American mule museum “The story of the mule” (стр. 2 )

With the road less backcountry, primitive and wilderness areas in the Sierra Nevada, recreation expanded before the turn of the century. People accessed these recreation areas with saddle and pack mercial packers expanded their businesses to include packing tourists and their camping supplies to backcountry mountain lakes and streams.

The National Forest Service was created in 1908 and the National Park Service in 1916. Pack mules were used to construct trails, maintain trails, fire suppression, build roads and bridges and other public amenities.

The Sierra Club, formed in 1892, began the annual Summer Outings pack trips in 1902. The popular trips expanded to accommodate up to 300 and more participants and crew. It took as many as 250 mules to move camp to various locations during each summer’s outing. John Muir was the first president and in his early years in Yosemite, his favorite mount was his mule, “Brownie” who accompanied him on a 6 week exploration of the Sierra Nevada. John Muir guided Theodore Roosevelt on his introductory trip to Yosemite Valley.

California Governor Ronald Reagan enjoyed a pack trip into the Yosemite National Park backcountry with a camp supplied by pack mules. The party included Reagan’s family and his good friend and his family, Norman “Ike” Livermore. Livermore was the California Director of Natural Resources. “Ike” Livermore was a former packer having owned Mineral King Pack Station and Mt. Whitney Pack Trains and had provided the transportation for the Sierra Club High Trips for many years.

At the urging of Ike Livermore, Governor Ronald Reagan took another Sierra pack trip with pack mules carrying all the equipment and supplies over the proposed route of a trans-Sierra Highway from Mammoth Lakes to Soldier Meadow. At the top of the crest, over-looking a vast wilderness expanse at Summit Meadow, Reagan and the accompanying officials, dignitaries, and representatives of the press dismounted. Reagan, with cameras running, announced to his audience that he had just received a telegram from President Nixon and that the president had halted the road plans and withdrawn federal financial support. The road corridor became a wilderness area that kept the Sierra Nevada an unbroken wilderness between Yosemite and Mt. Whitney, with no further trans-Sierra road constructions.

When the California Department of Fish and Game was established, the Department constructed fish hatcheries for stocking the local lakes and streams. The Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery in Independence was constructed in 1916. In the spring, the golden trout lay their eggs in the high Cottonwood Lakes and department crews have to catch and “milk” the spawning trout for their eggs. The eggs are carefully packed in cans back to the fish hatchery to hatch and grow to plantable size. Specially constructed fish cans carried the trout fingerlings and were loaded on pack mules. Packers led the strings into the high mountain lakes of the Sierra for planting.

The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service engaged commercial mule pack strings to pack their employees doing stream sampling studies into Sierra Nevada streams and lakes for a survey of wilderness fish populations and management. They were based at Convict Creek each summer.

The story of Mule Days begins with its creation in 1969, and it has grown to be the largest event in the Eastern Sierra. The event has generated interest in mules across the nation with people acquiring mules and breeding mules for riding, packing, driving and showing. In 1974, Gov. Ronald Reagan was Grand Marshal and rode a mule named “Jeannie” in the parade. Hall of Fame mules are honored each year for their outstanding petitions cover all aspects of uses of mules including driving, pulling, jumping, roping, reining, shoeing, trail, and packing. The Mule Days committee and the American Mule Museum will share this exciting history with the public.

MULES IN TODAY’S WORLD – 2000+

The U. S. Forest Service and National Park Service use mules for trail construction and maintenance, bridge construction, fire suppression, and wilderness administration. Within the Sierra Nevada mountain range alone, the Forest Service and Park Service have many hundreds of miles of wilderness trails to maintain in addition to stewardship of a vast wilderness area. Much of the management of this mountainous terrain is accomplished with the assistance of mule strings and packers.

Commercial pack stations provide riding, packing transportation, guiding, and public access to the wilderness and road less areas in the Sierra Nevada. Camping trips are arranged for fishing, hunting, youth, educational and church groups, photography and natural mercial pack stations provide access to America’s Wilderness Area’s for the vacationing public. These pack stations accommodate people who could not enjoy this public land without assistance, the young, the elderly, physically handicapped, families, and people who like to ride in the Sierra and have their camp gear packed in for them on pack mules.

Park Service Concessionaires in Yosemite and the Grand Canyon provide pack trips, and trail rides throughout Yosemite and Grand Canyon National Parks and to wilderness camps connected by trails. Mules are used almost exclusively as they are considered to be more surefooted than horses.

The Back Country Horsemen organization enjoys recreational pack trips into the Sierra Nevada using their own horses and mules, and volunteer many hours of wilderness trail maintenance in the National Forests. The Back Country Horsemen are active supporters of Wilderness.

In 1957, the Army officially deactivated the last two operational mule units at Ft. Carson, Colorado. However, during the Korean Conflict, the U. S. Marine Corps in 1952 established the Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center northwest of Bridgeport, Calif. on Sonora Pass. The Base currently has about 40 mules and donkeys were added in the training of troops in the use of pack animals before deploying to Afghanistan. They are training Marines, Seals, Special Forces, British Commandoes and other troops for mountain warfare.

AMERICAN MULE MUSEUM

“THE STORY OF THE MULE”

MUSEUM PLAN

EXHIBIT THEMES – EXHIBITS

The Museum will use the services of a professional museum planner/exhibit designer and augment with available “in house” personnel in setting up and installing the designed exhibit displays.

In designing museum exhibits, the displays will be inspired to move visitors of all ages, not only physically through the chronological flow, but intellectually and emotionally, as well, and create curiosity to further pursue an interest in the mule and its history. The exhibits will tap into all senses providing a dynamic, interactive, educational and enjoyable experience.

The displays will utilize historic and reproduced photos, paintings, drawings, models, murals, life size dioramas, videos, oral histories, sound recordings, and films. Throughout the exhibit area will be artifacts, documents, maps, and life size dioramas, manikins wearing historical clothing, vignettes, and small dioramas of scenes, archived materials, selective objects and tableaus. These replications will choreograph together to tell the fascinating story of the humble mule.

MEET THE MULE

This introductory and composite exhibit will explain the genetic descriptions of mules through charts and photographs of jack donkeys, mares, and mule colts, and types of mules for different purposes. It will depict various uses of mules throughout the ages past and present.

MULES THROUGH THE ANCIENT AGES

This exhibit will be a composite overview display of several individual exhibits using drawings, paintings, maps, replicas of carvings, text and murals to trace the use of mules from approximately 3,500 BC, from Nicaea, Paphlagonia, Armenia to the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Hittites, Israelites, Greeks, Romans and Hannibal.

MULES THROUGH THE MIDDLE AGES –

By the 18th century, Spain, Italy, and France were the primary European mule breeding centers. For many years the French province of Poitou was the primary European breeding center with some 500,000 being bred each year. Spain was in the forefront of the mule breeding industry as Catalonia and Andalusia each developed a larger and stronger breed of donkey.

Composite or individual exhibits using carvings, drawings, paintings murals, maps and text will tell the story of the mule through the middle ages in Europe and into Asia with Marco Polo’s travels. Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the new world in 1495 with 4 jacks, 2 jennies and 6 mares will be emphasized. The conquistadores riding mules, missions and haciendas and raising mules in the Central America, Caribbean Islands and Mexico will be told and portrayed.

MULES IN AMERICA

Exhibit 1 –The exhibit will depict George Washington, an early major mule breeder in the United States at his plantation at Mt. Vernon with drawings, paintings and photos of his Mt. Vernon home, farm, gardens and mule barn, early jacks and mules.

Exhibit 2 - Erie Canal – Paintings, photos and drawings will tell about mule-drawn boats and barges on the Erie Canal, and showing the canal as an important transportation and freighting route. Words to the song, “The Erie Canal”, sung by many elementary school students will be incorporated into the display.

Exhibit 3 – Mule-drawn farming with various sized farm implements and hitches will be displayed with photos and artifacts. Loading hay in barns, powering a grist mill, plowing fields and harvesting will be covered. The Museum will have outdoor exhibits of farming equipment and period artifacts.

THE ROLE OF MULES IN THE WESTWARD EXPANSION

Lewis and Clark on their 1805 historic westward exploration, traded for horses and mules with Shoshone Indians. We will tell the story of Sacagawea’s long lost brother, Cameahwait, a Shoshone Chief. The Shoshone gave Clark a prized mule and a Spanish saddle to ride and Clark exchanged gifts with a waistcoat. He purchased 9 horses and 1 mule and had to pay twice as much for the mule as they were highly valued by the Shoshone tribes.