Documenting Inyo County History Before It's Lost

The Eastern Sierra has a richer history than most people realize — and a lot of it is disappearing. Old photos get thrown out. Elders pass before their stories are recorded. Buildings come down before anyone writes down what happened in them.

That's why I spend so much of my free time researching Inyo and Mono County history. I'm not a trained historian, but I'm a curious one, and I believe that if nobody writes it down, it's gone.

Some of my favorite research is the ordinary stuff — how a family ran a ranch, what a downtown block looked like a hundred years ago, why a road got its name. The big events get remembered. The everyday life is what actually tells you who we are.

If you have old photos, letters, or stories about the Owens Valley, please don't toss them. Reach out. I'd love to help make sure they're preserved and shared. That's a big part of why this site exists.