Casa Diablo is a location in the
Sierra Nevada
The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...
in
Mono County
Mono County ( ) is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,195, making it the fourth-least populous county in California. The county seat is Bridgeport. The coun ...
, eastern
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, United States.
Casa Diablo Hot Springs
Casa Diablo Hot Springs is a hot springs and active geothermal location, near Mammoth Lakes and the Eastern Sierra Nevada, in Mono County, eastern California.
Geography
It is within the northern part of the Long Valley Caldera volcanic featur ...
was named “House of the Devil”, by early explorers, for its boiling hot springs, rising steam and geysers.
Native settlement
This locale is noted as a
Native American mining and manufacturing site specializing in
obsidian
Obsidian () is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extrusive rock, extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock.
Obsidian is produced from felsic lava, rich in the lighter elements s ...
materials. Use of materials from this site is noted at least as early as the
Millingstone Horizon
Millingstone Horizon is an archaeological period of Native American dominance denoting a period in California, United States involving extensive use of manos and other grinding technology. The interval is a subset of the Archaic Period; specif ...
. Peoples as distant as the coastal
Chumash people
The Chumash are a Native American people of the central and southern coastal regions of California, in portions of what is now San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, extending from Morro Bay in the north to Malibu ...
traded for material from this
Obsidian source.
Later settlements
Casa Diablo became a stage stop along the
Bishop Creek to
Bodie
Bodie ( ) is a ghost town in the Bodie Hills east of the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountain range in Mono County, California, United States. It is about southeast of Lake Tahoe, and east-southeast of Bridgeport, California, Bridgepo ...
stagecoach
A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...
route in . It was a relay station for the route to the mining camps of
Mammoth City,
Mill City,
Mineral Peak
In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ...
and
Pine City. In 1881, Casa Diablo stage station ceased operating and was later used for other business as a trading post, a seasonal resort, a tavern, a gas station, a grocery store, a hardware store and a lumber yard. In 1983, it was transformed into a geothermal electric generating plant.
California Historic Point of Interest: Casa Diablo Near Mammoth Lakes
/ref>
See also
* Mono tribe
The Mono ( ) are a Native American people who traditionally live in the central Sierra Nevada, the Eastern Sierra (generally south of Bridgeport), the Mono Basin, and adjacent areas of the Great Basin. The Eastern mono is often grouped under th ...
* Projectile point
In North American archaeological terminology, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a weapon that was capable of being thrown or projected, such as a javelin, dart, or arrow. They are thus different from weapons presumed to have be ...
* Obsidian hydration Obsidian hydration dating (OHD) is a geochemical method of determining age in either absolute or relative terms of an artifact made of obsidian.
Obsidian is a volcanic glass that was used by prehistoric people as a raw material in the manufacture ...
Notes
References
* Kathleen L. Hull (2001) ''Reasserting the Utility of Obsidian Hydration Dating: A Temperature-Dependent Empirical Approach to Practical Temporal Resolution with Archaeological Obsidians'', Academic Press.
* C.Michael Hogan (2008) ''Morro Creek'', The Megalithic Portal, ed. by A. Burnha
Ghost towns in California
Geography of Mono County, California
Sierra Nevada (United States)
History of Mono County, California
Mono
Native American history of California
Archaeological sites in California
Chumash
Former settlements in Mono County, California
Populated places established in 1878
1878 establishments in California
{{MonoCountyCA-geo-stub