Independence

Mary Austin home in Independence, CA.

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.

Slim Princess Engine #18 returning home to the Eastern California Museum in November 2019 after nearly a year at the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad in Colorado.
(Photo courtesy of Jon Klusmire)

Independence, CA	Courthouse - Independence, CA
United States Land Office - Independence, CA	Norman House - Independence, CA
Courthouse - Independence, CA	Main Street - Independence, CA
County Jail - Independence, CA	Main Street - Independence, CA
Independence, CA	Oberholzer House - Independence, CA
Nathan Rhine Store - Independence, CA	School and Weather Station - Independence, CA
Check from Nathan Rhine's Store - Independence, CA
Check from Nathan Rhine's Store - Independence, CA
Norman House - Independence, CA	Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery - Independence, CA
Winnedumah Hotel - Independence, CA	Winnedumah Hotel - Independence, CA
Inyo County Court House - Independence, CA	Main Street - Independence, CA

Two Times the Stranger
by Katharine Krater

Henry Levy - Pioneer Jewish Hotelier - Independence, CA

Interior of Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery - Independence, CA	Main Street - Independence, CA
Inyo County Courthouse - Independence, CA	Ray's Den Motel - Independence, CA
Main Street - Independence, CA	Main Street - Independence, CA - 1924
Winnedumah Hotel - Independence, CA - 1924	11/23 Woods Lake trout (Photo courtesy of the Online Archive of California)
Main Street - Independence, CA - 1924	Camping out in Independence, CA - 1924
Independence, CA - 1924	Independence, CA - 1924
Inyo County Courthouse- Independence, CA	Paiute dance costume - Eastern California Museum, Independence, CA
Independence Hotel - Independence, CA	Inyo County Courthouse about 1890 - Independence, CA Independence, seat of Inyo County since 1866, lies toward the south end of Owens Valley. On either side, mountains two miles high wall in this long trough-shaped valley - the Sierra Nevada on the west, the Inyo-White Mountains on the east. The highest peaks of both massive ranges stand well over 14,000 feet, Mount Whitney 14, 494 and White Mountain Peak 14, 246. In this unusual moonlight photograph, the old courthouse stands outlined against the Sierra's steep eastern slope. The third courthouse as show in this photograph was built in 1887 and served until the present one replace it in 1921. The first courthouse was demolished by the 1872 earthquake, the second by fire. Eastern California Museum photo, gift of Mary S. Gillespie
John Shepherd Home - Independence, CA The booms and busts of the mining camps brought good times and hard times to Owens Valley farmers. During the 1860s and '70s Cerro Gordo and the roaring camps of Aurora, Bodie, Candelaria, and Darwin paid good prices for all the food, grain, and livestock Valley farmers could deliver. But hard times came in the '80s and '90s when the rich veins dwindled and silver prices skidded from $1.34 to 62 cents. The pioneers loved their land and their valley however, and most stuck it out through good years and bad. John Shepherd started with 160 acres on Shepherd Creek and eventually acquired 2,000. He raised apples, grain, hay, cattle, horses, and mules. The Shepherd home was one of the showplaces of Inyo. Eastern California Museum photo, gift of Eva Shepherd Gunn	Eastern California Museum - Independence, CA

Offerings Gleened off of Ebay

Riders on the trail to Kearsarge Pass	Riders leaving Onion Valley and heading to Kearsarge Pass
Desolation Creek Camp, Golden Trout Lake Toby Ways Pack Station - Independence, CA	Independence Hotel - Independence, CA
Nathan Rhine General Store - Independence, CA	U.S. Land Office - Independence, CA
11/23 Store houses at Camp Independence - Independence, CA (Photo courtesy of the Online Archive of California)	Old Mill - Independence, CA
Court House - Independence, CA	Sierra Club pack horses - Independence, CA
Masonic Temple - Independence, CA	Main Street - Independence, CA
County Courthouse - Independence, CA	Independence Hotel - Independence, CA - circa 1912
Mary Austin Home - Independence, CA	Main Street - Independence, CA
Main Street - Independence, CA	Inyo County Jail - Independence, CA
Jim's Cafe, Main Street - Independence, CA	Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery - Independence, CA
Jim's Cafe - Independence, CA	Main Street - Independence, CA
Inyo County Jail - Independence, CA	Ray's Den - Independence, CA
Department of Water and Power buildings for Los Angeles - Independence, CA	Main Street - Independence, CA
Independence airport - Independence, CA	Main Street - Independence, CA
Everybody is Doing It in Independence - Independence, CA	On the trail to Kearsarge Pass - Independence, CA
Parker & Blunt Pack Train on Baxter Pass - Independence, CA	Packer overlooking Thousand Island Lakes - Independence, CA
Bullfrog Lake west of Kearsarge Pass - Independence, CA	Packing up in Onion Valley - Independence, CA
Pack train on Kearsarge Pass - Independence, CA	Pack train on the Kearsarge Pass trail - Independence, CA
Pack train on Glenn Pass - Independence, CA	Pack train on the Kearsarge Pass trail - Independence, CA
Pack train at Gilbert Lake - Independence, CA	Pack train on the Kearsarge Pass trail - Independence, CA
Pack train fording Woods Creek - Independence, CA	Parker & Blunt Pack Train on Baxter Pass - Independence, CA
Rainbow Trout from Charlotte Lake - Independence, CA	Pack train on the trail to Paradise Valley - Independence, CA

Reward Mine - Independence, CA (Photo courtesy Inyo County Sesquicentennial)	Allie Gibbons -age 4.5 yrs, Clifford Gibbons - age 13 months August 29, 1896 s
L/R: unknown, unknown, Lyle's Great Grandmother (Manley) The backyard of Meyen's residence in Independence, CA	McGee Creek Pack Station - Independence, CA
Independence, CA - 1873 (Photo courtesy Inyo County Sesquicentennial)	The Commanders House at the corner of U.S. 395 and Main Street. Built by the Army at Fort Independence in the 1870s. When the fort closed, the house was brought to Independence and reassembled at this corner. (Photo courtesy Inyo County Sesquicentennial)

Independence Garage - Independence, CA
(Photo courtesy Inyo County Sesquicentennial)

Bryant Garage - Independence, CA
(Photo courtesy Inyo County Sesquicentennial)

Photo courtesy of the California Transportation Library Digital Collection
1912 - Main Street Independence, CA

Main Street Independence, CA - 1912

Per Hal Eaton: " I have verified this is Independence in front of old courthouse across from Mairs Livery stable. According to Inyo Independent, after having spent the night in Lone Pine, the tour first stopped at Manzanar for lemonade, then to Independence for ice cream and cake on the courthouse lawn. They then headed to Eaton’s Chicken Ranch and then Big Pine where Eaton provided a pullet lunch along with being toastmaster. After that they headed to Bishop for a banquet at the Istalia.

This is from my family pictures of a building which I think was the family residence at the Chicken Ranch. It has a similar stairwell though this is probably later than 1912 by a few years. Outside stairwell is similar. "

(Click here for a close-up of the group of people)

A word about the Pasear Tour - Inyo Good Roads Club
This collection consists of the photographs taken of the 1912 California Pasear Tour by the McCurry Foto Company of Sacramento. The Pasear Tour was organized as part of the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition. Anticipating the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914, in 1911 the United States Congress decided the best way to celebrate would be to hold a world fair, and designated San Francisco as the host city for this exposition. There was an immediate flood of inquiries from all over the country, as to how to best see California by motor car. The Inyo County Good Roads Club proposed that a statewide tourist route be mapped, called the Pasear Tour, that would "present to the tourist the sublimity of the ocean, the desolation of the desert, the grandeur of the Sierras, and the fertility of the valleys." The route would cover three of the principal roads: El Camino Real (San Francisco to San Diego); El Camino Sierra (Los Angeles to Lake Tahoe); and El Camino Capital (Lake Tahoe to San Francisco). The Inyo proposal received support and sponsorship from the American Automobile Association, California Governor Hiram Johnson, the Studebaker Corporation and the California Highway Commission, among others. Maps were produced and the inaugural tour took place in 1912. The motorists consisted of Inyo Good Roads Club members, sponsor representatives and newspaper correspondents. The McCurry Foto Company went along with the caravan of Studebaker E-M-F automobiles and documented the journey in photographs. The tourists embarked from the Palace Hotel in San Francisco on June 10, 1912 and followed El Camino Real south (roughly current US 101/Interstate 5 routes) through Los Angeles to San Diego/Tijuana and then back to Los Angeles. The caravan then took the El Camino Sierra route (now roughly Highways 99 and 395), through the desert country and north up the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada to Lake Tahoe. The tour then pursued the El Camino Capital route (now US 50/Interstate 80), completing the 2,000 mile loop at the Palace Hotel on July 9, 1912.

02/21

Proposed Onion Valley Ski Resort
Randy Stevenson writes: "The ski area was gone before I arrived on the scene in 1968 but I did walk up the old ski runs and ski them in the spring a few times.

I know of one tree off the beaten path that still has a pulley wheel from the rope tow still attached to it as of about the mid 1990s."
(Photo courtesy of Randy Stevenson)

01/23

Water well rig in operation at Citrus Road - circa 1913
(Charles H. Lee photograph)
(Photo courtesy of Online Archive of California)

	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 24 April 2024