Ghost Town (Unoccupied)
Mono County
Circa 1859 to early 1900's 

As the first eastern strike of Dog Town became over crowded, hardy prospectors began exploring other areas to the south and east. In 1859 Cord Norst, a former Dog Town inhabitant struck a find while dry digging near the present day Conway Summit. Word of his success soon reached Dog Town and the mining camps of the west causing a eastward rush. Business men were those among the hoards of people making their trek over the Sierra Mountains in to Mono Diggins. As the refined arrived a settlement began to form just below the diggins area and businesses were opened to support the needs of the prospectors and those arriving every day. Similar to Dog Town, prospectors employed a very basic means of Dry Panning and digging to extract gold in the gulches. The town peaked at about 700 residents following the winter of 1860, and every day the word of a growing settlement continued attracting new prospectors and explorers alike. Some remained in the camp of Dog Town and even more continued on south to the Mono Diggins and the newly formed Monoville. Many of the hardier explorers and prospectors would venture out on their own and explore areas further North, South and East after gathering supplies at Monoville. Being the only place East of the Sierra's resembling and serving as a town site at the time, Monoville became the staging point and key supply location for those who preferred to head out on their own. Prospector and explorer William S. Bodey, of whom the Historic town of Bodie was named, lost his life only months after locating pay dirt near the Historic town site that now bares his name while returning from Monoville with supplies. It was the promotion of Aurora that increasingly drew people out of Monoville which by the 1870s had shrunk by more than half of its residents. Due to the areas lack of building materials and resources at Aurora, whole buildings at Monoville were dismantled and loaded in to large wagons and transported to Aurora. By late 1880, there was not much left of Monoville, and the diggins above shrunk to a hand full of die hards and their shack homes built in the dry washes they named Rattlesnake and Bacon Gulches. Although the settlement had virtually disappeared, the diggins were consistently worked off and on in to the 1900's.

More recent dwelling next to early structure where Monoville once stood. 

   
Overview of the Mono Diggins Site. Tailings and prospector holes are scattered amongst the ground.The area and gulches are littered with remains of fallen shacks and abandoned homes