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47-619: During the winter of 1861–1862, in the Owens Valley , the storms that produced the Great Flood of 1862 resulted in snow and flooding conditions in the surrounding mountains and as far to the east as the Mono County seat at Aurora . There had been light snowfall in November, then mild weather until Christmas Eve when it began a heavy and rapid snowfall for days, the temperature dropped below zero and

94-562: A conservation easement for all LADWP land. They did not meet this extended deadline. In 2008, Los Angeles fulfilled its promise and rewatered the lower Owens River. Pursuant to a 2014 agreement between the city and Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District (GBUAPCD, the Owens Valley air quality regulators), LADWP began using a new method of suppressing airborne dust from the dry bed of Owens Lake. In 2022,

141-557: A dialect of the Mono language, which is also Numic but is more closely related to Northern Paiute . The Timbisha presently live in Death Valley at Furnace Creek although most families also have summer homes in the Lone Pine colony. The Eastern Mono live in several colonies from Lone Pine to Bishop . They lived along the rivers and creeks which were fed by snowmelt from the eastern slopes of

188-546: A few days in the upper end of the valley, where the difficulties are said to exist, and investigate the matter, and if the position of the Indians should be found as favorable as represented, if deemed advisable will give them battle. The captain will have about forty men, with arms to arm twenty more. This, with the number of citizens that will join him from Keysville, will give him a force sufficient to handle any number of Indians that he will be likely to meet at that place. The valley

235-525: A number of Spanish loanwords dating to the period of Spanish colonization of the Californias , as well as loanwords from Yokuts and Miwok . In the mid-1990s, an estimated 50 people spoke the Owens Valley Paiute language, also known as Eastern Mono. Informal language classes exist and singers keep native language songs alive. Linguist Sydney Lamb studied this language in the 1950s and proposed

282-485: A result of these acquisitions, the lake subsequently dried up completely, leaving the present alkali flat which plagues the southern valley with alkali dust storms. In 1970, LADWP completed a second aqueduct from Owens Valley. More surface water was diverted, and groundwater was pumped to feed the aqueduct. Owens Valley springs and seeps dried and disappeared, and groundwater-dependent vegetation began to die. Years of litigation followed. In 1997, Inyo County, Los Angeles,

329-516: A trough which extends from Oregon to Death Valley called the Walker Lane . The western flank of much of the valley has large moraines coming off the Sierra Nevada. These unsorted piles of rock, boulders, and dust were pushed to where they are by glaciers during the last ice age . An excellent example of a moraine is on State Route 168 as it climbs into Buttermilk Country . This graben

376-518: Is adjacent to the Mojave Desert , the aridity leads to black sagebrush being common and the more mesic understory species being largely absent. Other Mojave Desert species, such as blackbrush , Joshua tree , and cholla cactus are common where summer moisture is more prevalent. Streams are ephemeral and flow during and immediately after storms. Storm events can be of sufficient magnitude to move large quantities of sediment in streambeds Because of

423-608: Is exposed at Alabama Hills . The Owens Valley has many mini-volcanoes, such as Crater Mountain in the Big Pine volcanic field . Smaller versions of the Devils Postpile , can be found, for example, by Little Lake . The valley is split between four different ecoregions , as defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency : "Upper Owens Valley" and "Tonopah Sagebrush Foothills" (as part of

470-452: Is fast filling up with settlers and miners, and no fear is entertained of Indians as far up as Bishop Creek , which is the highest settlement in the valley. There the people are very uneasy, and fear to travel to and from Aurora, from whence their supplies are obtained. I would therefore respectfully recommend that so soon as the grass is sufficiently good that a force be sent into the valley to be stationed between Bishop Creek and Aurora, where

517-491: Is situated in Mono County, State of California; that said valley is about 100 miles in length; that there are a number of towns and villages situated in said valley, and also many persons, of whom your petitioners form a part, engaged in farming; that the whole white population now resident therein may be about 250 souls; that this population is so sparse and scattered over such a large extent of country that in case of trouble with

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564-664: Is spoken in the southern Sierra Nevada , the Mono Basin , and the Owens Valley of central-eastern California . Mono is most closely related to Northern Paiute ; these two are classified as the Western group of the Numic branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family . The number of Native speakers in 1994 ranged from 37 to 41. The majority of speakers are from the Northfork Rancheria and

611-481: Is to say, on Bishop's Creek, near Owensville and upon the identical ground upon which Mr. Scott, sheriff of this county, and Colonel Mayfield were killed some two years ago. It is a well-known fact that Joaquin Jim is now and ever has been an uncompromising enemy of the whites; that he refused to emigrate with his people under treaty made with the U. S. authorities; that the many murders and outrages committed in this valley since

658-578: The Great Basin Desert ), and "Western Mojave Basins" and "Mojave Playas" (as part of the Mojave Desert ). The floor of the valley, roughly north of the town of Independence, California , lies in the "Upper Owens Valley" ecoregion. The ecoregion also includes the distinct Alabama Hills in the far south. The primary landforms of this ecoregion are gently to moderately sloping alluvial fans and mostly level basin floors, terraces, and floodplains. Elevations range from about 3,800 feet (1,200 m) along

705-470: The Owens Valley checkerbloom ( Sidalcea covillei ), is endemic to Owens Valley. Tule elk were introduced into the Owens Valley by the State of California in 1933. From the original 56 introduced elk, the herd grew to 300 individuals by 1952, which precipitated conflicts with ranchers due to destruction of property by the elk. Currently, the total elk population is managed to be approximately 490. The valley

752-524: The White Mountains Fault systems became active with repeated episodes of slip earthquakes gradually producing the impressive relief of the eastern Sierra Nevada and White Mountain escarpments that bound the northern Owens Valley- Mono Basin region. Owens Valley is a graben —a down-dropped block of land between two vertical faults—the westernmost in the Basin and Range Province . It is also part of

799-469: The 2014 agreement doesn't cover the dispute and the fines levied by GBUAPCD are unenforceable. The Owens Valley Radio Observatory located near Westgard Pass is one of ten dishes making up the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) . Mono language (California) Mono ( / ˈ m oʊ n oʊ / MOH -noh ) is a Native American language of the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages ,

846-636: The GBUAPCD issued an order and subsequently fined the Los Angeles utility for ignoring an order to control dust on a 5-acre patch (2.0 ha) of dry lake bed. The LADWP responded with a lawsuit, accusing the air district of exceeding its authority and ordering dust control measures without first conducting an environmental analysis of its impacts, as required by the California Environmental Quality Act. A California Superior Court ruled that

893-446: The Indians capable of doing duty as warriors left for the mountains, leaving those that could not fight to take care of themselves. These Indians say they will go to Tule River Reservation if war commences. I believe the Indians have not been properly treated by the whites in Owen's River Valley, and I think, by all the information I could gather, that unless troops are sent there an outbreak by

940-629: The Indians is inevitable. Owens Valley Owens Valley ( Mono : Payahǖǖnadǖ , meaning "place of flowing water") is an arid valley of the Owens River in eastern California in the United States. It is located to the east of the Sierra Nevada , west of the White Mountains and Inyo Mountains , and is split between the Great Basin Desert and the Mojave Desert . The mountain peaks on

987-432: The Indians upon a sudden emergency they would be wholy unable to render material aid to each other. It is well known to the military headquarters at San Francisco that this valley has been for the last two or three years the scene of many Indian outrages and depredations, and that those who are now residents of the valley live in continual fear of an outbreak of the Indians, which, if it should occur, must necessarily result in

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1034-454: The Indians, may be intimidated, and that your petitioners may rest in security; and your petitioners in duty bound will ever pray, &c." WM. P. GEORGE, J. H. SMITH, S. JACKSON, [AND 37 OTHERS.] Sir: In accordance with orders from headquarters Department of the Pacific, I have the honor to make the following report relative to the Indians in Owen's River Valley: I found Indian supplies in

1081-608: The Owens River in the south to more than 6,000 feet (1,800 m) where the higher fans descend from adjacent mountains. Alluvium from the Quaternary period covers the region, with some small areas of lava flows. Shrub-covered rangeland is the dominant land cover, with minor areas of hay and pastureland . Vegetation includes big sagebrush , rabbitbrush , spiny hopsage , antelope bitterbrush , saltbush , ephedra , and several perennial grasses including desert needlegrass . Along

1128-462: The Owens River, some restoration of cottonwoods , willows , and wetlands has occurred. The eastern slopes of the valley lie in the "Tonopah Sagebrush Foothills" ecoregion. The soil is rocky and lacks the fine sediments found at lower elevations of the Tonopah Basin. Great Basin species are common in this ecoregion. However, because the ecoregion is in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada , and

1175-683: The Owens Valley Committee, the Sierra Club, and other concerned parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding that specified terms by which the lower Owens River would be rewatered by June 2003. LADWP missed this deadline and was sued again. Under another settlement, this time including the State of California , Los Angeles promised to rewater the lower Owens River by September 2005. In July 2004, Los Angeles mayor James Hahn proposed barring all future development on its Owens Valley holdings by proposing

1222-586: The Rocky Mountains. In 1845, John C. Fremont named the Owens valley, river, and lake for Richard Owens , one of his guides. Camp Independence was established on Oak Creek near modern Independence , on July 4, 1862, during the Owens Valley Indian War . From 1942 to 1945, during World War II , the first Japanese American Internment camp operated in the valley at Manzanar near Independence. In

1269-578: The Sierra Nevada. Trade between Native Americans of the Owens Valley and coastal tribes such as the Chumash has been indicated by the archaeological record. On May 1, 1834, Joseph R. Walker entered Owens Valley from the south, having crossed the Sierra Nevada at Walker Pass . Walker and his group of 52 men traveled up the valley on their way back to the Humboldt Sink , and back up the Humboldt River to

1316-505: The West side (including Mount Whitney ) reach above 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in elevation, while the floor of the Owens Valley is about 4,000 feet (1,200 m), making the valley the deepest in the United States. The Sierra Nevada casts the valley in a rain shadow , which makes Owens Valley "the Land of Little Rain". The bed of Owens Lake , now a predominantly dry endorheic alkali flat , sits on

1363-432: The ancestral language of the Mono people . Mono consists of two dialects, Eastern and Western . The name "Monachi" is commonly used in reference to Western Mono and "Owens Valley Paiute" in reference to Eastern Mono. In 1925, Alfred Kroeber estimated that Mono had 3,000 to 4,000 speakers. As of 1994 , only 37 elderly people spoke Mono as their first language. It is classified as critically endangered by UNESCO . It

1410-439: The arid conditions, this ecoregion has low carrying capacity for cattle . The southern part of the valley, except for the bed of Owens Lake , lies in the "Western Mojave Basins" ecoregion. The ecoregion is typically dominated by creosotebush and white bursage , with areas of shadscale , fourwing saltbush , and on some upper bajadas and fans, scattered Joshua trees . This ecoregion has little summer rainfall compared to

1457-726: The basins in the eastern Mojave Desert, and typically lacks species such as Mojave yucca and big galleta . The lakebed of Owens Lake is considered to be a "Mojave Playa". The high salt and clay content of playa surface mud, and the hot, dry conditions inhibit plant growth. This ecoregion is largely barren and only sparse saltbush vegetation typically is found on the margins. Playas are dynamic environments with surface channels, playa margins, alluvial materials , and biota changing with each flooding event. Physical and biological crusts on soil surfaces are important, stabilizing soil and reducing erosion from wind and water. The valley contains plants adapted to alkali flat habitat. One of these,

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1504-488: The community of Auberry . The Big Sandy Rancheria and Dunlap have from 12 to 14 speakers. The Northfork Mono are developing a dictionary, and both they and the Big Sandy Rancheria provide language classes. While not all are completely fluent, about 100 members of Northfork have "some command of the language." In the late 1950s, Lamb compiled a dictionary and grammar of Northfork Mono. The Western Mono language has

1551-581: The early 20th century, the valley became the scene of a struggle between local residents and the city of Los Angeles over water rights. William Mulholland , superintendent of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), planned the 223-mile (359 km) Los Angeles Aqueduct , completed in 1913, which diverted water from the Owens River. The water rights were acquired deceitfully, often splitting water cooperatives and pitting neighbors against one another. In 1924, local farmers were fed up with

1598-499: The greater portion of the Indians supposed to be now in the valley are congregated. Honorable IRVIN McDOWELL, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Coast, &c.: The undersigned, your petitioners, would most respectfully represent that they are now and have been citizens and residents of Owen's Valley for the last past twelve months, and a number of your peititioners for a much longer time. Your petitioners would state that said valley

1645-559: The local Paiute suffering the loss of much of the game they depended on. Additionally, the cattle driven into the Owens Valley in 1861 to feed the Aurora miners, competed with the native grazers. They also ate the native wild plant crops the Paiute irrigated and depended on as a staple to survive. Starving, the Paiute began to kill the cattle and conflict with the cattlemen began, leading to the subsequent Owens Valley Indian War. The captain will halt

1692-570: The passes over the Sierra were closed. During the second week of January it warmed slightly and the snow became a torrential rain. Creeks overflowed their banks, flooding low-lying areas. After a week it cooled again and snow began to fall. Within a few days the snow was deeper than it had been before the rains had begun to fall. Samuel Young of Aurora, recorded in his diary that the snow and rain had fallen for twenty six days out of thirty since December 24, 1861. This cold weather and flooding resulted in

1739-491: The purchases and erupted in violence, sabotaging parts of the water system. Eventually, Los Angeles acquired a large portion of the water rights to over 300,000 acres (121,000 ha) of land in the valley, almost completely diverting the water inflows away from Owens Lake. Gary Libecap of the University of California, Santa Barbara, observed that the price Los Angeles was willing to pay to other water sources per volume of water

1786-531: The settlers of the valley were in the habit of sending to the Tule River Reservation for Indians to come and work for them, and when they would get them there decline paying them, and after a certain length of time drive them from their claims and cabins without pay or allowance. The Indians said they would retaliate and drive the whites out of the valley. From what I could learn from the best authority (white settlers), I find that unless troops are sent there

1833-526: The shedding of much innocent blood, as we have now among us many families of women and children. Your petitioners would further represent that the notorious Joaquin Jim, chief of the Pi-Utes in this region since the removal of Captain George to Fort Tejon, with his own particular adherents, together with many fugitives from Fort Tejon and renegades from Captain George's tribe or division, are now settled in our midst; that

1880-528: The southern end of the valley. The current arid nature of the valley is mostly due to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power diverting the water of the region. The valley provides water to the Los Angeles Aqueduct , the source of one-third of the water for city, and was the area at the center of one of the fiercest and longest-running episodes of the California Water Wars . Owens Lake

1927-427: The valley not good, and the most of the Indians had left for the mountains. The Indian agent invited them to come in. Sixteen came and made the following report: They said they had been maltreated by the whites in various ways. To use their own language, they said Americans no good men. Hire Indian, and not pay him according to agreement. I learned from Mr. Maloney, one of the present proprietors of Camp Independence, that

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1974-529: The whites will have to leave the upper portion of the valley, as all the men connected with mining in White Mountain and vicinity had to leave on account of the Indians, supposed to be Captain Joaquin's party, composed of Pi-Utes and Owen's River Indians, and they are determined (so say peaceable Indians) to drive the whites out of the valley. From conversation with Indians left in the valley we were informed that all

2021-464: The withdrawal of Government troops from this locality is traceable to the implacable animosity of this captain or chief to our people. In view of the premises, feeling uneasey and insecure in our settlement, being as we are scattered over a wide extent of country, with helpless women and children among us, we would most respectfully pray that if compatible with the public service you would order to this locality one company of dragoons with such dispatch that

2068-466: Was completely emptied by 1926, only 13 years after Los Angeles began diverting water. The water diversions inspired aspects of the 1974 film Chinatown . Towns in the Owens Valley include Bishop , Lone Pine , Independence and Big Pine ; about 25,000 people live in the valley. The major road in the Owens Valley is U.S. Route 395 . About three million years ago, the Sierra Nevada Fault and

2115-451: Was far higher than what the farmers received. Farmers who resisted the pressure from Los Angeles until 1930 received the highest price for their land; most farmers sold their land from 1905 to 1925, and received less than Los Angeles was willing to pay. The sale of their land brought the farmers substantially more income than if they had kept the land for farming and ranching. None of the sales were made under threat of eminent domain . As

2162-444: Was formed by a long series of earthquakes, such as the 1872 Lone Pine earthquake , that have moved the graben down and helped move the Sierra Nevada up. The graben is much larger than the depth of the valley suggests; gravity studies suggest that 10,000 feet (3,048 m) of sedimentary rock mostly fills the graben and that a very steep escarpment is buried under the western length of the valley. The topmost part of this escarpment

2209-492: Was inhabited in late prehistoric times by the Timbisha (also called Panamint or Koso) in the extreme south end around Owens Lake and by the Mono tribe (also called Owens Valley Paiute ) in the central and northern portions of the valley. The Timbisha speak the Timbisha language , classified in the Numic branch of Uto-Aztecan language family . The closest related languages are Shoshoni and Comanche . The Eastern Mono speak

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