Valley Wells | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 35°51′25″N117°20′54″W / 35.85694°N 117.34833°W | |
Country | United States |
State | California |
County | Inyo County |
Area | |
• Total | 10.737 sq mi (27.809 km2) |
• Land | 10.669 sq mi (27.632 km2) |
• Water | 0.068 sq mi (0.177 km2) 0.64% |
Elevation | 2,234 ft (681 m) |
Population (2010) | |
• Total | 0 |
• Density | 0.0/sq mi (0.0/km2) |
Time zone | UTC-8 (Pacific (PST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-7 (PDT) |
GNIS feature ID | 2408400 [2] |
Reference no. | 443 |
Valley Wells is a census-designated place in Inyo County, California. [2] Prior to 2010, for census purposes it was part of Homewood Canyon-Valley Wells CDP. The 2010 census reported that population was zero. [3] The town is now registered as California Historical Landmark #443; in 1849, several groups of midwestern emigrants settled here to secure water from nearby Searles Lake. [4] [5]
The California Historical Landmark reads:
Historically, the Valley Wells area was used as for aquatic recreation for the residents of Trona, California. [7]
Valley Wells is the home of the Trona Golf course on Valley Wells Road. [8]
Valley Wells is also the home of the Valley Wells Recreation Area, which is maintained by Searles Lake Gem and Mineral Society, but owned by Searles Valley Minerals, Inc. [9]
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.
Furnace Creek, formerly Greenland Ranch, is a census-designated place (CDP) in Inyo County, California, United States. The population was 136 at the 2020 census, up from 24 at the 2010 census. The elevation of the village is 190 feet (58 m) below sea level. The visitor center, museum, and headquarters of the Death Valley National Park are located at Furnace Creek.
Olancha is a census designated place in Inyo County of the U.S. state of California. Olancha is located on U.S. Route 395 in California, 37 miles (60 km) south-southeast of Independence. As of the 2010 census, the population was 192, up from 134 at the 2000 census.
Ridgecrest is a city in Kern County, California, United States, along U.S. Route 395 in the Indian Wells Valley in northeastern Kern County, adjacent to the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. It was incorporated as a city in 1963. The population was 27,959 at the 2020 census, up slightly from 27,616 at the 2010 census.
Owens Lake is a mostly dry lake in the Owens Valley on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada in Inyo County, California. It is about 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Lone Pine. Unlike most dry lakes in the Basin and Range Province that have been dry for thousands of years, Owens held significant water until 1913, when much of the Owens River was diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct, causing Owens Lake to desiccate by 1926. In 2006, 5% of the water flow was restored. As of 2013, it is the largest single source of dust pollution in the United States.
Stovepipe Wells is a way-station in the northern part of Death Valley, in unincorporated Inyo County, California.
Area codes 760 and 442 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of California. These area codes serve an overlay complex that comprises much of the southeastern and southernmost portions of California. It includes Imperial, Inyo, and Mono counties, as well as portions of North County San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Kern counties. Area code 760 was created on March 22, 1997 in a split of area code 619. Area code 442 was added to the same area on November 21, 2009.
Cedarville is a census-designated place located 20 miles (32 km) east of Alturas, at an elevation of 4,652 feet (1,418 m), in Modoc County, California. Its population is 437 as of the 2020 census, down from 514 at the 2010 census.
Searles Valley is a valley in the northern Mojave Desert of California, with the northern half in Inyo County and the southern half in San Bernardino County, California, United States.
The Trona Pinnacles are an unusual geological feature in the California Desert National Conservation Area. The landscape consists of more than 500 tufa spires, some as high as 140 ft (43 m), rising from the bed of the Searles Lake (dry) basin. The pinnacles vary in size and shape from short and squat to tall and thin, and are composed primarily of calcium carbonate (tufa). They now sit isolated and slowly crumbling away near the south end of the valley, surrounded by many square miles of flat, dried mud and with stark mountain ranges at either side.
Searles Lake is an endorheic dry lake in the Searles Valley of the Mojave Desert, in northwestern San Bernardino County, California. The lake in the past was also called Slate Range Lake and Borax Lake.
The Timbisha are a Native American tribe federally recognized as the Death Valley Timbisha Shoshone Band of California. They are known as the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe and are located in south central California, near the Nevada border. As of the 2010 Census the population of the Village was 124. The older members still speak the ancestral language, also called Timbisha.
The Argus Range is a mountain range located in Inyo County, California, southeast of the town of Darwin. The range forms the western boundary of Panamint Valley, and the northwestern boundary of Searles Valley. The Coso Range is located to the west, and the Panamint Range to the east.
The Trona Railway is a 30.5 mi (49.1 km) short-line railroad owned by Searles Valley Minerals. The TRC interchanges with the Lone Pine Subdivision of the Union Pacific Railroad at Searles, California.
Searles Valley Minerals Inc. is a raw materials mining and production company with corporate offices in Overland Park, Kansas. It is owned by the Indian company Nirma. It has major operations in the Searles Valley centered in Trona, California where it is the town's largest employer. The company produces borax, boric acid, soda ash, salt cake, and salt. It also owns the Trona Railway.
Searles Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Searles Valley of the Mojave Desert, in northwestern San Bernardino County, California.
Trona is an unincorporated community in San Bernardino County, California. In 2015 it had a population of approximately 1,900. Trona is at the western edge of Searles Lake, a dry lake bed in Searles Valley, southwest of Death Valley. The town takes its name from the mineral trona, abundant in the lakebed. It is about 170 miles (274 km) northeast of Los Angeles, on State Route 178. The ZIP code is 93562.
Burnt Wagons is a former settlement in Inyo County, California, near Stovepipe Wells. It was located in Death Valley 7 miles (11 km) northwest of Death Valley Junction. The name recalls the emigrants of 1849 who abandoned and burnt their wagons at the site. The site is now registered as California Historical Landmark #441. The monument's plaque reads:
Near this monument, the Jayhawker group of Death Valley Forty-Niners, gold seekers from Middle West, who entered Death Valley in 1849 seeking short route to the mines of central California, burned their wagons, dried the meat of some oxen and, with surviving animals, struggled westward on foot.
Trona is a census-designated place in Inyo County, California, adjacent to the unincorporated community of Trona, San Bernardino County, California. The 2010 United States census reported Trona's population was 18.
The Potash wars were a series of events that took place from 1910 to 1915 in the Searles Valley near Searles Lake, a dry lake, near the current town of Trona in the San Bernardino County of California. The Potash wars gained national and international news at the time due to the involvement of famous lawman Wyatt Earp and the importance of the valley's supply of potash at the time. Potash is an important crop fertilizer and the Searles Valley was a major supplier in the 1910s.