The Nevada Traveler: Fletcher was once a crossroad community with a purpose

Despite never having more than a handful of residents, the tiny central-western community of Fletcher once played an important role in the region’s business and commerce.

What remains of Fletcher can be found at the intersection of Lucky Boy Pass Road and Aurora Road, about 18 miles southwest of Hawthorne.

Fletcher’s peak period was from about 1883 to 1919, when it served as the intersection for those traveling from the thriving mining towns of Aurora and Bodie to the Carson & Colorado Railroad connection in Hawthorne.

The C & C, as it was commonly called, was completed in 1883, and stretched 300 miles from Mound House to Keeler, Calif.

A big part of the reason Fletcher was established, is that the location also boasted a natural spring — certainly an advantage in such a dry area. In 1881, a two-story stage-stop known as Six Mile Station (because it was six miles from Aurora) was established at the site of the spring.

Owned and operated by H.D. Fletcher and his family, the station offered fresh produce as well as frogs and fish from ponds, and served as a way station where travelers could switch out their tired horses for fresh ones.

Two years later, the station gained a post office. The settlement was named after Fletcher, who also served as the first postmaster.

Fletcher’s fortunes ebbed and flowed with the successes and failures of mining in Aurora. The post office was opened sporadically over the years, then, after Aurora and Bodie had declined, closed for good on Nov. 30, 1913.

After that, the small community of Fletcher quietly slipped into obscurity after the loss of the post office. Ranchers continued — and continue to this day — to utilize water from the spring for livestock, but its permanent residents moved on.

In 1949, the station was renovated for use as a resort center for hunters and fishermen. It included sleeping quarters, a restaurant and a bar. Unfortunately, shortly after it was completed, a fire destroyed the building.

Today, Fletcher is literally little more than a wide spot in the road. After driving across miles of flat, dry high desert, you can find Fletcher because it's the only green area around. Tall cottonwoods and poplars, lush green grass, marshy ground and thick foliage attest to the life-giving benefits of the spring.

Indeed, water continues to rush from the spring, funneled through a plastic pipe and into a flat, green meadow that is attractive to local cows. Overflow from this stream of water collects in a small pond, which is thick with cattails and grasses.

Remnants of past settlement remain. Crumbling, hand-piled rock walls indicate the former site of a corral while a locked iron door hints at the hidden things within a stone cellar in a hillside — the only real building still standing.

All around is the refuse of the past; warped wooden boards, rusted metal barrel rims, barbed wire and other castoffs. A U.S. Geological Survey marker indicates this was once someplace — but today few would know where and what and why.
And beware of the few remaining residents of Fletcher. In addition to the cows and the occasional wild horse, the rattlesnake is the most prominent boarder. They particularly like to snooze inside of the rotted, hollowed cores of fallen trees.

Fletcher still remains the gateway to the former site of the mining town of Aurora — now largely gone — as well as the entrance to other former mining towns, including the site of China Camp and Bodie.

The latter, a California State Park, is perhaps the best preserved 19th-century ghost town in the region. Boasting dozens of intact wooden buildings, which are maintained in a "state of arrested decay," Bodie is an historic treasure worthy of a visit.

Additionally, directly south of Fletcher, to the left (east) of the road leading to Aurora, you can find plenty of dark volcanic rock. This rocky mound, now partially covered with vegetation, was once part of a lava flow from a nearby volcanic crater.
For information about Fletcher, go to mcindependentnews.com/2019/12/fullers-findings-fletcher-fire/.

Rich Moreno writes about the places and people that make Nevada special.