While researching old collections of plants in the Bodie Hills (using Calflora and the Jepson eFlora), I’ve run across two collections that were made “northeast of Millersville.” These include specimens of Salix geyeriana (Geyer’s willow) and Polygala intermontana (Great basin milkwort), collected by G. A. Graham in August–September, 1937. (See CalPhotos for pictures of the willow and the milkwort.)
Where’s Millersville?? I reviewed recent maps of the area (for the umpteenth time), did some searching in Google, and looked for place marks in the Google Earth Community. No luck. There’s a Millersville in Kern County, and a few Millersvilles in other states, but no Millersville in or near the Bodie Hills.
Then I happened to be browsing the 1909 Bridgeport 30-minute topographic quadrangle. And there it was, at the end of a dirt road, overlooking Bridgeport Valley, just north of Potato Peak.
Looking at the area today, in Google Earth, I see the scars of old prospecting activity (cinnabar mining at the “Alta Plana prospect”, not sure when), some colorful geology, and not far away, some nice stands of trees—perhaps mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius), and a small stand of something else—perhaps limber pine (Pinus flexilis). Must go there.
Millersville from the west, in Google Earth
Plants of the Bodie Hills 