This building houses a variety of gasoline engines from the late 1800s through the early 1900s; a rare 2 horse power 1868 Colt stream engine used in Ed Blackie Dodge’s wood shop in Olancha in the 1920s and on loan from the Eastern Sierra Museum; a working 1915 Fairbanks-Morse 20 horsepower engine that last saw service in 1941 powering the Rudolph Stamp Mill about 4 miles north of the museum, and a 5 horsepower 1914 Galloway engine from the Arcularius ranch near the headwaters of the Owens River in Mono County.
The Galloway engine powered a sawmill and gold mill, but it was buried in mud slide and thought to be lost forever. Incredibly after being buried for years, it was eventually recovered, restored to working condition and donated to the Museum. Small engines and generators performed many of the tasks done formerly by human and animal power until they were in turn replaced by electric motors as electric power was more widely distributed.
The building was reportedly used as a fuel and oil building at a Caltrons Corporation. Before it was donated to the Museum by William and Michelle Denault, it served as John Denault’s Model T workshop. It was moved to the museum from Dixon Lane area north of Bishop.