The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1882-09-09
The Strange and Lonely valley OF
Owens River.
TSan Francisco Chronicle. I

WaSSA StIcaIA N1ulAuS AIS lOAIuOuo way
through miles of alkaline plain and
waving trees or green meadows marks
its course. 1t flows like a great canal,
having but few features of living
stream. Its waters have no flash and
sparkle, no dance and ripple in the
sun. 1t is, indeed, a desert river, flow
ing through desert land. The
Owens Lake country is a vast volcanic
basin. Evidences of the dread earth
quake and the mighty upheaval are
visible on every hand. The marks OF
volcanic action are exceedingly fresh.
The lime cliffs of the Inyos seem yet to
smoke, and the presence of force is so
evident that one would be but little
startled to see some near summit blaze
with flame. The Inyo range, extend
ing along the eastern borders of the
valley more than hundred miles, and
plunging at last into the arid plains
of Nevada, is remarkable for its great
cliffs of lime, its dykes of slate and por-
phyry, its masses of granite and its
minerals, painted in the most vivid
colors by chemical action.
These mountains are the most an
cient on the coast. Ages before the
Sierras were upheaved this range was
standing. Extinct craters are found
here, quiet now, but once giving to
the country daily baptisms Of ashes
and fire. There can be but little doubt
that this lake region was the center of
the fiercest volcanic action that ever
convulsed the North American Con-
tinent. Thousands of square miles are
burnt, shattered and buried under vol
canic ashes, with leagues of lava min
gled with boundless variety of min
erals, distributed over wide territory,
and found in veins and deposits, or
sown broadcast over the general face
of the country. From its peculiar sit
uation, Owens Lake, by many students
of this region, is thought to occupy the
crater of the chief volcano that, through
past ages, blazed and burned. The re-
mem brance of time when this coIln-
try was on fire still fingers in the ira
ditions of the Indians who now live in
this section. The lake lies at the
southern end of the valley, between the
Surra, the Coso and the Inyo ranges,
occupying a basin fully eighteen miles
in length by twelve in width. 1t is a
sheet of water as wonderful and mys-
terious as the lands that surround it..
Its shore line is whitened by deposits
of alkaline salt. Stretching around it
like a band is wide belt, left white
and barren by the receding waters, and
presenting most desolate shore. 1t
gives no nourishment to vegetable
life. Not a tree or flower buds or
blooms within its dead-sea influence.
There it lies, shadOwed by the lofty
peaks Of the Sierras rising just along its
western borders, a sullen waste of
waters refusing to shine in the sun or
mirror the stars. Unlike the sweet
watered Taioc-a jewel, full of light
and color--this lake WallOws in its
bed, shiny worms crawl along its
banks, and its breezes ditfuse an op-
pressive stencil. A mystery seems
ever to brood over the lake. 1t has its
strange moods, often for days lying
still and dead, then suddenly moving,
as if by will of its own. 1t has also
its phases of terror, for when swept by
storms it lashes its shores and beats its
waters into foam. Its action has al
ways been exceedingly strange, for al
though fed by Owens River, which
pours daily into its bosom millions OF
gallons, and with no known outlet, it
has steadily recedcd, until it is at pres
ent more shallow by at least ten feet
than it was ten years ago. This pro-
cess of rise and fall-for it has been
known to rise as steadily-occursi in de
cades, though the rise and fall of each
decade brings its waters to a lower
level, and suggests finally its complete
absorption, as there are marked evi-
dences that it anciently occupied a
wider basin. Subtle forces other than
evaporation must have operated tc
cause this phenomenon.
The region of the lake is historic
ground, it having been the scene of :
tragedy occurring during the Indian
outbreak of 1862, when the tribes ther
dwelling in this section rose in arms
against the invasion Of their domain
The massacre of number of whites
reused the settlers to fury, and deter
mined them, by a severe blow, to pre-
vent further hostilitles. Obtaining thu
assistance of few soldiers from For
Independence, they sailed forth
swearing vengeance on the murderer
of their associates and friends. On {
summer day, after a series of strategic
moves on both sides, the warriors O
the tribe were brought to bay at
point between the Sierras and th
western shore of the lake, with H.
chance OF retreat to the mountains
The Indians were steadily pressed t
the shores of the lASe, where the
made q stand for life. and fought for
time with desperate courage. Finally