Almost anybody who grew up during the mid 1960's and had a TV will remember the sitcom, Gilligan's Island. Yes, I remember those nights when we sat glued to the snowy, black and white picture that our TV set managed to pull in from the transmitter, about 60 miles away, and how we marveled at the antics of Gilligan, the Skipper, the movie star and a host of others that formed that cast of the TV show.  

If you'll recall, the castaways arrived on the island aboard the S.S. Minnow, a tour boat that somehow found itself in the middle of a storm, leading to a catastrophic shipwreck on Gilligan's Island, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, that was to bear Gilligan's name.  Most episodes of the show dealt with the castaways trying to get off the island, and back to civilization, but always seemed to be interrupted by the efforts of Gilligan.  Now you remember!

Please bear with me, as I thought the S.S. Minnow was lost, destroyed by the waves as it crashed ashore on Gilligan's Island.  Well Gilligan fans, I have great news, as that just isn't so, as during one of my railfan trips to the Tehachapi Mountains of central California, I found the S.S. Minnow, alive and, well, quite rusty, in a field, east of the town of Tehachapi.  Yes, there she rests, in plain view, from the vantage point of busy California Highway 58. Westbound affords the best look at Minnow, but you can see her from either direction.

So Gilligan fans, rest assured, the S.S. Minnow is rusty and just sitting in a sagebrush pasture, strewn with cows, rocks and junk, lonely and alone, reminiscing upon her former stardom in her glory days of Gilligan's Island, east of Tehachapi, California.