CHAPTER 5: LUPINE LAND
Austin left Owens Valley in 1906…
Witschi, Nicolas S. Traces of Gold: California's Natural Resources and the Claim to Realism in Western American Literature. University of Alabama Press, 2002
“…old miners drifting about the desert edges, weathered into the semblance of the tawny hills.”
Austin, Mary Hunter. The Land of Little Rain. Modern Library, 2003, p. 71
As it was at Keough’s a century in the past, so it is today.
According to the Keough’s website, the pools were built in 1919 and are still the original pools used today: http://www.keoughshotsprings.com
A Paiute man, Sam Newland…flushing deer toward the hunters below.
Steward, Julian H. “Autobiography of Two Owens Valley Paiutes.” University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnography , vol. 33, no. 5, 3 Feb. 1934, p. 423–438., https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucp033-006.pdf
In the valley of flowing water, in the summer of 1861, a band of cattle ranchers found what they needed after a long, dry journey…
Vaughan, Pam, and Brendan Vaughan. Images of America: Bishop. Arcadia Pub., 2011, p. 24
Vaughans cite the San Jose History website. S. A. Bishop moved to San Jose after leaving Owens Valley; he wasn’t in Owens Valley long.
The party had crossed two hundred miles of desert.
Chalfant, Willie Arthur. The Story of Inyo: Revised Addition . W.A. Chalfant, 1933, pp. 90-91
Like most white men in nineteenth-century California, he carried a revolver.
Vaughan, Pam, and Brendan Vaughan. Images of America: Bishop. Arcadia Pub., 2011, p. 24
From a photo and excerpts from a letter from Captain Gardiner describing Bishop at the Ridge Route Museum, accessed by the Vaughans via History San Jose.
Bishop was a Virginian…
Chalfant, Willie Arthur. The Story of Inyo: Revised Addition . W.A. Chalfant, 1933, p. 91
…a prospector, a fighter of the Ahwahneechee and the Chowchilla in the western Sierra foothills.
ibid. p.91 cites Bishop fighting in the Mariposa War.
Also:
Tucker, Spencer. The Encyclopedia of North American Indian Wars, 1607-1890: a Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO, 2011, p. 471
This source lists the Ahwahneechee (referred to as the Yosemite Indians) as being involved in the Mariposa War.
Also:
Dennis. “Chowchilla Tribe.” Access Genealogy, Access Genealogy, 29 Oct. 2013, https://accessgenealogy.com/native/chowchilla-tribe.htm
This source provides an explanation of the term Chowchilla, which was used at the time to apply to the Yokuts and the Miwok.
Samuel Bishop drove five or six hundred head of cattle and fifty horses north…
Chalfant, Willie Arthur. The Story of Inyo: Revised Addition . W.A. Chalfant, 1933, pp. 90-91
…planning to sell beef to silver miners in Aurora, Nevada.
Vaughan, Pam, and Brendan Vaughan. Images of America: Bishop. Arcadia Pub., 2011, p. 24
The route to Aurora took Bishop through Payahuunadu…”set apart by the Government—exempt from settlement—for their use.”
Davidson, John W., et al. The Expedition of Capt. J.W. Davidson from Fort Tejon to the Owens Valley in 1859. Ballena Press, 1976
Bishop must have noticed…could it be that they were?—irrigated.
Ongoing conversations between the author and Bishop Community Historian Harry C. Williams about the irrigation practices of his ancestor.
Also:
Lawton, Harry W. Wilke, Philip J. DeDecker, Mary Mason, William M. “Agriculture Among the Paiute of Owens Valley.” The Journal of California Anthropology, vol. 3, no. 1, 1976, p. 41, https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0595h88m
His men built two wooden cabins beside what they began to call Bishop Creek.
Chalfant, Willie Arthur. The Story of Inyo: Revised Addition . W.A. Chalfant, 1933, pp. 90-91
No doubt this was very near Pitana Patü, home to the largest Nuumu population in the valley.
Steward, Julian H. “Autobiography of Two Owens Valley Paiutes.” University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnography , vol. 33, no. 5, 3 Feb. 1934, p. 423–438., https://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/anthpubs/ucb/text/ucp033-006.pdf
Bishop named his settlement San Francis Ranch, after his wife.
Chalfant, Willie Arthur. The Story of Inyo: Revised Addition . W.A. Chalfant, 1933, pp. 90-91
Soon others came driving cattle: Van Fleet, Bodle, Kisport, Keough, McGee.
ibid. p. 145
These names are all listed as being involved in a battle at the start of the conflict between settlers and the Paiute in Owens Valley.
“Wherever water touches it, it produces abundantly,” wrote a military scout of Owens Valley soil in 1859.
Davidson, John W., et al. The Expedition of Capt. J.W. Davidson from Fort Tejon to the Owens Valley in 1859. Ballena Press, 1976
Around rain-shadowed Bishop, rattlesnakes, horned lizards…
“CaliforniaHerps.com, Reptiles and Amphibians of California.” California Herps, http://www.californiaherps.com/identification/lizardsid/phrynosoma.id.html.
…and burrowing owls hunker…
“Owens River IBA: Eastern Sierra Audubon.” Owens River IBA | Eastern Sierra Audubon, Audubon Society, http://esaudubon.org/birds/iba/owens_river_iba.php
Rain falls on the western foothills, snow buries summits, and the storms dissipate before they reach us here at the lee.
“USGS CMG InfoBank: Rain Shadows.” Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, United States Geological Society, https://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/infobank/programs/html/school/moviepage/20.01.05.html
The Sierra presents a four-hundred-mile rampart…
Bateman, P.C., et al. “The Sierra Nevada Batholith: A Synthesis of Recent Work across the Central Part.” Professional Paper, United States Geological Survey , 1 Jan. 1994, https://pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/pp414D
In the wake of the 1906 earthquake and fires, which killed about three thousand people in San Francisco…
Solnit, Rebecca. A Paradise Built in Hell: the Extraordinary Communities That Arise in Disaster. Penguin Books, 2010, p.15
…hundreds lived in tents, fearful of returning to indoor life as aftershocks rippled the city.
ibid. p. 26
One February morning…until, one by one, they disappeared.
Details from the Convict Lake tragedy come from the author’s parents’ accounts.
Also:
Mallard, Richard. Convict Lake: a True Account of the Convict Lake Rescue. The Author, 2011
“…a lurking, evasive Something, wistful, cruel, ardent.”
Austin, Mary Hunter. Earth Horizon: Facsimile of Original 1932 Edition. Sunstone Press, 2007, p.187