Inyo County () is a county in the eastern central part of the U.S. state of California, located between the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada. In the 2020 census, the population was 19,016. The county seat is Independence. Inyo County is on the east side of the Sierra Nevada and southeast of Yosemite National Park in Central California. It contains the Owens River Valley; it is flanked to the west by the Sierra Nevada and to the east by the White Mountains and the Inyo Mountains. Mono County is to the north. With an area of , Inyo is the second-largest county by area in California, after San Bernardino County which is directly south of Inyo County. Almost half of Inyo County's area is within Death Valley National Park. However, with a population density of 1.8 people per square mile, it also has the second-lowest population density in California, after Alpine County.

History

Present-day Inyo county has been the historic homeland for thousands of years of the Mono, Timbisha, Kawaiisu, and Northern Paiute Native Americans. The descendants of these ancestors continue to live in their traditional homelands in the Owens River Valley and in Death Valley National Park.

Inyo County was formed in 1866 out of the territory of the unorganized Coso County, which had been created on April 4, 1864, from parts of Mono County and Tulare County. It acquired more territory from Mono County in 1870 and Kern County and San Bernardino County in 1872.

For many years it has been commonly believed that the county derived its name from the Mono tribe's name for the mountains in its former homeland. Actually the name came to be thought of, mistakenly, as the name of the mountains to the east of the Owens Valley when the first whites there asked the local Owens Valley Paiutes for the name of the mountains to the east. They responded that that was the land of Inyo. They meant by this that those lands belonged to the Timbisha tribe headed by a man whose name was Inyo. Inyo was the name of the headman of one of the Timbisha bands at the time of contact when the first whites, the Bennett-Arcane Party of 1849, wandered, lost, into Death Valley on their expedition to the gold fields of western California. The Owens Valley whites misunderstood the reference and thought that Inyo was the name of the mountains when actually it was the name of the chief, or headman, of the tribe that had those mountains as part of their homeland. In Timbisha, ɨnnɨyun means "it's (or he's) dangerous".

To supply the growing City of Los Angeles, water was diverted from the Owens River into the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913. The Owens River Valley cultures and environments changed substantially. From the 1910s to 1930s the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power purchased much of the valley for water rights and control. In 1941 the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power extended the Los Angeles Aqueduct system farther upriver into the Mono Basin.

The county was home to the Manzanar War Relocation Center, where Japanese Americans were interned during World War II.

Natural history

Inyo County is host to a number of natural superlatives. Among them are:

  • Mount Whitney, with an elevation of , the highest point in the contiguous United States, the 12th highest peak in the U.S., and the 24th highest peak in North America.
  • Badwater Basin, in Death Valley, the lowest point in North America
  • Methuselah, an ancient Bristlecone pine tree and one of the oldest living trees on Earth
  • Owens Valley, the deepest valley on the American continents
  • Two mountain ranges exceeding in elevation: The Sierra Nevada and the White Mountains
  • Ten of California's twelve peaks which exceed 14,000 feet (a Fourteener) in elevation; the isolated Mount Shasta in northern California, and White Mountain Peak in neighboring Mono County, are the only California 14ers not (at least partly) in Inyo County
  • The largest escarpment in the United States, rising from the floor of Death Valley to the top of Telescope Peak in the Panamint Range

Geography

thumb|right|250px|Approximate area of the [[Mojave Desert ecoregion.]]

Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous United States, is on Inyo County's western border (with Tulare County). The Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, the lowest place in North America, is in eastern Inyo County. The difference between the two points is about . They are not visible from each other, but both can be observed from the Panamint Range on the west side of Death Valley, above the Panamint Valley. Thus, Inyo County has the greatest elevation difference among all of the counties and county-equivalents in the contiguous United States.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.5%) is water. It is the second-largest county by area in California and the ninth-largest in the United States (excluding boroughs and census areas in Alaska).

Lakes

  • Camp Lake
  • Cottonwood Lakes
  • Diaz Lake
  • Dingleberry Lake
  • Granite Lake
  • Inconsolable Lake
  • Loch Leven
  • Mills Lake
  • Pee Wee Lake
  • Robinson Lake
  • Rock Creek Lake
  • Lake Sabrina
  • Weir Lake
  • Wishbone Lake

National protected areas

  • Death Valley National Park (part)
  • Inyo National Forest (part)
  • Manzanar National Historic Site

There are 22 official wilderness areas in Inyo County that are part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. This is the second-largest number of any county, exceeded only by San Bernardino County's 35 wilderness areas. Most of these are managed solely by the Bureau of Land Management, but four are integral components of Death Valley National Park or Inyo National Forest and are thus managed by either the National Park Service or the Forest Service. Some of these wilderness areas also extend into neighboring counties.

Except as noted, the wilderness areas are managed solely by the Bureau of Land Management and lie entirely within Inyo County:

  • Argus Range Wilderness
  • Coso Range Wilderness
  • Darwin Falls Wilderness
  • Death Valley Wilderness (part)
  • Funeral Mountains Wilderness
  • Golden Trout Wilderness (part)
  • Ibex Wilderness
  • Inyo Mountains Wilderness (part)
  • John Muir Wilderness (part)
  • Malpais Mesa Wilderness
  • Manly Peak Wilderness
  • Nopah Range Wilderness
  • Owens Peak Wilderness (part)
  • Pahrump Valley Wilderness (part)
  • Piper Mountain Wilderness
  • Resting Spring Range Wilderness
  • Sacatar Trail Wilderness (part)
  • Saddle Peak Hills Wilderness (part)
  • South Nopah Range Wilderness
  • South Sierra Wilderness (part)
  • Surprise Canyon Wilderness
  • Sylvania Mountains Wilderness

Death Valley National Park

Death Valley National Park is a mostly arid United States National Park east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in southern Inyo County and northern San Bernardino County in California, with a small extension into southwestern Nye County and extreme southern Esmeralda County in Nevada. In addition, there is an exclave (Devil's Hole) in southern Nye County. The park covers , encompassing Saline Valley, a large part of Panamint Valley, almost all of Death Valley, and parts of several mountain ranges. Death Valley National Monument was proclaimed in 1933, placing the area under federal protection. In 1994, the monument was redesignated a national park, as well as being substantially expanded to include Saline and Eureka Valleys. Death Valley National Park is visited annually by more than 770,000 visitors who come to enjoy its diverse geologic features, desert wildlife, historic sites, scenery, clear night skies, and the solitude of the extreme desert environment.

Other parks

  • Alabama Hills Recreation Area
  • Last Chance Meadow Research Natural Area
  • California Bighorn Sheep Zoological Area

Demographics

<!-- PresRow should be -->

In the California State Legislature, Inyo County is in , and .

The county is in .

On November 4, 2008, Inyo County voted 60.6% for Proposition 8 which amended the California Constitution to ban same-sex marriages.

The county was typically Democratic before World War II. Since World War II, the county has been solidly Republican, only voting for Democratic presidential nominees Lyndon Johnson and Joe Biden.

Crime

The following table includes the number of incidents reported and the rate per 1,000 persons for each type of offense.

{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed"

|-

! colspan="3" | Population and crime rates

|-

! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | Population

| 80 || 4.33

|-

! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | Homicide

| 177 || 9.59

|-

! scope="row" style="text-align: left;" | Motor vehicle theft

! data-sort-type="number" | Violent crimes

  • Big Pine Unified School District
  • Bishop Unified School District - Some areas cover grades PK-12 while others cover grades 9-12 only.
  • Death Valley Unified School District
  • Lone Pine Unified School District
  • Owens Valley Unified School District
  • Trona Joint Unified School District

There is also one elementary school district: Round Valley Joint Elementary School District.

Deep Springs College is a two-year alternative education college in Deep Springs Valley.

Higher education in Inyo County is provided by the Kern Community College District.

Notable locations

  • Mushroom Rock
  • Mount Whitney
  • Death Valley National Park
  • Badwater Basin
  • Lake Manly
  • Furnace Creek, California (Hottest air temperature ever recorded here in 1913 at . In July 1972, a ground temperature of was measured in Furnace Creek. This may be the highest natural ground surface temperature ever recorded.)

Transportation

thumb|"Welcome to Inyo County" sign along [[U.S. Route 395 (California)|U.S. Route 395 ]]

In the 1920s, automobile clubs and nearby towns started to lobby for trans-Sierra highways over Piute Pass and other locations. However, by end of the 1920s, the Forest Service and the Sierra Club decided that roadless wilderness in the Sierra was valuable, and fought the proposal. The Piute Pass proposal faded out by the early 1930s, with the Forest Service proposing a route over Minaret Summit in 1933. Eventually, a circuitous route across the Sierra was built across the only trans-Sierra route south of Yosemite: Sherman Pass by 1976. That route is Forest Route 22S05 to the west, and Kennedy Meadow Road (County Route J41) and 9-Mile Canyon Road to the east.

Major highways

  • 20px U.S. Route 6
  • 25px U.S. Route 395
  • 25px State Route 127
  • 25px State Route 136
  • 25px State Route 168
  • 25px State Route 178
  • 25px State Route 190

Public transportation

Eastern Sierra Transit Authority operates intercity bus service along US 395, as well as local services in Bishop. Service extends south to Lancaster (Los Angeles County) and north to Reno, Nevada.

Airports

Bishop Airport, Independence Airport, Lone Pine Airport and Shoshone Airport are general aviation airports located near their respective cities. Stovepipe Wells Airport and Furnace Creek Airport are located in Death Valley National Park.

Communities

thumb|alt=photo of Inyo County Court House|right|The Inyo County Court House in Independence

Cities

  • Bishop

Census-designated places

  • Big Pine
  • Cartago
  • Charleston View
  • Darwin
  • Dixon Lane-Meadow Creek
  • Furnace Creek
  • Homewood Canyon
  • Independence (county seat)
  • Keeler
  • Lone Pine
  • Mesa
  • Olancha
  • Pearsonville
  • Round Valley
  • Shoshone
  • Tecopa
  • Trona
  • Valley Wells
  • West Bishop
  • Wilkerson

Other unincorporated communities

Source:

  • Alabama Hills
  • Chicago Valley
  • Coso Junction
  • Death Valley Junction
  • Deep Springs
  • Dunmovin
  • Haiwee
  • Laws
  • Panamint Springs
  • Sandy Valley
  • Stewart Valley

Population ranking

The population ranking of the following table is based on the 2010 census of Inyo County.

† county seat

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|-

!Rank

!City/Town/etc.

!Municipal type

!Population (2010 Census)

|- style="background-color:#FFFACD;"

| 1

|Bishop

| City

| 3,879

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 2

|Dixon Lane-Meadow Creek

| CDP

| 2,645

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 3

|West Bishop

| CDP

| 2,607

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 4

|Lone Pine

| CDP

| 2,035

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 5

|Big Pine

| CDP

| 1,756

|- style="background-color:#FFFF99;"

| 6

|Bishop Reservation

| AIAN

| 1,588

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 7

|† Independence

| CDP

| 669

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 8

|Wilkerson

| CDP

| 563

|- style="background-color:#FFFF99;"

| 9

|Big Pine Reservation

| AIAN

| 499

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 10

|Round Valley

| CDP

| 435

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 11

|Mesa

| CDP

| 251

|- style="background-color:#FFFF99;"

| 12

|Lone Pine Reservation

| AIAN

| 212

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 13

|Olancha

| CDP

| 192

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 14

|Tecopa

| CDP

| 150

|- style="background-color:#FFFF99;"

| 15

|Fort Independence Reservation

| AIAN

| 93

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 16

|Cartago

| CDP

| 92

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 17

|Keeler

| CDP

| 66

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 18

|Homewood Canyon

| CDP

| 44

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 19

|Darwin

| CDP

| 43

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 20

|Shoshone

| CDP

| 31

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| t-21

|Furnace Creek

| CDP

| 24

|- style="background-color:#FFFF99;"

| t-21

|Timbi-Sha Shoshone Reservation

| AIAN

| 24

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 22

|Trona

| CDP

| 18

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 23

|Pearsonville

| CDP

| 17

|- style="background-color:#F0FFF0;"

| 24

|Valley Wells

| CDP

| 0 (permanent)

|}

See also

  • National Register of Historic Places listings in Inyo County, California

Notes

References

<!-- * Inyo County Office of Education is DEAD -->

  • Inyo County Tourism website
  • Eastern California Museum