Legend:1820-18701880-19201930-19701980-2020Pre-1820Nüümü (Paiute) and Newe (Shoshone) have lived in Payahuunadü, "the land of flowing water," for thousands of years. 1834 MAY 1: Joseph R. Walker and his group are the first outsiders to come to Payahuunadü.1845 John C. Fremont names the valley, river and lake after Richard Owings (aka "Richard Owens"), a guide who never set foot in Payahuunadü.Survey of Trail from Camp Independence to Camp Babbitt by Captain John G. Kelley, Nevada Infantry.1865 1862 FEBRUARY: The first "Owens Valley War" with outsiders begins and continues till May 1863.1862 JULY 4: Camp Independence is established due to conflicts.JULY 11: The U.S. Army forcibly marches Nüümü and Newe to Ft. Tejon, approximately 200 miles away, in 11 days.1863 1864-65
More conflict continues after Nüümü and Newe return home from Ft. Tejon.March 23: The first convoy of incarcerees arrives at the Manzanar Concentration Camp from Los Angeles. 1871 "Evening, Owens Lake, California" by Albert Bierstadt.1942 1940 The Mono Extension is completed, beginning diversions to Los Angeles. 1941 December 7: Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, declaring war against the U.S.Roughly 44,000 Native Americans (of under 400,000) enlisted during WWII, which was between 5 and 10 percent of the Native American population. 1941-451880 The narrow gauge Carson and Colorado Railroad which ran through the Valley south to Keeler is constructed. An Indian Day School is established in Bishop.1885 1942 February 19: Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, calling for the removal of those of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast.1890 Big Pine Indian School is established. Bishop and Big Pine Indian Schools are the first day schools established in the U.S.1892 Round Valley Indian School is established.The Camp Independence Indian School is established. 1897 December 5-6: The Manzanar Riot occurs, precipitated by work and pay disputes, resulting in the military police killing two people. October: Los Angeles Aqueduct construction begins.1908 1901-08 During these unrestricted immigration times, 127,000 Japanese enter the U.S.1902-05 Thomas Eaton, William Mulholland and Joseph Lippincott underhandedly acquire lands for LA water development, blocking a U.S. Bureau of Reclamations irrigation project.LA voters approve a bond to buy lands for aqueduct construction. In 1907, they approve a second bond for construction. 1905 1906
Bishop Indian School Children. There are 199 Native American children in Inyo County between ages 5-17.Opening of the LA Aqueduct.1913 1910 George Chaffey, a Southern California developer, founds the town of Manzanar and the Owens Valley Improvement Company.1910 April 5: The Southern Pacific Jawbone Branch, a broad gauged train from Los Angeles to near Lone Pine is completed and connects to the local Keeler Branch, a narrow gauged train, which runs to Bishop.By executive order 1529, the U.S. Government reserved over 67,120 acres for Nüümü and Newe in the area. 1912 1913
November 6: The 233-mile Los Angeles Aqueduct is completed.The LA Aqueduct sucks Patsiata (Owens Lake), formerly California's third largest lake, dry. 1926 1924 The California Supreme Court affirms that public schools should be integrated in Piper v. Big Pine School District of Inyo County, becoming a precedent for the U.S. Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.1924 Congress passes the Immigration Act of 1924, which ends Japanese immigration to the U.S.November 16-20: Due to the lack of water, local farmers and ranchers occupy the Alabama Gates, dynamiting part of the system.1924 1924 Alabama Gates OccupationThe Federal Highway System is established, and Highway 395 is declared a U.S. numbered highway.1926 1928 March 12: St. Francis Dam, part of LA Aqueduct infrastructure, fails, killing at least 431 people. This led the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to build the Colorado River Aqueduct.1929 By 1929, Los Angeles acquires all water rights and land at Manzanar.Irrigation to the Orchard is shut off, and the last Manzanar residents leave. The town is officially abandoned.1934 1930 Highway 395, which is adjacent to the Eastern Sierras, opens. 1930 LA voters pass a third bond to develop the Mono Basin extension.April 28: By Executive Order 5843, President Hoover revoked executive order 1529 which has granted lands to Nüümü and Newe.1932 1933 Map of "Tracts 2a, 2b and 2c," which were lands in Bishop, part of the 1937 Land Exchange.April 20: Congress authorizes a Land Exchange between the LADWP and the Dept. of Interior to form reservations in Bishop, Big Pine and Lone Pine. 1937 1939 June 26: The Land Exchange concludes, but LADWP water rights are not traded because the City needs two-thirds consent of LA voters. 1942 1943 August: The "Ireito" obelisk is constructed, marking the cemetery at Manzanar. 1945 Merritt Park, designed by Kuichiro Nishi. (Photo by Ansel Adams)Sept. 2: Japan surrenders to the U.S., ending WWII.1945 1945 November 21: Manzanar Concentration Camp closes.1952 The McCarran-Walter Act allows Japanese immigrants to become naturalized U.S. citizens.1965 September: LA begins construction of the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct as a response to a State Water Rights Board warning that the City could lose rights to unclaimed water.1969 December: Sue Embrey, Warren Furutani and others make the first activist-led Pilgramage to Manzanar.Making offerings at the first Manzanar Pilgrimage. (Photo by Robert Nakamura, courtesy of Visual Communications)1969 1970 June: The Second Los Angeles Aqueduct is completed, dramatically increasing water flows from 1971-88, causing environmental degradation.1970 The Manzanar Committee is established to fight for recognition of the Japanese American incarceration experience.Manzanar is designated a State Historic Site.1972 Sue Embrey at the dedication of Manzanar as a State Historic Site. (Photo courtesy of Manzanar Committee)1972 1983 The Owens Valley Committee is established.August 10: The Civil Liberties Act is signed, acknowledging the injustice of WWII and granting reparations to incarcerated Japanese Americans. 1988 A memorandum of understanding (MOU), remedying the deficiencies of the 1990 Long Term Water agreement is signed, outlining mitigation measures for rewatering. Dust is not part of this MOU.1998 1990 Congress passes Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA).1991 Los Angeles and Inyo County sign the Long Term Water Agreement, limiting LADWP groundwater pumping.Keith Bright and Tom Bradley signing the Long Term Water Agreement. 1991 1992 March 3: Manzanar is designated a National Historic Site.In 1998, the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District Board adopted the State Implementation Plan (SIP) that began controlling the PM10 from Patsiata/Owens Lake.1998 2000 The LADWP is mandated to control PM-10 levels from the Lake and begins construction of the Owens Lake Dust Mitigation project.2000 Dust storms near Patsiata.Timbisha Homeland Act.2000 LADWP fixes Big Pine broken pipe after face off at Board of Commissioners Meeting.2017 2012 Impacts of damage to a Big Pine irrigation pipe on LADWP lands are noticed, and tribal members complain to LADWP.2013 November 22: LADWP announces its intentions to develop the Southern Owens Valley Solar Ranch (SOVSR) across the Valley from Manzanar. Map of the proposed solar ranch across from Manzanar. 2013 2015 March 12: LADWP puts an indefinite hold on its plans to develop SOVSR, after pressure from local environmentalists, the Manzanar Committee and Tribes.Big Pine tribal members and friends gather at LADWP headquarters to demand repair of broken pipe. (Photo by Mariah David and Jesse Archer)2017 2021 MANZANAR, DIVERTED premieres at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival.Patsiata/Owens Lake is submitted to the California Office of Preservation National Register of Historic Places California State Historical Resources Commission.2022 Click on tiles below to learn more about that event.
