Bagby, California

Bagby
Ghost town
The relocated Bagby stationhouse at El Portal
The relocated Bagby stationhouse at El Portal
Bagby is located in California
Bagby
Bagby
Location in California
Coordinates: 37°36′39″N 120°08′04″W / 37.61083°N 120.13444°W / 37.61083; -120.13444
Country United States
State California
CountyMariposa
Foundedc. 1850
Elevation
[1]
827 ft (252 m)
GNIS feature ID1658039

Bagby (formerly Ridley's Ferry and Benton Mills) is a ghost town in Mariposa County, California, on the Merced River.[1] The site began as a ferry crossing around 1850, then became a stamp mill and mining depot for John C. Frémont's Mariposa Grant from 1859.[2][3] It later served as a stop on the Yosemite Valley Railroad (1907–1945), and the townsite was submerged in 1967 when Lake McClure was expanded behind the New Exchequer Dam.[4]

History

Ridley's Ferry

Thomas E. Ridley operated a ferry across the Merced River at this site beginning around 1850.[2][5] The crossing served miners moving between the San Joaquin Valley and the gold-bearing foothills of the Sierra Nevada; the settlement was known as Ridley's Ferry through the early 1850s.

Benton Mills

In 1859, John C. Frémont built a dam across the river and a water-powered stamp mill he named Benton Mills after his father-in-law, Senator Thomas Hart Benton.[3][6] Ore from the Pine Tree and Josephine mines, located 1,700 feet above the river, reached the mill by a 4.5-mile private gravity railroad: loaded cars descended in pairs controlled by a brakeman; mules hauled the empty cars back up the grade.[6] A flood in January 1862 carried away Benton Mills.[7]

Post office

In 1897, an application for a post office under the name Benton Mills was rejected because Mono County held prior claim to the name. Applicant N. C. Ray chose "Bagby" after Benjamin Abner Bagby, a local businessman who operated a hotel, store, and saloon on the north bank of the river.[8]

Yosemite Valley Railroad

The Yosemite Valley Railroad, incorporated in December 1902, built its line from Merced and completed the full route to El Portal on May 15, 1907.[9] Bagby station stood 47.2 miles from Merced and 30 miles from El Portal, and served both passengers and freight; the railroad replaced horse-drawn freight wagons that had required 10 to 14 days to reach the foothills.[9] The station complex comprised a two-story wood-frame stationhouse with a waiting room, ticket office, and freight room, along with water tanks and a hand-pushed gallows-frame turntable used to reverse steam locomotives.[9]

A major flood in 1937 destroyed miles of track in the Merced River canyon, and the railroad ceased operations in August 1945.[2][9] The line operated for 38 years in total.[9]

Submergence

The Bagby stationhouse, water tanks, and turntable were documented by the Historic American Buildings Survey in 1960 and relocated to El Portal in 1966, before the townsite was inundated.[9] A highway bridge at the Bagby crossing, 130 feet above the river, opened on August 12, 1966, to replace the crossing that would be covered by the rising reservoir.[10] Construction of the New Exchequer Dam began in July 1964 and was completed in 1967, expanding Lake McClure over the former townsite.[4]

The three relocated structures were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 (NRHP #79000316) as the only surviving station complex of the Yosemite Valley Railroad.[9] The NRHP nomination identified the turntable as the last manually operated gallows-frame standard-gauge turntable in the United States.[9]

Geography

The site lies near the crossing of California State Route 49 and the Merced River. The Bagby Recreation Area, managed by the Merced Irrigation District, provides fishing and boating access to the upper reach of Lake McClure near the submerged townsite.[4]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Geographic Names Information System: Bagby". United States Geological Survey. Retrieved February 9, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 Gudde, Erwin G. (2010). Bright, William (ed.). California Place Names (4th ed.). University of California Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-520-26619-3.
  3. 1 2 Clark, William B. (1970). Gold Districts of California. Bulletin 193. California Division of Mines and Geology. p. 88.
  4. 1 2 3 "History of the District". Merced Irrigation District. Retrieved February 9, 2026.
  5. ↑ Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Clovis, California: Word Dancer Press. p. 742. ISBN 1-884995-14-4.
  6. 1 2 Chamberlain, Newell D. (1936). "Fremont's Great Sale". The Call of Gold: True Tales on the Gold Road to Yosemite. Mariposa, California: Gazette Press. Retrieved May 4, 2026.
  7. ↑ Chamberlain, Newell D. (1936). "Gazette News, 1862 to 1870". The Call of Gold: True Tales on the Gold Road to Yosemite. Mariposa, California: Gazette Press. Retrieved May 4, 2026.
  8. ↑ Salley, Harold E. (1977). History of California Post Offices, 1849–1976. The Printer's Shop. p. 12.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 National Register of Historic Places Inventory—Nomination Form: Bagby Stationhouse, Water Tanks and Turntable (PDF) (Report). National Park Service. July 1976. Retrieved February 9, 2026.
  10. ↑ "Bagby". noehill.com. Retrieved May 4, 2026.
This page is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.