HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF THE UPPER MOJAVE DESERT

Vol. 20 No. 5 May 2005
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MAY MEETING: ANNUAL DINNER MEETING

Come help celebrate your Society's Twentieth Anniversary at our Annual Dinner Meeting on Tuesday, May 17, 2005. The featured presentation will be "The Owens Valley Controversy: The Untold Story" by Robert A. Pearce, Ph. D. The Annual Dinner will be at Victoria's at the Heritage starting at 6:00 PM, with dinner served buffet style at 6:30. Tickets are available at the Maturango Museum at a cost of $21 per person. Deadline for purchase is 2:00 p.m, Saturday, May 11.

Robert A. Pearce is a fifth generation resident of the Owens Valley. His presentation will give a different view of the relationship between the Owens Valley and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, a view that makes the DWP less of a villain. This view was formed in conversations with his grandfather, A. A. Brierly, who lived in the Owens Valley during the time that Los Angeles was buying up land and water rights. Brierly was a representative of one of the irrigation associations that sold out to Los Angeles, and so was well placed to note the controversies and differing opinions of the times. Through his grandfather's recollections, Dr. Pearce will make the case that the L. A. aqueduct wasn't such a bad deal for the farmers and ranchers then, nor is it such an environmental disaster for the Owens Valley now.

Since his childhood spent on the family ranch listening to his grandfather's tales of the old days in the Owens Valley, Dr. Pearce has worked for the Mineral King Pack Station, horse trainers in California and Texas, Cal Trans, the DWP, the Forest Service, and Inyo County, among others. He earned his Ph. D. in Rangeland Ecosystem Science from Colorado State University in 1995. He is currently back in the Owens Valley, employed by the Federal Government.

Before the featured speaker, Director Bill Nevins will give a short presentation on plans to save the old County/U.S.O building on Ridgecrest Blvd. Let us know if you have any fond memories of this historic landmark from when it was a U.S.O building!

As usual for our annual meeting, there will be a short business meeting followed by the election of directors. This year's nominating committee (consisting of Kathy Armstrong, as chairperson, Eileen Dietz, and George Silberberg) has nominated Jim Kenney, Bill Nevins, Jerry Mumford, Lou Pracchia, Fred Weals, and Bruce Wertenberger. Bruce, Bill, Lou, Fred, and Jim are running for the five director's positions whose terms are expiring this year. Jerry is running for the vacant seat, whose term will expire next year.

To help celebrate the anniversary, each table will also hold a selection of articles from twenty years of the HSUMD newsletter, along with a small gift for all members.

There will also be a June meeting this year on Tuesday the 21st, featuring a presentation by Tom Chapman on a different subject than his standing-room only March lecture.
Andrew Sound

NOMINEES FOR ANNUAL ELECTION

The Nominating Committee has proposed the following six people as nominees to be voted upon at the annual meeting on May 17:

JIM KENNEY. Jim has been a resident of IWV for many years, attends BLM Advisory Committee meetings, member of the Gear Grinders, instructor at Cerro Coso Community College, interested in visiting and exploring historic sites and mines, frequent attender of HSUMD meetings.

JERRY MUMFORD. One trip to the petroglyphs and I was hooked on the rich heritage of the local desert and have explored much of the surrounding area in search of early settlements, rock formations and wildflowers. Am an active member in numerous local organizations: Maturango Museum, IWV Concert Association, Over the Hill Track Club, Agua Bonita Flyfishers and the Sierra Club. Enjoys jogging, hiking, skiing and fishing. Have served as the Membership Chairperson of the HSUMD for the past two years and look forward to continuing my support of the Society. Resident of the valley since 1976.

BILL NEVINS. Bill arrived in Indian Wells Valley on June 22, 1966, to start of his career with NOTS. He retired from NAWC in 1999 and continued working as an engineering consultant. He has provided volunteer support to the SEEP and California Archaeological Site Stewardship Program. Been on the HSUMD board for the last two years. As a board member, responsible for the coordination of program speakers, acting as USO building restoration project committee chairperson and coordinating the HSUMD activities with BLM on the Historical Cabin-Site Preservation Program.

LOU PRACCHIA. He and his wife Gerry have lived in the area since 1959. Lou has served on the board since the Society's founding in 1985. He served as its president from June 1992 to May 2002. At present he is the Director for Collections and, if re-elected to the board, would like to continue in that position. He is active in doing land and historical research of the area. Of special interest to him are the local stage and wagon trails and that portion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct between Owen's Lake and the city of Mojave.

FRED WEALS. Fred arrived in Indian Wells Valley (IWV) in 1953 when he accepted a job with the Navy at China Lake. He retired from the Navy in 1979 and worked part time for several additional years as an employee of defense contractors and as a self-employed civil engineer. Fred has served on the HSUMD Board of Directors for several years and has been treasurer during most of this time. He has also collected history regarding local churches and local land acquisition and development, and has used the information collected to prepare publications for the Society. He is presently collecting information on some of the earliest families in IWV.

BRUCE WERTENBERGER. Bruce has served on the HSUMD board since 1986, both as secretary and, in recent years, as president. He is also the co-editor of the HSUMD newsletter. Bruce has been active in other community organizations until recently. He worked on the base from 1953 to 1988.

HISTORICAL ARTICLE

(Following is an article prepared by our great local historian member, John Di Pol, drawn from his own library of history books. Ed)

THE CHAIN OF LAKES

Here in the Indian Wells Valley we are in the middle of a topographical and geological feature that, while not necessarily unique or rare, is of some interest. This is the interconnectivity of Owens Lake, China Lake, Searles Lake, Panamint Valley and Death Valley to form, in the words of Professor Robert Sharp of CalTech, "the Chain of Lakes".

Toward the end of the most recent glaciation period 10,000 - 20,000 BP, give or take a few millennia, these basins became very large inland seas, now referred to as "glacial lakes". The elevation drop today from Owens Lake to Searles Lake is 1,500 ft, probably not much different than it was during the late Pleistocene period. The elevation drop continues into the Panamint Valley and Death Valley with no insurmountable divides between these five basins.

The runoff from the extensive glaciers in the Sierra Nevada mountains gathered in Owens Valley to form glacial Lake Owens, 250 ft. deep and covering 240 square miles in area. The overflow was to the south over Haiwee Meadows, through Rose Valley which served as a broad spreading ground, with the water gathering at its southern end, cascading down and through the Little Lake Gap into the Indian Wells Valley. The course and strength of the glacial Owens River is vividly apparent at Fossil Falls which is located just north of the present Little Lake where the water has carved its passage through an ancient lava flow.

The ponding of water in the Indian Wells Valley formed a broad, shallow lake not much more that 30 feet in depth . The glacial Lake China overflowed east into the Searles basin via a route north and east of "B" Mountain (officially named "Lone Butte" in the USGS topographical maps), through Salt Wells Valley, then down Poison Canyon. There is evidence that the ensuing Lake Searles, at a full depth of 640 ft. connected with Lake China at an earlier time to form the largest inland sea in the chain with a combined area of 385 sq. miles.

The overflow from Searles was to the southeast into Pilot Knob Valley, then a sharp turn north into the Panamint Valley to form a long, narrow lake, nearly a 1,000 feet deep at its midpoint. The flow out of Lake Panamint through the Panamint Mountains was via Wingate Pass, (present elevation 1,960 ft. asl.). After a long eastward run, the flow spilled into Death Valley to form Lake Manly. Death Valley, then as today, was a closed basin, the end of The Chain. In addition to the inflow from the Sierra Nevadas the Amargosa River, then a sizable stream formed by the pluvial heavy snows and rains in its watershed, also drained into Death Valley. Accordingly, Lake Manly was the recipient of much of the soluable salts and sediments that were carried along the chain and the Armagosa and which were deposited during the warm periods by evaporation and precipitation. Prof. Sharp expresses the opinions that Lake Manly may have existed at various times as far back as 200,000 BP and as recently as 5000 BP. Death Valley, with its Lake(s), is a story in itself.

There is ample evidence of these glacial lakes in the form of ancient shorelines visible at many sites that have survived the forces of erosion. The pinnacles located in southern Searles Valley, formed under the waters of the glacial lake, are a striking feature of what once was.

This very brief summary deals primarily with the most recent period of glaciation. In the dim recesses of geologic time there no doubt have been prior glaciations, followed by warming, flooding, dessication. Consider Searles Lake, with its complex substructure layers of clay, minerals, brine, clay, more brine, etc. Obviously it has also served as a sink similar to Death Valley at times in the distant past. How many such cycles have there been? "Beats me" sez this writer. Will there be another glaciation phase in the future and the re-filling of our valley? "Why not!!"
John Di Pol

Ref.: GEOLOGY UNDERFOOT IN SOUTHERN CALIF. Sharp & Glazner, 1993.
GEOLOGY UNDERFOOT IN DEATH VALLEY & OWENS VALLEY. ibid, 1997

GEOLOGY - FIELD GUIDE TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. R. P. Sharp, 1972

Note: Both GEOLOGY UNDERFOOT books are available for purchase in the Maturango Museum gift shop. They are very well written, with ample photographs and illustrations and are a must for the interested reader.

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