De Chambeau Ranch, Lee Vining, CA
The De Chambeau Ranch was one of the largest ranches in the Mono Basin. It raised cattle, sheep, chickens, alfalfa, and vegetables to be sold in Bodie, Aurora, Lundy, and Lee Vining.
The 320-acre ranch contains the original buildings, some of the original barbed wire, ditches, roadways, fence lines, and wells.
Drawn to California by gold, Louis W. De Chambeau's father moved to Bodie from Ontario, Canada in 1878. Louis W. followed two years later when he was 18. In 1906 he purchased the ranch from Italian immigrant Nicholas Dondero, who sold it to fund exploration in Alaska.
The De Chambeau family was self-sufficient except for a few staples, such as sugar and salt. Their beds were stuffed with feathers frm Mono Lake ducks and if they had sore throats, they gargled with Mono Lake water.
Ranchers could handle many tasks: stack hay, shape horseshoes and nails from iron, grow vegetables in the sandy soil, butcher hogs and sheep. They also traded skills for goods. Louis W. De Chambeau crafted skis, for example, which he sold in Body, Lundy, and throughout the Mono Basin.
Norm De Chambeau:
“So my grandfather decided that when he moved here to the ranch that he would, uh, make skis from then on, (And, uh, he sold them, the men’s skis for $8 a pair plus 50 cents or a dollar for the pole. And that was huge money in them days. And he ended up estimating between 500 to 1000 skis that he’d built in Mono Basin, (and) sold to the different people in here.”
A pair of De Chambeau’s hand-carved skis is on display at the Mammoth Ski Museum and at Bodie State Historic Park.
De Chambeau Ranch, Lee Vining, CA
The De Chambeau Ranch was one of the largest ranches in the Mono Basin. It raised cattle, sheep, chickens, alfalfa, and vegetables to be sold in Bodie, Aurora, Lundy, and Lee Vining.
The 320-acre ranch contains the original buildings, some of the original barbed wire, ditches, roadways, fence lines, and wells.
Drawn to California by gold, Louis W. De Chambeau's father moved to Bodie from Ontario, Canada in 1878. Louis W. followed two years later when he was 18. In 1906 he purchased the ranch from Italian immigrant Nicholas Dondero, who sold it to fund exploration in Alaska.
The De Chambeau family was self-sufficient except for a few staples, such as sugar and salt. Their beds were stuffed with feathers frm Mono Lake ducks and if they had sore throats, they gargled with Mono Lake water.
Ranchers could handle many tasks: stack hay, shape horseshoes and nails from iron, grow vegetables in the sandy soil, butcher hogs and sheep. They also traded skills for goods. Louis W. De Chambeau crafted skis, for example, which he sold in Body, Lundy, and throughout the Mono Basin.
Norm De Chambeau:
“So my grandfather decided that when he moved here to the ranch that he would, uh, make skis from then on, (And, uh, he sold them, the men’s skis for $8 a pair plus 50 cents or a dollar for the pole. And that was huge money in them days. And he ended up estimating between 500 to 1000 skis that he’d built in Mono Basin, (and) sold to the different people in here.”
A pair of De Chambeau’s hand-carved skis is on display at the Mammoth Ski Museum and at Bodie State Historic Park.