(CALIFORNIA--INYO COUNTY.) Noah Wrinkle. Letter describing the dropping water level at Owens Lake long before the Aqueduct. Letter Signed as superintendent of the Inyo Development Company to W.A. Chalfant of Bishop, CA. 2 pages, 11 x 8¼ inches, on 2 sheets, the first on illustrated Inyo Development letterhead; folds, minimal wear. Keeler, CA, 26 July 1904
Owens Lake in Inyo County (a few miles west of Death Valley) was a large body of water in the 19th century, covering more than a hundred square miles. It was famously drained by the diversion of its source waters into the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, and the lake bed became the source of dust clouds which have been only partly mitigated in recent years.
This letter shows that the water level in Owens Lake was dropping long before the Aqueduct was completed. The Inyo Development Company produced and refined sodium carbonate at the lake from 1887 onward. In this 1904 letter, their superintendent explains that "the recession of the waters of Owens Lake has been contentious for the past ten years, in which time the volume of water has been lessened by 15 feet. . . . Over 5,000 feet of shore has been exposed. . . . The recession during the last three years has been particularly rapid, averaging 2½ feet annually. Previous to the time the lake commenced to recede, the Inyo Dev. Co. operated pumps for 10 years situated close to the water's edge. . . . For the past ten years, frequent & expensive changes in the location of the pumping plant have had to be made. The plant is now situated on a pile foundation 2,000 feet out in the lake where the water is 5 feet deep, as a further lowering of the lake level is expected. . . . That the recession of the lake is due solely to the diminishing quantity of water coming in through Owens River there is little reason to doubt."
The recipient of the letter, Willie Arthur Chalfant, was the longtime editor and publisher of the Inyo Register newspaper. With--a silver print photograph, 5 x 7 inches, captioned on verso "Original home of the Inyo Register, W.A. Chalfant, publisher and editor, left at typecase."
