| Owens River | |
|---|---|
 Owens River south of Poverty Hills | |
 Map of the Owens Lake watershed, including Los Angeles Aqueduct system | |
  Location of the mouth of the Owens River in California | |
| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| District | Mono County,Inyo County |
| Cities | Mesa,Bishop,Big Pine,Elna (site),Chrysopolis (site),Independence,Lone Pine |
| Physical characteristics | |
| Source | Confluence of Deadman Creek and an unnamed stream |
| • location | Inyo National Forest,Mono County |
| • coordinates | 37°45′01″N118°56′20″W / 37.75028°N 118.93889°W /37.75028; -118.93889[2] |
| • elevation | 7,251 ft (2,210 m) |
| Mouth | Owens Lake |
• location | A few miles northwest ofKeeler,Inyo County |
• coordinates | 36°32′31″N117°58′45″W / 36.54194°N 117.97917°W /36.54194; -117.97917[2] |
• elevation | 3,592 ft (1,095 m) |
| Length | 183 mi (295 km), north-south |
| Basin size | 2,604 sq mi (6,740 km2) |
| Discharge | |
| • location | Big Pine, CA[3] |
| • average | 389 cu ft/s (11.0 m3/s)[3] |
| • minimum | 51.9 cu ft/s (1.47 m3/s) |
| • maximum | 3,220 cu ft/s (91 m3/s) |
| Basin features | |
| Tributaries | |
| • left | Spring Valley Wash, Silver Canyon Creek, Coldwater Canyon Creek |
| • right | Hot Creek,Rock Creek,Bishop Creek,Big Pine Creek,Birch Creek,Independence Creek, Lone Pine Creek |
| Designated | March 30, 2009 |
TheOwens River is ariver in easternCalifornia in the United States, approximately 183 miles (295 km) long.[4] It drains into and through theOwens Valley, an arid basin between the eastern slope of theSierra Nevada and the western faces of theInyo andWhite Mountains. The river terminates at theendorheicOwens Lake south ofLone Pine, at the bottom of a 2,600 mi2 (6,700 km2) watershed.
In the early 1900s, the Owens River was the focus of theCalifornia Water Wars, fought between the city ofLos Angeles and the inhabitants of Owens Valley over the construction of theLos Angeles Aqueduct. Since 1913, the Owens River has been diverted to Los Angeles, causing the ruin of the valley's economy and the drying of Owens Lake. In winter 2006, theLos Angeles Department of Water and Power restored 5% of the pre-aqueduct flow to the river by court order, allowing theOwens River Gorge, the river bed in the valley, and Owens Lake to contain a small amount of water.[5]
The river rises in the Sierra Nevada in southwesternMono County, approximately 15 miles (24.1 km) south ofMono Lake and 35 miles (56.3 km) east ofYosemite Valley. It flows southeast across theLong Valley Caldera, throughLake Crowleyreservoir, then descends through the 20-mile-long (32 km)Owens River Gorge, emerging at the north end of the Owens Valley northwest ofBishop. In the area around Bishop, it is diverted through many ditches to irrigate the surrounding farming region. It flows south-southeast through the Owens Valley between the Sierra Nevada on the west and theWhite andInyo Mountains on the east, pastBig Pine. Approximately 14 miles (22.5 km) south-southeast of Big Pine, most of the remaining river is diverted into theLos Angeles Aqueduct, completed in 1913 to supply municipal, recreational and agricultural water toLos Angeles. The remaining river flows through the southern valley, flanked by the Los Angeles Aqueduct, pastLone Pine, entering the lake bed of predominantly dryOwens Lake at the southern end of Owens Valley.[6][7]
The river flows through two major valleys of the extreme southwesternGreat Basin – the Long Valley and Owens Valley.[8] The north to southdrainage basin is in portions of Mono andInyo counties and terminates in the now-dry Owens Lake.[9] To the northwest of the valley is the Long Valley Caldera, which is only a fraction of the size of the Owens Valley. The Owens River enters Owens Valley from the northwest, while the Spring Valley Wash drains the northernmost part of the valley, extending a tiny portion of the basin intoNevada.[7] The river flows mainly on the east side of the valley, becausealluvial deposits from Sierra Nevada streams have forced the river channel in that direction.[9]
Vertical relief in the basin is immense – elevations range from 14,505 feet (4,421 m) atMount Whitney, the highest peak in thecontinental United States,[9][10][11] to 3,556 feet (1,084 m) on the bed of Owens Lake.[12] The Owens River itself heads at an elevation of 7,291 feet (2,222 m). Few people inhabit the sparse, open grasslands and steep mountainsides of the watershed; the 2009 population of Mono County was about 12,927[13] while Inyo County had some 17,293 inhabitants.[14] The largest city on the river isBishop, with a population of just under 4,000. Other significant towns includeLone Pine (population 2,035),Big Pine (population 1,707), andIndependence (population 669).
The Owens River flows through part of theBasin and Range Province of North America'sGreat Basin. The Owens Valley is agraben orrift valley, a section of land that has dropped down between two parallelfaults, while the land on either side has risen. This has resulted in the flat floor and steep, towering walls of the present-day valley.[15] With theSierra Nevada on the west side and theInyo Mountains andWhite Mountains on the east, with the highest peaks of either range rising to over 14,000 feet (4,300 m) and the floor of the valley at a comparatively low 3,000 to 4,000 feet (910 to 1,220 m), the Owens River flows in one of the deepest valleys in the United States.[15][16]
Further to the north, the Owens River basin encompasses predominantlyigneous rocks and vast remnants of past volcanic activity. The upper 30 miles (48 km) of the river run through theLong Valley Caldera, an enormous 20-mile-wide (32 km) crater formed by a volcanic eruption some 760,000 years ago.[17] The eruption's resulting ash cloud covered much of the southwestern United States, including parts of tenU.S. states.[18]Mammoth Mountain, to the southwest (more popularly known as a major ski area) also formed from eruptions related to the Long Valley Caldera.[11] To the north of the Caldera, extending to theMono Lake area, lie the chain ofMono-Inyo Craters, which range in age from 400,000 to 500 years old.[19]
During thePleistocene at the end of thelast glacial period, melting glaciers in the Sierra Nevada and Inyo/White Mountains fed prodigious amounts of runoff into the Owens River, causing it to expand to many times its current size. The increased river volume caused Owens Lake to rise as well, eventually spilling out the south side of the valley into theMojave Desert. Ancient, now-abandoned river channels suggest that the extended Owens River ran south to China Lake, then east intoSearles Lake, north into thePanamint Valley (where it formed Panamint Lake), and finally east intoDeath Valley and the ancientLake Manly. This great inland sea was also fed by theMojave River from the south, theAmargosa River from the east, and the Death Valley Wash from the north.[20] During this relatively short time, the Owens River became part of a vast interior drainage system that stretched east to west, covering over 8,000 square miles (21,000 km2). During the runoff peak, water from this massive basin may have escaped to theColorado River through a valley leading to the southeast.[21]
For thousands of years the Owens River valley was inhabited by the seminomadic Owens ValleyNorthern Paiute and theShoshone tribes ofNative Americans. The indigenous name for the river wasWakopee, while they called Owens LakePacheta.[22] In the upper Owens Valley lie traces of some of California's firstirrigation 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 ahunter-gatherer to a settled, agricultural lifestyle is probably the result of the climate of the Owens Valley becoming drier some 1,000 years ago.[23]
Typically, the Native Americans built dams across the river or other tributary streams 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.[24][25] 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.[26] By then, there would be enough food stored to last the winter in which the cropland would lie fallow.[24][27]
In the nineteenth century, the Owens River was first seen by American explorers. One of the first explorers wasJohn C. Fremont, who led a cartographic expedition to the Owens Valley in 1845. His party includedKit Carson,Edward Kern, and Richard Owens, the latter for whom the river, lake, and valley are named. Other well-known adventurers includedJedediah Smith andJoseph R. Walker, who also came into the area in the 1800s.[22] Gradually, the river's surroundings were settled by farmers and ranchers.[28] The valley never accumulated a very large population, but mining activities brought significant income to the new inhabitants of the area.[22]Ore was shipped down the Owens River from the north, and alsoborax andsilver fromDeath Valley to the east. 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.[29] In 1872, theLone Pine earthquake killed 27 people in the Owens Valley, mostly in Lone Pine.
Beaver was re-introduced to the Owens Valley by theCalifornia Department of Fish and Game in 1948 in Baker Creek,[30] and has since spread throughout the Owens Valley.[31] Although it is controversial whether beaver were once native to the Owens Valley, there is growing evidence that they were native to the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada. In particular, thenorthern Paiute ofWalker Lake,Honey Lake andPyramid Lake have a word for beaversu-i'-tu-ti-kut'-teh.[32] WhenStephen Powers visited the northern Paiute to collect Indian materials for theSmithsonian Institution in preparation for theCentennial Exhibition of 1876, he reported that the northern Paiute wrapped their hair in strips of beaver fur, made medicine from parts of beaver and that their creation legend included beaver.[32] In addition, fur trapperStephen Hall Meek "set his traps on the Truckee River in 1833", which strongly suggests that he saw a beaver or beaver sign.[33] Supporting this line of evidence, Tappe records in 1941 an eyewitness who said beaver were plentiful on the upper part of the Carson River and its tributaries inAlpine County until 1892 when they fell victim to heavy trapping.[34]
In 2011, theLos Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) decided to trapbeaver (Castor canadensis) out of the Owens Valley, claiming that beaver are damming flows into their diversions of water toLos Angeles.[35] This decision runs counter to an independent assessment commissioned by LADWP and the Inyo County Water Department in 1997, where it was recommended that beaver be maintained in reasonable populations and their dams left in place because "Although beaver activity has resulted in the removal of much willow and other shrub and woody vegetation and the dams create favorable tule conditions and reduce fish spawning habitat, they also provide important fish rearing habitat, mesic meadows, and promote the growth of other riparian species. It is most likely that the physical removal of beaver dams will result in more adverse environmental impacts than environmental benefits."[36]
The acquisition of water rights for theLos Angeles Aqueduct under the direction ofWilliam Mulholland was highly controversial and led to violence and sabotage by local residents in the 1920s.[37][38] The diversion of water and the subsequentdesiccation of Owens Lake remains highly controversial, and the restoration of the lake has been a long-time goal of the Californiaenvironmentalist community.[39][40] The lower Owens River and Owens Lake were left dry by the 1913 diversions, until lawsuits forced LADWP to start releasing water into the 62 mi (100 km) lower Owens River in December 2006.[41] In less than one year, the lower Owens River was teeming with fish, birds and other wildlife.[42]
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