Re: Yet another trainless Train Photo . . .

vince heying Wrote:
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> Where is this?

Kearsarge is a station stop on the old Carson & Colorado/SPng. This is in California's Owens Valley located on the Great Basin (east) side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Kearsarge is located on the east side of the valley opposite the west-side town of Independence and the C&C original name was Independence. .This station was first renamed to Citrus and then c1915 the SP renamed it (probably because it duplicated another station on the SP) to Keasarge for the mountain pass and mine west of the town.

Independence is also the county seat of Inyo County.and the location where SP #18 was displayed and late restored. The track and the station sign were erected by the Carson & Colorado Railway group that restored the locomotive.

The name of Kearsarge has an interesting story behind it. Elsewhere in the valley, near Lone Pine, is a area know as Alabama Hills. The men who developed the Kearsarge mine took exception to the name "Alabama" which to them represented the Civil-War Confederate commerce raider with that name. So they named their mine for the US naval ship "Kearsarge" that fought and sunk the "Alabama." The navy warship was named for a mountain in Vermont.

Brian Norden