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

Ben "Mike" Baker of Oro Valley, Arizona Writes

Ray

We didnt meet but I know many of the other others on your site. What a lot of work you have put in , NICE JOB!

The JF brand you show stood for James Frankin Chrysler one of the first owners with Ted Cook and my cowboy mentor since childhood. His nephews Jack Fitzpatrick (Alaska) and Jerry Whortan (Idaho) are still out fishing for different fish. We all spent many summers with Frank at Little Whitney. When I got older and found out the Sierra Club trips had girls along to clean the pots, I went to Mt. Whitney pack trains for a job and worked there in the mid 1950s. Along with part time work for the Laceys and George Brown outfits. I know I was there in 1956 because I had just gotten my drivers license and came into the Portals from a trip and Bruce asked me if I could "double clutch". I said I could and he put me in the green Chevy stock truck to take Grace to town

I needed to "double clutch" because the brakes were out and I think we went almost all the way to Lone Pine in low gear.

I have pictures of Frank Chrysler and others if you have any interest. I just sent Richard the original photo of the big dinner we had in LasVegas after arriving there with the mule team in about 1949 but still have it on file. Along with Bruce & Grace there were Russ Spainhower and more. Also, sent Roberta the program from the 1956 stampede when she was queen.

Those were good days. I'd like to hear from you if you would like some some old stuff from the Owens Valley. I was born there in 1940 and my mom was a packrat.

Frank Chrysler was truly one of a kind. I particularily remember when as a little kid we were taking cattle to volcano meadow and as entertainment once in a while he would rope a calf and we kids would jump off our horses and ride it.

One calf took off in a circle and tied me to a pine tree and he said that I bellowed louder than the calf. I'm going to carbon copy this to his nephew Jack Fitzpatrick in Anchorage and he may also be of assistance to you on Frank although I don't believe he worked for MWPT. I already sent a link to your site to Jack today and he may have seen it already. If he hasn't he doubtlessly will and he and his cousin Jerry Whorton may have additional stories on Frank.

One of my favorite campfire stories Frank told was when he was with the 20 mule team as a young man in Death Valley when Haleys comet came over and everything was lit up like day. The year was (according to Google) about 1910.

I'll give this some more thought and get back to you with some pictures and stories. Great that someone has put all this history together.

I'll try and find one picture that I thought was really special of Chrysler, Harold "Skinny" Gates and my dad, Ben Baker Sr. at a campfire. In those old days I was called "Mike" so if you mention me as a packer it should probably be Ben "Mike" Baker, Jr. I worked as "Packer" in the mid 1950s but like most others was also guide, wrangler, cook, horseshoer and fishing instructor. Also even worked the Portals Store with Roberta and Richard a couple times.

Ben "Mike" Baker
Oro Valley, Arizona
September 2008

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
Ben "Mike" Baker	1950s	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 21 September 2008