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 localOwens 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] In Timbisha,ɨnnɨyun means "it's (or he's) dangerous".[2]
Inyo County is host to a number of natural superlatives. Among them are:
Mount Whitney, with an elevation of 14,505 feet (4,421 m), the highest point in the contiguous United States, the 12th highest peak in the U.S., and the 24th highest peak in North America.
Ten of California's twelve peaks which exceed 14,000 feet (aFourteener) in elevation; the isolatedMount Shasta in northern California, andWhite Mountain Peak in neighboring Mono County, are the only California14ers not (at least partly) in Inyo County
Mount Whitney, the highest peak in thecontiguous United States, is on Inyo County's western border (withTulare County). TheBadwater 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 14,700 feet (4,500 m). They are not visible from each other, but both can be observed from thePanamint Range on the west side of Death Valley, above thePanamint Valley. Thus, Inyo County has the greatest elevation difference among all of the counties and county-equivalents in the contiguous United States.
It is the hottest and driest of the national parks in the United States. It also features the second-lowest point in theWestern Hemisphere and the lowest point in North America at theBadwater Basin, which is 282 feet (86 m) belowsea level.[8] It is home to many species of plants and animals that have adapted to this harshdesert environment. Some examples includeCreosote Bush,Bighorn Sheep,Coyote, and theDeath Valley Pupfish, a survivor of much wetter times. Approximately 95% of the park is designated aswilderness.[15] 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.
As of the2020 census, the county had a population of 19,016 and a median age of 44.8 years. 20.2% of residents were under the age of 18 and 23.7% were 65 years of age or older, and there were 102.3 males for every 100 females overall and 102.6 males for every 100 females age 18 and over.[23]
The racial makeup of the county was 61.8% White, 0.5% Black or African American, 13.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.5% Asian, 0.1% Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander, 11.9% from some other race, and 11.2% from two or more races, while Hispanic or Latino residents of any race comprised 23.1% of the population.[24]
57.9% of residents lived in urban areas, while 42.1% lived in rural areas.[25]
There were 8,046 households in the county, of which 25.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them and 26.4% had a female householder with no spouse or partner present; about 33.2% of households were made up of individuals and 16.9% had someone 65 years of age or older living alone.[23]
There were 9,469 housing units, of which 15.0% were vacant, and among occupied units 64.3% were owner-occupied while 35.7% were renter-occupied; the homeowner vacancy rate stood at 0.8% and the rental vacancy rate at 6.5%.[23]
Inyo County, California – Racial and ethnic composition Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
However, the county shifted significantly leftward in2020, narrowly supportingJoe Biden overDonald Trump. As a result, it became one of only two counties that previously voted for Trump by double digits in 2016 to flip to theDemocrats, the other beingTalbot County, Maryland.
Inyo still leans Republican. It voted Republican in all statewide races held in2022. It flipped back to voting for Donald Trump in2024, though by a much smaller margin than Trump had won the county in 2016.
United States presidential election results for Inyo County, California[36]
On November 4, 2008, Inyo County voted 60.6% forProposition 8 which amended the California Constitution to ban same-sex marriages.[40]
The county was home to Manzanar Internment Camp, where Japanese Americans were interned during World War II. The county was typically Democratic before World War II. Since World War II, the county has been solidly Republican, only voting for Democratic presidential nomineesLyndon Johnson andJoe Biden.
Furnace Creek, California (Hottest air temperature ever recorded here in 1913 at 134.6 °F (57.0 °C). In July 1972, a ground temperature of 201 °F (94 °C) was measured in Furnace Creek. This may be the highest natural ground surface temperature ever recorded.)
In the 1920s, automobile clubs and nearby towns started to lobby for trans-Sierra highways overPiute Pass[43] and other locations. However, by end of the 1920s, theForest Service and theSierra 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 overMinaret Summit in 1933.[43] The Minaret Summit route was lobbied against by California's GovernorRonald Reagan in 1972. The expansion of theJohn Muir andAnsel Adams Wildernesses in the 1980s sealed off the Minaret Summit route.[43]
A trans-Sierra route betweenPorterville andLone Pine was proposed by local businessmen in 1923.[44] Eventually, a circuitous route across the Sierra was built across the only trans-Sierra route south of Yosemite:Sherman Pass by 1976.[45] That route is Forest Route 22S05 to the west, and Kennedy Meadow Road (County Route J41) and 9-Mile Canyon Road to the east.
^"2010 Census Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. August 22, 2012.Archived from the original on September 25, 2015. RetrievedSeptember 26, 2015.
^abcU.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey, 2011 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, Table B02001.U.S. Census website . Retrieved October 26, 2013.
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