Independence

Carson & Colorado Engine #18 Restoration

Independence, CA

All photo cards courtesy of Rich McCutchan unless otherwise noted.
See USE NOTICE on Home Page.

Additional Frasher Foto Cards courtesy the Pomona Public Library where over 7,500 Frasher Foto Cards are archived.

03/22

Map of Owens Valley that hangs in Kings Pharmacy in Independence, CA
[Contributor - unknown]

08/22

1963 Souvenir Booklet of Independence

Threshing grain near Independence

Pam Milligan Vaughan writes:

Probably Charlie Olds' threshing crew. He would start from the north and work his way south. Best friend of my grandfather Charles Partridge. On the Bishop ranches, the sacks of wheat would be sold or taken to the mill on E. Line Street just past the canal. The miller would turn the wheat into flour and his payment was the flour to be sold. The last owner of that mill, I believe, were the Kelsos. There was also a mill on Bishop Creek just up from Plant Six. The cement foundation is still there. This valley used to produce a lot of wheat. One year, Grandpa's ranch produced about 51,000 lbs.

April 2021

Thomas Edwards came to Owens Valley in 1863. He purchased the Putnam property and built a home. He laid out a town site eight blocks long and six blocks wide, naming the streets and alleys as this part of Independence is today.

T.F.A. Connelly
Connelly was an original member of both the "George" and the "Darwin French" parties. He came to the area in 1860 and help form the "Russ Mining District" April, 20, 1860. It was in this District that new towns were established.

Independence in 1873

The Commander's House
This house was built at the military post, Camp Independence, in 1872.
The house was eventually sold to V. G. Thompson and moved to its present site in Independence.

03/22

A panoramic photo of the 8 Mile Guest Ranch, Main House, taken in 1930 by the Frasher Foto Co. from Pomona, CA.
My Grandmother and my Dad are on the front porch.
[Photo and text courtesy of Linda Colton]

Independence circa 1906
[Lippencott Collection - FID4]

Downtown Independence, California circa 1865
[Eastern California Museum]

The Beloved House
by Katharine Krater

Independence School Class of 1886 - Independence, CA
(Photo courtesy of Dave Woodruff)

[Unfortunately, there are some people pictured here whose names did not appear on the list.]

L/R (Back Row): Alice Zink, Mary Mulholland, Alice Rose Hodge, Sara James Meroney, Frank Schere

L/R (2nd Row from Back): Edna Matlock Krater, Effie Roeper Lunt, Pary Parker, Nellie Roeper Fausel, Miss Barnes (Teacher) - Rita Church on her lap,
Clara Willett Free, Carrie Gregg Crocker, Rose Roeper Mairs

L/R (2nd Row from Front): Elsie Gill, Minnie Levy Mairs, Jeanette Wood Naylor, Etta Wood, Jennie Baxter Harper, Emily Conklin, Lizzie Thompson Bunny,
Irma Webb

L/R (Front Row): Joe Levy, Rollin Laird, Pete Mairs, Julian Eibeshutz, Steve Gregg, Arthur Robinson, Paul Mairs

12/21

Mary Ann Mairs writes:

The house George Naylor owned was on the NW corner of Jackson and Main. My dad was born in that house. My grandfather was born in a house on the SE corner of Main and Washington. My nephew has the photo and wants to leave it with the broken glass etc.

When it was too hot in the valley, the townsfolk would camp in the Sierra for a week or two. First stop, Gray's Meadow, then Onion Valley and my grandparent's camp was in Vidette Meadows. When I was young I remember these camps. There were cut logs for chairs, maybe a cabinet hanging on a tree, some even had little wood stove. My dad's favorite was Rae Lakes. He would take the Dodgers to Rae Lakes. In those days, a guide wasn't required. He would rent horses and mules from the pack station. My grandmother named Flower Lake

December 2021

George Naylor - Supervisor of Inyo County for almost 30 years. Geroge was my great uncle. My Dad was so fond of him that he named my brother after him.
(Photo courtesy of Mary Ann Mairs)

Locomotive now in an Independence, CA. park.

Downtown Independence, California circa 1888

12/21 Groundwater map of the Independence, CA area - circa 1911 [Map courtesy Calisphere]	Independence Air Post 1928 [Frasher Foto Card courtesy of the Online Archive of California]
	Jim's Place ("The Place to Eat"), Independence 1939 [Frasher Foto Card courtesy of the Online Archive of California]
	Masonic Temple Independence 1926 [Frasher Foto Card - Pomona Public Library Collection]
	Independence Air Post 1928 [Frasher Foto Card courtesy of the Online Archive of California]

Main Street Independence 1927 [Frasher Foto Card - Pomona Public Library Collection]	Woods Lake Fisherman 1927 [Frasher Foto Card - Pomona Public Library Collection]
Main Street Independence 192? [Frasher Foto Card - Pomona Public Library Collection]	Winnedumah Hotel, Independence 1927 [Frasher Foto Card - Pomona Public Library Collection
Inyo County Court House, Independence 1926 [Frasher Foto Card - Pomona Public Library Collection]	Owens River near Independence - circa1930
Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery 1926 [Frasher Foto Card courtesy of the Online Archive of California]	11/23 Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery 1926 [Frasher Foto Card courtesy of the Online Archive of California]

Independence 1910s

09/21

"This was one of the buildings of Fort Independence barracks for United States soldiers from 1865-1877. This building was later remodeled into a school. Part of the soldiers parade ground, now covered with weeds is seen in the foreground". - circa 1900

(Photo courtesy of USC Libraries Special Collections)

On the Kearsarge Pass Trail	Bullfrog Lake on the western side of Kearsarge Pass
Parker & Blunt Pack Station - Independence, CA	Golden Trout from Lake Reflection
Pack Train heading up Kearsarge Pass	Pack Train heading up Kearsarge Pass
Snow covered Onion Valley Road Owens Valley - 1931	Snow covered Onion Valley Road Owens Valley - 1931 University Peak in the background.
Mining equipment along the Onion Valley Road in Owens Valley - 1931	Snow covered Onion Valley Road Owens Valley - 1931
Snow covered Onion Valley Road Owens Valley - 1931	Owens River near Independence
The Commander's House - Independence, CA	Oak Creek Mill at Fort Independence, Independence, CA (Photo courtesy of Inyo County Sesquicentennial)
The Slim Princess, Engine No. 18 - Independence, CA - When it was in Dehy Park
Pack train loading up out of Independence, CA - above Parker Ranch	A fish story from Charlotte Lake
Main Street - Independence, CA	Independence Hotel - Independence, CA

The Legend of Winnedumah From "The Story of Inyo" - 1933 Edition, Chapter V: Native Legends
Version 1: Long, long ago there lived in what the white man calls Owens River Valley, two tribes, one, the Paiutes, occupying the eastern side and the slopes of the Inyo Range, the other the Waucobas on the western side on the slopes of the Sierras and in particular the region about Mt. Williamson and extending westward to the valley now called San Joaquin. The roaring ocean backed up its waters and flooded the wonderful valley, so that the Indians had to signal to each other by fires, but the Great spirit sent a terrible earthquake which shook the mountains for many days, and the pale waters fled away and the green grass came again. The tribes were at war. One day on his lookout on Mt. Williamson, a Waucoba Brave, espying two Paiute brothers ascending the crest of the Inyo Range set to the sinewy bow-string of his mighty bow, an arrow made from a tree growing only in the western mountains. The arrow released from the twanging bow, winged its way fifteen miles across the valley and pierced the back of one of the Paiutes, who fell dead, his body turning to stone and lying face down across the crest. Head to the east, and feet to the west, terrified his brother started to run, but the Waucoba warrior in a voice of thunder shouted to him the command, Winnedumah! which means, STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE. And lo, the Paiute instantly became the shaft of granite and has never since moved, awaiting his release by the great spirit. Marvelous to tell the fatal arrow took root in the stone body of its victim and grew into a tree, still living like that from which the arrow was made and the only one of its kind in the Inyo Range.	Winnedumah Monument (Photo courtesy of Don Deck, copyright Don Deck)
Paiutes and Shoshones in Owens Valley, California by Lawrence F. Van Horn
Version 2: Long, long ago the great medicine man of the Paiutes was Winnedumah, brother of Tinnemaha, war chief of his people. The principal stronghold was in the Black Rocks, a great field of tumbled lava in middle Owens Valley. One day hordes of Diggers poured across the passes of Pahbatoya, the Sierra, to raid the Paiute hunting grounds. The owners resented the trespass, and then began a battle such as no Paiute has since witnessed. It lasted through days of the fiercest fighting. At last, the Paiutes were beaten and forced to flee. Many found refuge in the caves and recesses of the Black Rocks - which same cavities to this day may be viewed by whoever may doubt this tale. Others fled across the rugged mountains to the eastward. Among the fugitives was Winnedumah, whose medicine had been useless against the invaders. Surely pressed, exhausted and alone he gained the summit, where he stopped for a final view of the domain which he deemed lost, and to await the coming of his warrior brother. But Tinnemaha had fallen in the fray; and while Winnedumah invoked the aid of the Great Spirit for his stricken people, a great convulsion of nature came, and one of its effects was to transform him into a pillar of stone. The same natural manifestation so frightened the Diggers that they forthwith went back across the mountains, never again to dispute the ownership of Owens Valley. There to-day stands Winnedumah, faithful to the end of time.	Winnedumah Monument (Photo courtesy of Don Deck, copyright Don Deck)

Indian Woman Disappears -- Branded As a Witch

Peace Restored Among Indians

Vintage Newspaper Articles Courtesy of Hal Eaton

08/02/21

Paul Ritch (Long time resident of Independence and
Laurie's grandfather) and Tyron Power
on a movie set in the Alabama Hills
(Photo courtesy Laurie Ann Ritch Walker)

L/R: Henry Dearborn, ?, ?, ?, Ora C. Johnson (Laurie's uncle)
Ora was the son of Albert & Cordelia Johnson and was born in 1876
(Photo courtesy Laurie Ann Ritch Walker)

Photos courtesy of Charles Delwiche

Nathan Rhine Store circa 1886/1887
(USC California Historical Society Collection)

Mainstreet Independence circa 1887/1888
(USC California Historical Society Collection)

Mrs. Genevive Mowrer and and Mowrer Ranch of Independence

Love to Chinese Cook Too Much for Hubby - July 3, 1912

Banker's Daughter Puts Her Unused License Away - January 10, 1916

Vintage Newspaper Articles Courtesy of Hal Eaton

Hal Eaton writes:
I have seen only a couple of mentions of the Mowrer Ranch outside of Bishop in the 1910's, it may have been connected to what became Keough Hot Springs as there is a mention of a house build by Mrs. Mowrer piped with hot water on the site. Geneveive Frances Winterbotham Mowrer, was the daughter of a very rich Chicago millionair and art collector. She married Frank Rogers Mowrer and moved to Pasadena, bu they also procurred a BLM land patent and she built a ranch there. At the time many very wealthy people were buying ranches in Inyo, notable the Paget twins and Lady Paget who were British aristocracy. Mrs Mowrer was very active in the local Human Society and sponsored the best pack train award the the Harvest festival. Unfortunately, Frank Mowrer turned about to be a poor husband who was jealous of local Inyo folks who he thought was cheating with his wife--including the Chinese ranch cook, Gipp. They were divorced and later she remarried and moved to Connecticut and the Mowrer ranch was sold.

Pam Milligan Vaughan writes: My grandfather managed her affairs and the ranch. Yes, it was where Keoughs is now. The 3 stone pillars on the right as your enter Keoughs was her house that she built and was later occupied by Philip Keough. I did a lot of research about her and wrote an article for the Inyo Register. Her hubby was gone a lot because he was ambassador to Denmark. She fell in love with the Owens Valley and insisted on living here for a time. She is one of the more interesting women who lived in the Owens Valley.

Parker and Blunt Pack Train on Baxter Pass - Independence, CA (Frasier Fotocard courtesy of nyo County Sesquicentennial)	Inyo County Jail - Independence, CA (Forbes Fotocard courtesy of Inyo County Sesquicentennial)
Inyo County Jail - Independence, CA (Courtesy of Inyo County Sesquicentennial)	Inyo County Jail - Independence, CA (Courtesy of Inyo County Sesquicentennial)
Woods Store - Independence, CA (Courtesy of Inyo County Sesquicentennial)	Kearsarge Station on S&P Narrow Gauge RR - Independence, CA

Owens Lake photo from "Men, Medicine & Water" by friends of the LACMA Library
Photos were taken by Raymond G. Taylor, M.D. on the occasion of the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct

Rickey Ranch House, Winter 1909 - 1910

Hotel Tokens Courtesy of Craig Mason
Hotel Norman Token - Independence, CA	Hotel Norman Token - Independence, CA
Independence Hotel Token - Independence, CA	Independence Hotel Token - Independence, CA

Tokens Courtesy of Rich McCutchan Token Collection
V. Beaudry - U.S. Cavalry - 1st Regiment - 50 Cents	V. Beaudry - U.S. Cavalry - 1st Regiment - 50 Cents
V. Beaudry - U.S. Cavalry - 1st Regiment - 25 Cents	V. Beaudry - U.S. Cavalry - 1st Regiment - 25 Cents
V. Beaudry - U.S. Cavalry - 1st Regiment - 10 Cents	V. Beaudry - U.S. Cavalry - 1st Regiment - 10 Cents
V. Beaudry - U.S. Cavalry - 1st Regiment - 5 Cents	V. Beaudry - U.S. Cavalry - 1st Regiment - 5 Cents
Rich McCutchan writes: Victor Beaudry ran a trading post immediately outside the front entrance of Camp Independence and used these tokens as “Good For” tokens. Camp Independence. Later Fort Independence, was located in the center part of the Owens Valley just north of what is now Independence and specifically built to protect miners and prospectors that worked the mines of Cerro Gordo in the adjacent White Mountains, as well as mills along the Owens River that treated ores from a number of small mines located up and down the valley. The U.S. Army post was active from 1862 to 1877. The camp / fort was on the creek just east of 395, west of Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery and is within the reservation Fort Independence Indian Community of Paiute Indians.

Photographs and text courtesy Tales Along El Camino Sierra

Fort Independence circa 1869 looking east towards the Inyo Mountains. It was garrison to several hundred troops at its peak.

Fort Independence circa 1869 looking west towards the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Old Independence

1888 Independence Silver Coronet Band

Mairs' Butcher Shop

07/21

Bill Muckel's house and pack station in Onion Valley - circa 1960
(Photo courtesy of the NPGallery Digital Asset Management System)

Diane Anthony writes:
My family first packed with the Muckles in 1957 on a trip to Rae Lakes. My parents became friends with the family and I remember so many stories of the Muckles, their three sons, border collie Archie and milk cow Lorna. Ginny had a big wood stove in the kitchen and a red plaid tablecloth! Our last trip with them was about 1967 to East Lake. My parents remained in contact with them until 2010 or so.

January 2022

Barbara Langston writes:
Thank you so much for posting the photo of the Muckel's house! My ex-husband Richard L. and I were working for Gene Burkhart and trying to buy it (the pack station) from him in 1969-1971, when he very correctly figured out we could never have run it and sold it to Gary and Cookie. True to his style of being closed-mouthed about business, I was cooking dinner for the packers when one of them came in and asked how we felt about Gary and Cookie buying it. First we heard of it! Best decision he could have made to sell it to them. It looks like Gene had it back twice? I thought he "only" had the Pines Cafe & Bar those years until he died?

If I remember rightly, Gene and Lona Burkhart bought out Archie Dean's place and added those two passes (Taboose and Sawmill) to his Sequoia Kings Pack Trains. Lona and ..... shoot, I can't remember their names, but Mrs. Dean and her daughter Tansey Smith visited back and forth a lot -- oh my goodness - the stories they could tell! So many good memories of all those people. And, as a PS, Tansys maiden name was not Dean, it was Constable. But Lona introduced me to Tansy in 1969 as Archie and Mrs. Dean's daughter. Am I confused? We were on the porch looking at Tansy's bobcat in its big enclosure.

July 2021

11/21

Archie Dean's house and pack station in Onion Valley - pre-1940s
(Photo courtesy Rich McCutchan Archives)

Tom Chapman writes:

Archie and Mary Dean bought out Donker's Sunshine Dairy in Ridgecrest in 1945 and renamed it Deans Sunshine Dairy. They operated it for just four years then In 1949 they moved to Independence and bought the Independence Dairy who was owned by Debs Yandell. I think what happened in Ridgecrest in the late 1940's was there was intense competition from large dairy product distributors like Peacock and Golden State Dairies in Bakersfield.

November 2021

Mark Leslie writes:

Mary Dean was my grandmother. My mom Majo tells stories of delivering Milk to all those little town around Ridgecrest. And when her and her little sister would have to walk across Independence from the pack station south end of town to the north end to milk cows before school. I believe she was around 14 years old at that time. She also would lead the pack stock from Independence to onion valley to pack station. She is celebrating her 90 birthday this week. She is a amazing woman.

November 2021 .

11/21

Forest Service Supervisor Joe Radel and special use permitee Bill Muckle, operator of High Sierra Pack Train, in Onion Valley. July 1958
(Poto courtesy of Hal Eaton)
(U.S. National Archives Photo)

11/21

Lyle's Grandpa & Grandma Meyers at Lyle's sheep ranch in Independence, CA
(Photo courtesy Rich McCutchan Archives)

Photographs and text courtesy Hal Eaton
In June 1900, Professor Joseph Le Conte joined his son on a six week trip up Kings River Canyon up to Kearsarge Pass. He wrote up the trip for the October 1900 issue of Sunset. This was his last camping trip as he died in Yosemite in 1901, while his son was on his wedding trip back in Kings Canyon where he went over the Pass and down to the Owens Valley. His son, Joe, was an excellent photographer and one copy of his photos probably from 1901 is available online at the Denver Public Library (Photo album 106) and includes a few pictures of Owens Valley. Here are some picture of the trip which includ the hedgery at Citrus and Mt. Whitney railroad stops. {See Correction Below) "Little Joe" Le Conte took picutres in 1900 with his father. He went back to Kings Canyon on his honeymoon trip in 1901, but while he was in the back country his father died and they could not quickly get the word to him, so he could not attend the funeral. The son, Le Conte, returned with a large party in 1903 sponsored by the railroad as written up in this news item. Folks in other pictures match the names listed.
Carson & Colorado RR tracks at Citrus (later renamed to Kearsarge)	Owens Valley and Inyo Mountains from Kearsage Mill (8 miles west of Independence)

Courtesy USGS Denver Library Photographic Collection

Flowing well belonging to the City of Los Angeles near Independence, Owens Valley. Inyo Co., California

Kearsarge Mining Works, Kearsarge District, Eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada - 1871
Near Camp Independence
This plate represents the surroundings of a typical mining enterprise, the Kearsarge, being the principal property high up among the eastern flanks of the Sierras, in proximity to and westward from Camp Independence, CAL., with which it is connected by wagon-road, terminating at the mines, far distant from railroad transportation, and where a turbine wheel of 13.5 inches in diameter, driven by a small stream diverted from its mountain course, and given a fall of 156 feet, accumulates the force required to operate a twenty-stamp quartz mill, and proves a most valuable substitute for steam power.

The buildings, made of rough sawed pine, and the tramway to the mouth of the mine, appear in the foreground and center of the illustration. The rude, simple, at the same time wild and rugged exterior of these pioneer camps can readily be understood from the plate, which has been engraved from a photograph taken on the ground.

The district contains fissure veins of silver-bearing ores, mostly carbonates.

(Photo courtesy of Randy Stevenson)
(Source: Hathitrust --- "United States Geographical Surveys West of the One Hundredth Meridian, by Captain Geo. M. Wheeler - 1889")

12/21

Kearsarge mill - circa 1890-1920

(Photo courtesy Denver Public Library)

06/21

The Inyo Hotel - Independence, CA - circa 1870
(Photo courtesy "Inyo 1866 - 1986))

01/23

Onion Valley Pack Station - circa 1960
(Photo courtesy Thomas Highberger)

Independence photos courtesy of UCLA Digital Library Collections
Cleo Swain looking back after the H. H. West group tops Kearsarge Pass - 1919	L/R: H. H. West, Glen Velzy on the trail to Kearsarge Pass during a trip to Gardner Creek - 1919
H.H. West stands by car posing with his deer skin - 1916	L/R: CLeo Swain, Glen Velzy on the trail to Kearsarge Pass - 1919
Chet Edgell standing near his truck and Leslie L. McAfee on horseback Near Division Creek during deer season - 1916	L/R: Guide Allie Robinson, Charles Stavnow, Cleo Swain, Glen Velzy Resting their train of horses at Onion Flat during a trip to Gardner Creek circa 1919
Halfway house between Independence and Big Pine - 1914	Leslie L. McAfee and Chet Edgell hunting near Division Creek - 1916
Halfway house between Independence and Big Pine - 1914
Forrest and Agnes Whitaker stand in front of a tent at camp - 1930	Packtrain leaves for the High Sierra - 1914
Mertie West at his campsite - 1930

07/21

My granddaddy, Alex Krater, came to Independence in 1912 at age 16 to live with his brother Frank. Frank had the first ice house in the southern part of Owens Valley and later owned the meat market. Alex took over the meat market after WWI and then owned the grocery store for many years. He later sold it to Omie Mairs. Here is a young Alex working at the meat market.
(Photo and text courtesy of Janet Lally)

Don Nichols writes:
Frank Krater was my great grandfather, by marriage. He married my widowed great grandmother, Edna. Frank went to work for the DWP but remained partners with Alex in Several ventures in the valley.

When my grandparents, Alex and Katharine Krater married in 1924, they lived in this little stone house in Independence. It was still there in the 1990s, not sure if it is still standing.
(Photo and text courtesy of Janet Lally)

Mary Anne Mairs writes:
My grandmother and great aunt bought the house I think in the early 1940s..I'm not sure. When my parents married they lived in the "guillied" house behind the now courthouse motel. The house had no foundation and my mom stuffed rags around the door and windows to say warm. When my brother was born in 1949, they bought the house from my great aunt and my dad had a small house built for my grandma behind the house. The house had a flat roof and in 1969 we had a HUGE snow storm and the roof almost caved in. Water was pouring from the light sockets. My younger brother shoveled the snow from the roof as quickly as he could. My older brother and I were in college. That spring they had a pitched roof built. This rock house has beautiful rock work and plastering. The house next door is different. My parents added two back bedrooms in the 1950s when my 2nd brother was born, enlarged the living room by removing a wall to a bedroom and built a wash house connecting the house to the garage.

Mono Cole writes:
My great aunt Anna Kelly and her husband OK Kelly lived there for years. They opened a gas station on the south end of Independence that must have been put in later. They lived in the house at the same time.

11/21

Independence in the winter of 1909
(Photo courtesy Mike Vredenburgh)

Independence cowboys at the end of a fall horse drive by the Mammoth Lakes Pack Outfit- circa 1990s
L/R: Lee Roeser, Larry M., Lou R., Frank H.,Rene D., Ed (?), Scott L. sitting on the corral rail.
(Photo courtesy Marye Roeser))

12/21

Photos courtesy of the National Park Service
Black Canyon waterfall west of Independence, CA - 1935	Concessioner facilities at the Burkhart Pack Station, Onion Valley
Dud Carter's High Sierra Pack Train sign	Onion Valley, Independence, CA Pack Train operations

	Sierra Names
	George Brown - Owens Valley Pioneer
	To the Top of Mt. Whitney
	More Independence
	The Wonacott Family
	Keeler
	Aberdeen

Sign Guestbook View Old Guest Book Entries Oct 1999 - Feb 2015 (MS Word)	CONTACT the Pigmy Packer	View Guestbook View Old Guest Book Entries Oct 1999 - Feb 2015 (PDF)
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This page was last updated on 19 January 2023