A View of Mono Lake, California

From the Scanavino Ranch

Painting by M. Randall, 1936

This is a painting by M. Randall who painted this scene from the front yard of the “Goat Ranch”, currently called the Scanavino Ranch. The Ranch remains the same today as it was in this 1936 painting. The original Scanavino Family homesteaded where the Ranch is today. There were fourteen brothers and sisters who were raised and educated on the Ranch. They farmed the land and sold vegetables.

The image and information on this page were provided by Joe Scanavino, who lived on the Scanavino Ranch in the 1940s and 1950s. The ranch is located on Cottonwood Canyon Road not far from the old DeChambeau Ranch. Joe was born in Hawthorne, Nevada on February 17, 1939 and lived at the Goat Ranch with his parents. His father, Joe Scanavino Sr., remained living at the ranch until he passed away in 1955. The original Scanavino Family homesteaded the Mono Basin area (about 1900). His grandparents raised and educated fourteen children at the Goat Ranch. He thinks the ranch got its name originally from the goats that were raised on Paoha Island.

His father and uncle Steve complied numerous stories about the miners, ranchers, and lifestyles of the residents in the Mono Basin area, specifically Bodie and the dry farmers that settled adjacent to the Goat Ranch. His uncle Steve wrote several articles that were published in the Hawthorne NV newspaper. Steve talked about the Great Snow slide at Mill Creek and Bodie's first motorized funeral.

There were other paintings but they were lost in a fire along with many of his father's antiques. His father is buried in Bodie along side his parents, brothers and sisters. He worked on the phone line from Hawthorne to Bodie and from Bodie to Mill Creek and Bridgeport.