Stories From Laws

Many visitors to Laws Museum know we have numerous examples of horse-drawn delivery wagons, carriages, and a chuck wagon, not to mention horse-drawn plows and other horse motivated ranching equipment. And of course, we display the well-known replica of the mule-drawn borax wagons, the twenty mule team wagons that hauled borax across the desert from Death Valley to the Mojave railhead from 1883 to 1889. But until recently we lacked an example of electric vehicles from the turn of the 20th century, the first blossoming of the electric vehicle era. We have recently added the chassis and drive train of a 1919 Walker electric delivery truck to the Laws collection.

Keeler, in these parts famed as the terminus of the Carson and Colorado Railroad, lies seventy miles south of Laws Station. The plan of the railroad entrepreneurs was for a terminus much further southeast, at the Colorado River, but plans change. There were multiple reasons for the change of plans for the Carson and Colorado’s “Slim Princess” line: obtaining rail from England took longer than anticipated; Chinese labor was less available than expected; and a slump in the price of silver meant less business for both the mines and the railroad built to serve them.

Saturday March 23, 2024 , 11:00 am - 3:00 pm

Laws Railroad Museum and Historical Site celebrated Women’s History Month, with docent presentations, games, puzzles, prizes, and an Irish “Ladies Fair” where visitors to the museum for this event can purchase vintage Jim Beam bottles, cookies, and place bids at a silent auction.

This year’s Women’s History Event theme was “Immigrant Women in Western Mining Towns”.  Although many women in early Western American mining history were born here to immigrant families, others were themselves immigrants. They came from around the world, some were trafficked like Chinese teenager Polly Bemis who was sold to an Idaho mining camp saloon keeper. Others, such as Nellie Cashman, came to escape the Irish potato famine. Others came to seek fortunes of their own like Nicaraguan Ferminia Serras who became Nevada’s “Copper Queen”.

Laws Railroad Museum and Historical Site has started the process of the renovation of locomotive No. 9. This Baldwin 10-wheeler has been a static outdoor exhibit at the museum since 1960. Renovation and preservation are big commitments, and our plan is eventually to assess the feasibility of steam operation.

Whether #9 is stabilized to resume static display status at the museum or is made operational remains to be seen. Either way, this undertaking will be a multi-year effort, requiring public support: donations, and volunteer fundraising and labor hours.   We are excited to undertake this challenge and privileged to become a part of the history of this 1909 locomotive.

Laws Library and Art Center, May 25-28, 2023

The Bishop Calico Quilters selected Laws Railroad Museum and Historical Site as the venue for their annual Memorial weekend quilt show this year, and what a perfect opportunity it was to honor both the 100-year anniversary of Father Crowley’s church, and the completion of our rehabilitation of the church’s exterior.

...The Calico Quilters do an outstanding job of combining tradition and innovation. the exhibit of their work was truly a tribute to the library’s purpose...

A trip out to Laws is always a good time and loaded with fun. When the Brill is running, now that is a better time as the train crew take great pride in sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm with all of us.

The next time you venture out to ride the Brill car perhaps you will pass through the loading area and purchase a round trip ticket from a very friendly individual whose name is Paul, Paul Thompson to be exact. Paul is one of our longest volunteers who joined us in 1994, that’s 29 years! Like most of us...

The last two weekends of March 2023 at Laws Railroad Museum were the quintessential definition of the “tipping point” concept. Visitors from across the nation rode the last few thousand feet of the original Carson and Colorado Railroad narrow gauge track in the Laws Railroad Museum & Historical Site in vintage caboose #401, behind the vintage 1911 Carson and Colorado/Southern Pacific Baldwin steam engine #18.

Few of these passengers had ever heard of Anna Kelly or Myron Alexander.  Anna in 1954, and Myron, in 1996 were two Independence residents who likely never met. But each tipped the scales of local history to make the 2023 Slim Princess Sisters in History 140th Anniversary event possible at Laws Railroad Museum. The Laws #9 Slim Princess Baldwin Locomotive, built in 1909, no longer runs, and is a static display at the museum. Anna Kelly, a young woman in Independence...

On May 10, 1880, the Carson and Colorado Railroad Company was formed and incorporated by William Sharon, H. M. Yerington and Darius Mills. They planned to run the narrow gauge railroad from Mound House, Nevada, and the Carson River to the Colorado River, calling it the C&C Railroad. It never reached the Colorado River but stopped at Keeler, California.

It has often been referred to as "the railroad that was built 300 miles too long or 300 years too soon" As the word was out that the railroad would run east of the Owens River, people started to arrive at what is known now as Laws.

Laws Good Ole Days, a long-standing community event since 1977, revived Laws once again on Saturday, September 10, 2022.

On Friday July 1st I sat down with Jay Smart, the guru of the mine display, and poked into his past as he is and has always struck me as a very interesting person and thought it was time to share who he is with our readers. 

Raised in northern California Jay went to first thru third grade in a two-room schoolhouse in the town of Boonville California. He graduated high school in 1959 from South Fork High School in Miranda, California. Jay immediately went to work after graduation as a Park Aid at Richardson Grove State Park 1959-1964 which Jay describes as training to be a jack of all trades...