The following excerpts are from Dave Woodruff's new book, "Tales Along El Camino Sierra." Dave has put together a fabulous book of, just as the title lauds, tales along El Camino Sierra (aka U.S. 395) in Owens Valley. From the potential ski areas in Robinson Basin and Trail Peak to Wallis McPherson's planned tourist development of Pahoa Island on Mono Lake, Dave has reminded us of some of the grand history of Owens Valley. Do memories of the whereabouts of the Miss Mono Beauty Pageant, Dirty Sock and "The Wedding of the Waters" peak your curiosity, then you should treat yourself to a copy of Dave's book. Dave refreshingly brings back to life the likes of the Inyo Good Roads Club, Fr. John Crowley, George Chaffey, and aeronautical enthusiast Silas Christofferson (the first person to navigate a plane over the summit of Mt. Whitney in 1914). Copies of Dave's book are available from Amazon.com
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Using irrigation to grow crops in the Eastern Sierra has been a practice long before white settlers arrived. Evidence suggests that Native Americans had dug ditches by hand to divert streams to areas suitable to grow food, enabling them to feed their families for hundreds of years.

Once settlers did arrive, they also constructed miles of irrigation ditches and soon had transformed tens of thousands of acres of and Owens Valley into productive agricultural lands.

Early on, most of the interest in agriculture was focused to the north, around Bishop and Round Valley. Though the southern part of the Owens Valley near Independence and Lone Pine was not as developed, there was one south county area that was for a time, the focus of a huge and ambitious farming project.

In January of 1900, an article appeared in The American Friend, a publication of the Quaker Church, announcing the Formation of the William Penn Colonial Association. The article stated that the object of the Association was "to promote a colony embodying features that were attractive to "Friends" throughout the United States."

The article goes on to say that a committee of "Friends" from the Whittier area of southern California recently had traveled to the Owens Valley of California to examine 14,000 acres of land. The committee was researching the conditions that would affect its desirability as a place to locate such a colony the committee declared, "That the soil is fertile and productive is demonstrated at Lone Pine Station which adjoins this land, where in similar soils, crops are grown to perfection."

A group from the Whittier area of Southern California was making plans to develop thousands of acres of the Owens Valley into an agricultural super farm. The committee saw the abundant water in the streams from the Sierra Nevada (this was pre L.A. diversions) and concluded the use of irrigation would be quite feasible. The McIver Canal had already been existence in the southeast part of Owens Valley since the 1880s. In fact, by 1900, over 40 miles of irrigation canals existed in this area.

By 1902, The William Penn Colonial Association had exercised its purchase option on 13,000 acres of land and began offering 40 acres parcels for sale at $25 per acre.

At first the Colony promoted sugar beets and alfalfa as the crops that would be most productive. The Association's self-published prospectus pamphlet also mentioned that alfalfa would draw honeybees, enabling the farmers to have yet another agricultural commodity to harvest.

The Southern Pacific Railroad had announced plans to run a rail line through the area, further increasing the enthusiasm of the developers. The tram would be able to haul the Colony's farm products to distant markets.

A town was established by the Colony and given the name Owenyo, a portmanteau of Owens and Inyo. A post office was located at Owenyo in March of 1902, and due to the "roaming" nature of the Colony and its town, it moved at least twice in the next three years.

The prospectus pamphlet touted the availability of cheap water, abundance of wildlife, proximity to nearby profitable mines, the coming of the railroad and the healthy aspects of lnyo's weather. The pamphlet stated, “We know of many cases of pulmonary, asthmatic and throat troubles that have been wonderfully benefitted, and in many cases absolutely cured.” The same pamphlet also minimized the presence of alkali in the soil. It's not clear just how much land was actually sold to "Friends" at the Quaker Colony, but according to a 1905 article in the Inyo Register, there were at least several dozen Quaker families who had chosen to come to Inyo to try their luck in what Mary Austin called the Land of Little Rain.

Most of those that came had been farmers in areas of the country that never needed to be irrigated. They worked hard but found the Owens Valley climate and soil not as favorable as had been promised in the promotional literature. Success and huge profits were not readily forthcoming.

In 1905, the city of Los Angeles began making offers to Owens Valley landowners to purchase their land and water rights. Though not clear about their intentions, the water was being obtained to send south in a new aqueduct the city was planning to build. Los Angeles was growing rapidly and believed it would need additional water If it were to continue to grow.

The City of Los Angeles quickly turned their attention to the land owned by the Quaker Colony and its farmers. The Colony's land and water rights holdings were huge. The "Friends" had grown tired of the challenges they faced, and very quickly became among the first to sell their land with its water rights to the thirsty Southern California metropolis.

Despite the departure of the Quakers, the town of Owenyo continued as a railroad transfer point housing a number of railroad workers up through World War II. But the irrigation canals quickly dried up and the farms turned back into desert. The William Penn Colonial Association became another short-lived dream of fortune found along El Camino Sierra.