Eastern California Museum

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Eastern California Museum
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Eastern California Museum.jpg
The museum in 2024
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Location within California
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Eastern California Museum (the United States)
EstablishedMay 5, 1928 (1928-05-05)
Location155 N Grant St, Independence, CA 93526
Coordinates 36°48′07″N118°12′14″W / 36.8019°N 118.2039°W / 36.8019; -118.2039
TypeHistorical museum
Collection size~10,700 items [1]
FounderW.C. Parcher
Owner Inyo County
Website fecm.org

The Eastern California Museum is a history and heritage museum in Independence, California. It was founded in 1928 and showcases the history of the region of Eastern California. It is operated by Inyo County. [2]

Contents

History

Due to the rapid development in Owens Valley in the early 20th century, many people realized that much of the area's history could be lost unless preserved. In early 1928, a group of young men consisting of Ralph Bell, Frank Parcher, Charles Forbes, and William Sanford were interested in Native American culture, locating and photographing petroglyphs and also collecting artifacts. Parcher's mother, W.C., came up with the idea to have a museum to exhibit the collections the four men had gathered. Thus, the Eastern California Museum Association was born, with W.C. as the first president. It was formally organized on May 5th, 1928 at the Inyo County Library's Bishop Branch. [3]

The association was granted a room in the basement of the Inyo County Courthouse for the storage of its exhibits in 1929 and obtained a second one in the 1950s. The museum's current building was dedicated in 1968 to G. Walter and Maude Dow for their donations to the museum that allowed the structure to be constructed. Also starting in 1968, it went under the operation of Inyo County. [2] The renaming of the Eastern California Museum Association to the Eastern California Historical Society and the formation of the Friends of the Eastern California Museum both occurred in the 1980s. [3] In 2019, a tusk most likely coming from a species in the genus Mammuthus was loaned to the museum by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The tusk was found in 2015 but had to be stabilized by the Environmental Science Associates before it was ready for display. [4]

Exhibits

The museum contains one of the most extensive collections of Owens Valley Paiute and Timbisha baskets in California, with over 400 and 100 other related artifacts. [5] It also has hundreds of photographs donated by former interments of Manzanar depicting everyday life in the camp. Over 70 were taken by noted photographer Tōyō Miyatake. [6] The locomotive Southern Pacific 18 is housed at the museum. There are also mining wagons from Eastern California's mining era, construction and mining equipment, and an exhibit detailing the California water wars. [3] [7] The museum has over 27,000 historic photographs of the Eastern California area in its collection, with many of them on display. Most of them were taken from the late 1800s to the 1950s. [8] The exterior of the museum also has a native plant garden, named after Mary DeDecker, a botanist who worked mainly in Eastern California. It is a collaboration with the Bristlecone Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, which DeDecker founded. [9]

The museum manages two historic houses in Independence: the Edwards House, which was built by the town planner, Thomas Edwards, in 1861, and the Commander's House, which was built from recycled lumber from the remains of Fort Independence in the late 1880s. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inyo County, California</span> County in California, United States

Inyo County is a county in the eastern central part of the U.S. state of California, located between the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada. In the 2020 census, the population was 19,016. The county seat is Independence. Inyo County is on the east side of the Sierra Nevada and southeast of Yosemite National Park in Central California. It contains the Owens River Valley; it is flanked to the west by the Sierra Nevada and to the east by the White Mountains and the Inyo Mountains. With an area of 10,192 square miles (26,400 km2), Inyo is the second-largest county by area in California, after San Bernardino County. Almost half of that area is within Death Valley National Park. However, with a population density of 1.8 people per square mile, it also has the second-lowest population density in California, after Alpine County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ansel Adams</span> American photographer and environmentalist (1902–1984)

Ansel Easton Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advocating "pure" photography which favored sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph. He and Fred Archer developed a system of image-making called the Zone System, a method of achieving a desired final print through a technical understanding of how the tonal range of an image is the result of choices made in exposure, negative development, and printing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bishop, California</span> City in California, United States

Bishop is the most populous and only incorporated city in Inyo County, California, United States. It is located near the northern end of the Owens Valley within the Mojave Desert, at an elevation of 4,150 feet (1,260 m). The city was named after Bishop Creek, flowing out of the Sierra Nevada range; the creek was named after Samuel Addison Bishop, a settler in the Owens Valley. Bishop is a commercial and residential center, while many vacation destinations and tourist attractions in the Sierra Nevada are located nearby. The city covers approximately 1.9 square miles (4.9 km2), making it the county's largest community by land area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Independence, California</span> Census-designated place in California, United States

Independence is an unincorporated, census-designated place in Inyo County, California. Independence is located 41 miles (66 km) south-southeast of Bishop, at an elevation of 3930 feet. It is the county seat of Inyo County, California. The population of this census-designated place was 669 at the 2010 census, up from 574 at the 2000 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lone Pine, California</span> Census-designated place in California, United States

Lone Pine is a census-designated place (CDP) in Inyo County, California, United States, located 16 mi (26 km) south-southeast of Independence. The population was 2,035 at the 2010 census, up from 1,655 at the 2000 census. The town is located in the Owens Valley, near the Alabama Hills and Mount Whitney, between the eastern peaks of the Sierra Nevada to the west and the Inyo Mountains to the east. The local hospital, Southern Inyo Hospital, offers standby emergency services. The town is named after a solitary pine tree that once existed at the mouth of Lone Pine Canyon. On March 26, 1872, the very large Lone Pine earthquake destroyed most of the town and killed 27 of its 250 to 300 residents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tecopa, California</span> Census-designated place in California, United States

Tecopa is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Mojave Desert in southeast Inyo County, California, United States. Originally occupied by the Koso and Chemehuevi Indians, Pioneers began populating what would become the CDP in the late 19th century to support nearby mines. It is now better known for the natural hot springs in the northern part of the CDP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Owens Valley</span> Valley in California, United States

Owens Valley is an arid valley of the Owens River in eastern California in the United States. It is located to the east of the Sierra Nevada, west of the White Mountains and Inyo Mountains, and is split between the Great Basin Desert and the Mojave Desert. The mountain peaks on the West side reach above 14,000 feet (4,300 m) in elevation, while the floor of the Owens Valley is about 4,000 feet (1,200 m), making the valley the deepest in the United States. The Sierra Nevada casts the valley in a rain shadow, which makes Owens Valley "the Land of Little Rain". The bed of Owens Lake, now a predominantly dry endorheic alkali flat, sits on the southern end of the valley.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Owens River</span> River in eastern California

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inyo National Forest</span> National forest in California and Nevada, United States

Inyo National Forest is a United States National Forest covering parts of the eastern Sierra Nevada of California and the White Mountains of California and Nevada. The forest hosts several superlatives, including Mount Whitney, the highest point in the contiguous United States; Boundary Peak, the highest point in Nevada; and the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, which protects the oldest living trees in the world. The forest, encompassing much of the Owens Valley, was established by Theodore Roosevelt as a way of sectioning off land to accommodate the Los Angeles Aqueduct project in 1907, making the Inyo National Forest one of the least wooded forests in the U.S. National Forest system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laws, California</span> Unincorporated community in California, United States

Laws is an unincorporated community in Inyo County, California. Laws is located 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Bishop on U.S. Route 6, towards the Nevada state line.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. Route 395 in California</span> Highway in California

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bishop Paiute Tribe</span> Indian tribe in California, United States

The Bishop Paiute Tribe, formerly known as the Paiute-Shoshone Indians of the Bishop Community of the Bishop Colony is a federally recognized tribe of Mono and Timbisha Indians of the Owens Valley, in Inyo County of eastern California. As of 2022, the United States census showed the Bishop Paiute Tribe's population at 1,914.

Kearsarge or Kearsarge City is a former mining settlement in Inyo County, eastern California. It was located high on the east slope of the Sierra Nevada, near Kearsage Pass, 8 miles (13 km) west of present-day town of Independence, California.

Mary Caroline Foster DeDecker was an American botanist, conservationist, environmentalist and founder of the Bristlecone Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. She discovered six new plants, three of which, including Dedeckera eurekensis, are named in her honor. Dedeckera Canyon, south of Eureka Dunes, is also named after her.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saline Valley salt tram</span> Former tram in California, US

The Saline Valley salt tram is located in Inyo County, California, United States. The electric aerial tramway was constructed from 1911 to 1913 to carry salt from the Saline Valley over the Inyo Mountains and into the Owens Valley. Covering a distance of 13.4 mi (21.6 km), it operated sporadically from 1913 to 1935 for four different companies. During its operation, it was the steepest tram in the United States.

References

  1. ↑ "Catalogit". Catalogit. Archived from the original on January 18, 2024. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
  2. 1 2 "Eastern California Museum". California Revealed. Archived from the original on December 6, 2023. Retrieved January 17, 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 "Eastern California Museum". County of Inyo. Archived from the original on December 17, 2009. Retrieved January 17, 2024.
  4. ↑ "LADWP loans ancient tusk to Eastern California Museum - Sierra Wave: Eastern Sierra NewsSierra Wave: Eastern Sierra News". Sierra Wave . August 14, 2019. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  5. ↑ "Eastern California Museum and Bookstore". Sierra Nevada Geotourism. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  6. ↑ Monnier, Mia Nakaji (April 11, 2012). "Life Behind Barbed Wire". Rafu Shimpo . Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  7. ↑ "Eastern Sierra Museum in Independence on Highway 395". California Through My Lens. July 12, 2016. Archived from the original on January 19, 2024. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
  8. ↑ "Friends of the Eastern California Museum (FECM)". Friends of the Eastern California Museum. Archived from the original on January 18, 2024. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
  9. ↑ "Eastern California Museum". Inyo County . Archived from the original on January 18, 2024. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
  10. ↑ "Eastern California Museum". City of Independence . Archived from the original on November 23, 2009. Retrieved January 17, 2024.
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