1995 Mt. Whitney Packer's Reunion & Roster of Packers

1995 Mt. Whitney Packers Reunion
&
Mt. Whitney Pack Trains Roster of Packers

Seated: Ed Turner, Ike Livermore, Dina Livermore, Melvin Joseph, Jon Dittmer, Norman Livermore, Jim Dittmer
2nd Row: Mary Jefferson, Reif Kipp, Enid Morgan Hanson, Ron Hoffman, Eddie Mike, Irene Kritz, Ray DeLea (the Pigmy Packer), Harry (Smashing) Mathers
3rd Row: Tommy Jefferson, Gene Harlan, Ed Brown, Jerry Gillaspe, Paul (Slim) Lamos, Charles Morgan, Richard Morgan, Dick Troeger, Stephanie Morgan, Roberta Morgan Peters, David Morgan

Mt. Whitney Pack Trains Packers 1940s - 1972**

Scott Adair	Late 1950s	Packer
Peggy Agnew	Late 1960s	Cook
Pat Ames	Early 1950s	Packer
Lynn Aronson	Late 1960s	Cook
Ted Atchley	1950s-1960s	Packer
Lester Bellas	1950s	Packer
Larry Berry	Early 1950s	Packer
Alfred Biering	1940s	Packer
Billy Bishop	1950s	Packer
Alvis Bonner	1940s	Packer
Graham Boswell	Early 1950s	Packer
Eddie Bowman	Late 1950s	Packer
Eric Brockett	Early 1960s	Packer
Ed Brown	1965, 1967	Packer
Smokey Bye	1946-1950s	Packer
Swede Carrasco	1940s-1950s	Packer
Bill Carrasco	1946-1950s	Packer
"Commissary Cat"	1960s	Packer
Ted Cook	1940s	Packer and co-owner
Ted Cook's wife - Little Orchid	1940s
Fred Cook	1940s	Packer
Sue Cox	Early 1960s	?
Rusty Criner	1950s	Packer
Frank Chrysler	1940s	Packer and co-owner
Jack Crowley	1955	Packer
Ray DeLea	1965-1970	Packer
Leppy Diaz	1946-1950s	Packer
John Dittmer	1960-1965, 1968	Packer
Jim Dittmer	1956-1959	Packer
Bobby Douglas	1951 - 1954	Packer
Nancy Droubay	Mid 1950s	Saddle horse girl
Don Felix	Early 1950s	Packer
Janis Field	Late 1960s	Cook
Hal Flueger	1950s	Packer
Mitzi Garner	Early 1950s	Packer
Porfilio (Pete) Garner	Early 1950s	Packer
Buddy Garner	Early 1950s	Packer
Harold Gill	Late 1940s	Packer
Wendel Gill	Early 1950s	Packer
Jerry Gillaspe	1955-1960	Packer
Charlie Gilmore	1946-1952	Packer
Bill Gilstrap	Late 1950s	Packer
Jim Gordon	Early 1960s	Packer
Bob Hanson	Early 1960s	Packer
Ivan Hanson	Late 1940s	Packer
Gene Harlan	1968-1969	Packer
Ken Hess	1950s-1960s	Packer
Jack Heyneman	1946-1950s	Packer
Huey Hill	1960s	Packer
Don Hobbs	1950s	Packer
Red Howard	Early 1960s	Packer
Jim (?) Ken's friend	1950s-1960s	Packer
Joe (?)	1955	Packer
Norman Jefferson	1967-1972	Packer
Barbara Jefferson		Cook & manager (w/Tommy)
Tommy Jefferson	1946-1972 1958-1961 1965-1972	Packer Packer, co-owner & manager Packer, co-owner & manager
Mary Jefferson	1954-1964 1968-1972	Cook, lunch girl
Kathy Jefferson (Bancroft)	Early 1970s	Cook
Melvin Joseph	1958-1961	Packer
Loren Joseph	1950s-1960s	Packer
Tom Joseph	Late 1960s-1972	Packer
Warren Joslen	Early 1950s	Packer
Jack Heyneman	Late 1940s	Packer
Ivan Hanson	1946-1950s	Packer
Don Hobbs	Late 1950s	Packer
Ron Hoffman	1953-1957	Packer
Reif Kipp	1956-1959	Packer
Rusty Kriner	Late 1950s	Packer
Irene Kritz	1963-1964 1966-1970	Cook, lunch girl, packer
Paul Lamos	1968-1970, 1972	Packer
Ike Livermore	1946-1950 1946-1972	Packer Co-Owner
Dina Livermore	1946-1950s	Saddle horse girl
Norman (Norrie) Livermore	1963-1966	Packer
Craig London	Late 1960s	Packer
Jimmy Lowe	Late 1950s	Packer
Sam Livermore	1963	Packer
J. Tugwell Malone	1950s	Packer
Harry Mathers	1968	Packer
Eddie Mike	1955-1958	Packer
Fred Moore	Late 1940s to early 1950s	Packer
Roberta Morgan (Peters)	1949-1957	Saddle horse girl, packer
Bruce Morgan	1946 - 1950	Packer, Co-owner, manager, cook
Grace Morgan	1946 - ?	Assistant manager, cook
David Morgan	1972	Lunch mule packer
Charles Morgan	1946-1957 1958-1964	Packer Co-owner & manager
Richard Morgan	1953-1963	Packer
Stephanie (Reckas) Morgan	1963-1964	Wrangler, packer
Enid Morgan (Hanson)	1946-1956	Cook
Al Noctribe	1950s	Packer
Henry Olivas	Late 1940s	Packer
Leakey Olivas	1946-1950s	Packer
Pete Olivas	1946-1950s	Packer
Ted Ott	1946-1950s	Packer
Skip Parker	Early 1950s	Packer
Frannie Pearson	Late 1950s	?
Salty Peters	Late 1940s	Packer
Clyde Poncho	1950s	Packer
Gary Poncho	Early 1950s	Packer
Chris Rich	Late 1950s-early 1960s	Packer
Danny Rossi	Late 1960s	Packer
Bob Schwandt	1960s	Packer
Dorothy Von Loben Sels	Early 1960s	?
Penny Sewell Rich	Late 1950s-early 1960s	Saddle horse girl
Mary Slater	Late 1950s	?
Bill Smart	1946-1953	Packer
Sonny ?	Early 1950s	Packer
Bud Steele	1950s	Packer
Bob Steele	1950s	Packer
Gene Steves	Late 1940s	Packer
Mert Stewart	Early 1950s	Packer
Ed Thistlewaite	Late 1940s	Packer
Bob Tiege	Late 1950s	Packer
Wilson Thomas	Early 1950s	Packer
Greg Thompson	Late 1960s	Saddle horse boy
Dick Troeger	1945-1953	Packer
Paul Valdon	Late 1960s	Packer
Paul Visser	Late 1940s	Packer
Ed Turner	1956-1959	Packer
Stewart Yankton	1950s	Packer
Ben York	Late 1940s	Packer
Sandra Jefferson Yonge	Early 1970s	Cook

**If you know of any other Mt. Whitney Pack Trains packers, cooks, lunch girls, saddle horse girls etc., please notify me by e-mail with the appropriate information. The Pigmy Packer

Ed Thistlewaite painting images courtesy of Dan Bostrom
Ed Thistlewaite - 1946	Ed Thistlewaite - 1946

Once Again at the Portal Store

Seated left to right: Dina Livermore, Ray DeLea (aka: the Pigmy Packer), Ed Brown (Red), Ike Livermore, Norman Livermore. Mules

Packing is such a great adventure; and, if you were the boss of the outfit (like Ike was) you could name the mules whatever you darn well pleased. I remember packing mules by the names of Dina, Ike and Ed. Although there were, to the best of my knowledge, no mules by the name of Norman or Ray, there were long eared wonders by the names of Strawberry, Kate, Nigger, Bailey, John, Bart, Dan, Wendy, Beulah, Sarah, Tiny, Bonnie, Clyde etc. What characters they were. They may have bit you, kicked you, ran away from you during your wrangle, slipped a saddle on you up a steep pass or dumped a load of lettuce and cantaloupes on you; but, you had to love them or they would definitely get the best of you! I don't know how they liked having their ears rubbed, but it sure felt good to me. It was like running your hand across a short mohair carpet; and, just the size of some of those ears was enough to catch your bewondered attention.

A One-Man Diamond Hitch [pdf]
by Norman B. (Ike) Livermore Jr.

Mt. Whitney Portal Store
The Whitney Portal Store hasn't changed much since I last packed in 1973. The old stock corral and tack rooms are long gone though, the victims of winter snow avalanches. I can't tell you how many hamburgers, hot dogs, egg salad, tuna fish sandwiches etc. that I prepared while "doing time" in the store. Every greenhorn, like myself in 1965, had to spend at least one year tending the store while learning the packing trade. I

f you couldn't be faithful in this, at sometimes God-awful task, you'd never make packer. Along with store were some of the usual tasks of conducting half day saddle rides to Lone Pine, Mirror Lake and Trail Camp just below Trail Crest Pass at 13,777'; and, occasional day trips to the summit of Mt. Whitney. There were the equally enduring acts of faithfulness such as shoveling out snow on the 57 switchbacks between Trail Camp and Trail Crest in June and shoveling out some of the 25 years of accumulated manure at the Portal's corrals. But perhaps the most exciting task of all was trying to reduce to mice population at the Portal's Store! I recall one summer when Ed Brown and I were tending the store and decided on a whim to see how many mice we could catch in one evening. With every trap the store had to offer in hand, we set out on a mouse capade that Mickey would have been proud of! We no sooner got all of the traps baited and placed, with everything from barbecued bacon to peanut butter, when a symphony of snapping ensued. We must have caught close to 100 mice that evening before we finally quit from trap exhaustion.

A West Side Packer on the High Trip [pdf]
by Norman B. (Ike) Livermore Jr.

Ed Turner, Richard Morgan and Eddie Mike 1995	Ed & Mary Brown 1995	Ed Turner, Richard Morgan and Eddie Mike 1957
(L to R): Gene Harlan, Ed Brown, Irene Kritz, Ray DeLea, Norman Livermore, Paul Lamos 1995	Tommy Jefferson (co-owner of Mt. Whitney Pack Trains with Charles Morgan and a great boss)	(L to R): Norman Livermore, Irene Kritz, Paul Lamos 1995

Eddie Mike '95 [photo courtesy of Nancy Droubay]	L to R: Tommy Jefferson, Richard Morgan [photo courtesy of Nancy Droubay]
L to R: Reif Kipp, Eddie Mike, Theresa Mike (wife), Leva Mike (mom) [photo courtesy of Nancy Droubay]

	Mt. Whitney Pack Trains 1950s Brochure
	Bessie Brady
	Packing Equipment
	Packing and High Sierra Stories
	Mt. Whitney Packers of the 1940s - 1970s
	Early Lone Pine

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This page was last updated on 23 August 2007