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Story of Inyo

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The Story of Inyo presents a comprehensive view of the history and geology of the Owens Valley, beginning with its first inhabitants, and extending through the conflict with the City of Los Angeles.

What makes the book special is that it presents it from the perspective of one of the prominent citizens of the Valley during its formative years, newspaperman and author W.A. Chalfant. When you pick up this book, not only do you get some very insteresting facts about the Owens Valley, you also get to read them in a writing style that was prevalent at the time that the history was being made. It's like reading about history and stepping back into it at the same time.

The Story of Inyo should be perhaps the first choice for anyone interested in the history or geology of the Owens Valley.

In 1887, nineteen year-old W.A. (Bill) Chalfant took over active editorship of the Inyo Register, published in Bishop, CA, and continued to serve in that capacity until a year before his death in 1943
During his long career with the Register, Bill Chalfant became a staunch advocate for Owens Valley residents, especially in regard to the acquisition of local water rights by Los Angeles interests during the early years of the 1900s. When firebrands began dynamiting the resulting aqueduct, however, Chalfant opposed their action and subsequently was threatened to be run out of town. Later he served on the Inyo Associates Committee, a group formed to repair relations with the City of Los Angeles, and, partially through his counsel and sense of justice, he lived to see town properties resold to local residents, thereby returning many acres of Owens Valley land to production.
John B. Long, manager of the California Newspaper Publishers Association, said, "Angels Camp had its Mark Twain, the Valley of the Moon its Jack London, San Francisco its Bret Harte, and Owens Valley its Bill Chalfant."
Which begs the question, "Who better than Bill Chalfant to write a history of Inyo County?"
First published in 1922, The Story of Inyo contains a wealth of information on its namesake County, including, but not limited to: the geology of the area (now somewhat dated), a brief history of the county's first inhabitants (the Paiutes and Shoshones), notes on its earliest explorers (Jedediah Smith, Joe Walker, John C. Fremont), the ordeal of the emigrants who came through Death Valley in 1849, the first attempts to organize a new county (Inyo County was originally part of Tulare County), early mining claims (Coso and Argus in 1860; Slate Range in 1861), the arrival of the first cattle (1861), the Indian Wars (1861-1867, during which 60 whites and some 200 Indians died.), the development of the Cerro Gordo mines (beginning in 1865), the eventual establishment of Inyo County (1866), the Great Earthquake(1872), the opening of the Panamint mines (1873), the discovery of borax in Death Valley (1880), and, last but not least, the development of the Owens Valley as an agricultural area.
Updating The Story of Inyo in 1933, Chalfant took aim at the Southern California interests which had acquired most of the water rights in the Owens River drainage, thus severely limiting the area of its agricultural promise. Starting with Chapter XXXIV, "The Betrayal of Owens Valley," and including six additional chapters with foreboding titles such as: "The Coils Tighten," "Unceasing Menace," and "City Lawlessness Emulated," the author provided a detailed--if somewhat mind-numbing--explanation of how the Owens Valley lost its birthright.