Owens Valley (Mono: Payahǖǖnadǖ, meaning "place of flowing water") is an arid valley of the Owens River in eastern California in the United States. It is located to the east of the Sierra Nevada, west of the White Mountains and Inyo Mountains, and is split between the Great Basin Desert and the Mojave Desert.[2] The mountain peaks on the West side (including Mount Whitney) reach above 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in elevation, while the floor of the Owens Valley is about 4,000 feet (1,200 m), making the valley the deepest in the United States.[3] The Sierra Nevada casts the valley in a rain shadow, which makes Owens Valley "the Land of Little Rain".[4] The bed of Owens Lake, now a predominantly dry endorheic alkali flat, sits on the southern end of the valley.
The current arid nature of the valley is mostly due to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power diverting the water of the region. The valley provides water to the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the source of one-third of the water for city, and was the area at the center of one of the fiercest and longest-running episodes of the California Water Wars.[5] Owens Lake was completely emptied by 1926, only 13 years after Los Angeles began diverting water. The water diversions inspired aspects of the 1974 film Chinatown.
Towns in the Owens Valley include Bishop, Lone Pine, Independence and Big Pine; about 25,000 people live in the valley. The major road in the Owens Valley is U.S. Route 395.
^"Owens Valley". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. Retrieved May 3, 2009.
^"Ecoregions of California" (PDF). US Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved February 22, 2024.
^Smith, Genny; Jeff Putnam (1976). Deepest Valley: a Guide to Owens Valley, its roadsides and mountain trails (2nd ed.). Genny Smith books. ISBN 0-931378-14-1.
^Austin, Mary Hunter (1903). Land of Little Rain. Houghton, Mifflin and Company. ISBN 0-8263-0358-7.
^"Los Angeles Aqueduct". Archived from the original on July 10, 2011. Retrieved October 17, 2010. LADWP
OwensValley (Mono: Payahǖǖnadǖ, meaning "place of flowing water") is an arid valley of the Owens River in eastern California in the United States. It...
Owens River is a river in eastern California in the United States, approximately 183 miles (295 km) long. It drains into and through the OwensValley...
Owens Lake is a mostly dry lake in the OwensValley on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada in Inyo County, California. It is about 5 miles (8.0 km)...
The OwensValley War was fought between 1862 and 1863 by the United States Army and American settlers against the Mono people and their Shoshone and Kawaiisu...
The 1872 OwensValley earthquake – also known as the Lone Pine earthquake – struck on March 26 at 02:30 local time in the OwensValley (California, along...
OwensValley Radio Observatory (OVRO) is a radio astronomy observatory located near Big Pine, California (US) in OwensValley. It lies east of the Sierra...
area hundreds of feet deep. One lobe of this material moved south into OwensValley, past present-day Big Pine, California. Another lobe moved west over...
Angeles prevailed and kept the water flowing. By 1926, Owens Lake at the bottom of OwensValley was completely dry due to water diversion. The water needs...
Nevada in the OwensValley (Mono: Payahǖǖnadǖ/Payahuunadu – "place/land of flowing water") along the Owens River (Wakopee) and south to Owens Lake (Pacheta)...
Aqueduct, a 233-mile-long (375 km) system to move water from OwensValley to the San Fernando Valley. The creation and operation of the aqueduct led to the...
The Los Angeles Aqueduct system, comprising the Los Angeles Aqueduct (OwensValley aqueduct) and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, is a water conveyance...
118.617325°W / 37.574515; -118.617325 The Owens River Gorge is a steep 10 mi (16 km) canyon on the upper Owens River in eastern California in the United...
after Fr. John J. Crowley, "the desert Padre", who was a key figure in OwensValley history and a local hero. When it became obvious that the city of Los...
Florence Owens Thompson (born Florence Leona Christie; September 1, 1903 – September 16, 1983) was an American woman who was the subject of Dorothea Lange's...
the area was settled by the OwensValley Paiute, who ranged across the OwensValley from Long Valley on the north to Owens Lake on the south, and from...
The Big Pine Band of OwensValley Paiute Shoshone Indians of the Big Pine Reservation are a federally recognized tribe of Mono and Timbisha Indians in...
who have inhabited the region in and around Death Valley, California, and the southern OwensValley since late prehistoric times. There are a few elderly...
the OwensValley, sitting 10,778 feet (3,285 m) or just over 2 mi (3.2 km) above the town of Lone Pine 15 mi (24 km) to the east, in the OwensValley. It...
Round Valley, Eaton's "mountain pasture land," was strategically located on the Owens River in Inyo County upstream of the Owens River Gorge and Owens Valley...
OwensValley Solar Array (OVSA), also known as Expanded OwensValley Solar Array (EOVSA), is an astronomical radio telescope array, located at Owens Valley...
companion and close friend of Kit Carson. Fremont named the OwensValley, Owens River, and Owens Lake in eastern California all after him, even though Owings...
endemic to California in the United States, where it is limited to the OwensValley. It is a federally listed endangered species of the United States. This...
and continued through basins down the Owens River Valley, through Searles and China Lakes and the Panamint Valley, to the immediate west. As the area turned...
southern Santa Cruz County C. c. canfieldae (Van Rossem, 1939) – OwenValley quail – OwensValley of east central California C. c. catalinensis (Grinnell, 1906)...
Indian Wells Valley is an arid north-south basin in east-central California. In the geologic sense, it is a southern extension of OwensValley to the north...
Deep Springs Valley is a high desert valley in the Inyo-White Mountains of Inyo County, California. It is east of the OwensValley and the Sierra Nevada...
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