Owens River - History

History

For thousands of years the Owens River valley was inhabited by the seminomadic Owens Valley Northern Paiute and the Shoshone tribes of Native Americans. The indigenous name for the river was Wakopee, while they called Owens Lake Pacheta. In the upper Owens Valley lie traces of some of California's first irrigation systems, created by Paiute groups to water small patches of crops. It is believed that native people in the upper portion of the valley once built dams across the Owens River (and possibly one of its major tributaries, Bishop Creek) to divert water into local canals. The switch from a hunter-gatherer to a settled, agricultural lifestyle is probably the result of the climate of the Owens Valley becoming drier some 1,000 years ago.

Typically, the Native Americans would build dams across the river or a tributary stream in the spring, out of materials including boulders, dirt, reeds, grass or other elements. The watercourse below the dam would then be desiccated, and the water led by canal to the irrigated plot of land, typically no more than a few square miles. Directly after the dam was closed and the river dried up, fish trapped on the dry riverbed would then be gathered and eaten. Before winter storms caused floods, the dam would be breached, allowing the river to flow naturally again, while fish would be collected in the dried-up river channel. By then, there would be enough food stored to last the winter in which the cropland would lie fallow.

In the nineteenth century, the Owens River was first seen by American explorers. One of the first explorers was John C. Fremont, who led a cartographic expedition to the Owens Valley in 1845. His party included Kit Carson, Edward Kern and Richard Owens, the latter for whom the river, lake and valley are named. Other well-known adventurers included Jedediah Smith and Joseph R. Walker, who also came into the area in the 1800s. Gradually, the river's surroundings were settled by farmers and ranchers. The valley never accumulated a very large population, but mining activities brought significant income to the new inhabitants of the area. Ore was shipped down the Owens River from the north, and also borax and silver from Death Valley to the east. Up until 1924, Owens Lake was still so large that a steamboat ferry operated between its east and west sides, ferrying freight and passengers across in three hours, much less than the three days required to semi-circumnavigate the lake. In 1872, the Lone Pine earthquake killed 27 people in the Owens Valley, mostly in Lone Pine.