Visiting Lone Pine California was a fun adventure. We can now say that in our three months of being on the road, we have visited the most southern point of No. America in Key West, the lowest point of No. America in Death Valley at 282ft below sea level and we were on Mt. Whitney in California which is the highest point in No America.
The fun part of Lone Pine is all of memorabilia of old western movies. You see, most all of the westerns we saw as kids were filmed right here in the Alabama Mountains which sit right behind Lone Pine and at the base of Mt. Whitney and the Sierra’s. They have a great museum in town that took us back through our childhood remembering those Saturday afternoons we went to the movies for 25 cents.
One of the surprising things we found in the museum was not only westerns were filmed in this area. Do you remember Gunga Din? Filmed here. Do you remember Tremors? Filmed here. The biggest surprise was the movie Ironman that came out in 2008... It was also filmed here.
Lone Pine hosts a film festival every October over Columbus Day weekend, showing all of the movies filmed in the area.
The beauty of this area is something to see. I don’t remember ever seeing the eastern side of the Sierra’s, and they are so different and spectacular from the Western side. High crags with snow still on them, they remind you of a smaller version of the alps. But the Alabama Mountains are something else. Do you remember all those big rocks in the movies the cowboys rode up into and hid behind to shoot from? They are here in these mountains.
We also visited Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp from world war II. This is one of the most humbling places we have visited on this trip and if you are ever down this way, a must see.
When WWII broke out, our government made the decision that anyone of Japanese decent living on the west coast was a threat to our national security and should be relocated further inland. In some cases, people’s home were invaded by the FBI and the man of the house arrested and taken away in front of his family. Family’s were given anywhere from 1 to 6 days to get their affairs in order and their belongings put together before they were put on trains and moved. People lost jobs, friends and in some cases businesses. There were 10 camps from Wyoming to Northern California.
There were about 10,000 people moved to this location and were housed in barracks. They were forced to communal restrooms, showers and eating. The miraculous thing about this was how the people forced into this situation turned this dry arid desert into gardens, and places of beauty and how they managed to have life that included school for the kids and work in factories that made camouflage fabric.
Our government told the Japanese this was not a prison, but the guard tower is still standing today, and they were not allowed to leave the area. When the high school had football or baseball games with other schools in the area, they always had to be the home team.
Deane and I were both truly moved by this National Monument and would recommend seeing it.
Movie Museum - http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=334720023407%3A237883783
Alabama Mountains - http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=424720023407%3A1695590310
Manzanar - http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?token=834720023407%3A186319241