

Chapter 9

Mrs. George Palmer Putnam

Peg Putnam’s sixteen years, 1950–1966

Chapter 10

Below Rock Bottom

Yellowstone people, a fire and a new name, 1966–1979

Chapter 11

A Relic in Its Own Right

From condemned to centennial, 1979–2026

A note on sources

Most of what is quoted here comes from the Inyo Register, the Inyo Independent, the Big Pine Citizen, the Catalina Islander, the Los Angeles and San Francisco papers, Desert Magazine, and county, state and federal records. Later retellings, including the 1970 and 1992 ’49ers keepsakes and the Park Service’s own historic resource study, are used only where they can be checked, and are named as such when they cannot. Know something we should add, or spot something we got wrong? Tell us.