10 Facts About Owens River

Owens River is a river in eastern California in the United States, approximately 183 miles long.

Since 1913, the Owens River has been diverted to Los Angeles, causing the ruin of the valley's economy and the drying of Owens Lake.

The Owens River enters Owens Valley from the northwest, while the Spring Valley Wash drains the northernmost part of the valley, extending a tiny portion of the basin into Nevada.

The Owens River Valley is a graben or rift valley, a section of land that has dropped down between two parallel faults, while the land on either side has risen.

Ancient, now-abandoned river channels suggest that the extended Owens River ran south to China Lake, then east into Searles Lake, north into the Panamint Valley, and finally east into Death Valley and the ancient Lake Manly.

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Thousands of years the Owens River valley was inhabited by the seminomadic Owens Valley Northern Paiute and the Shoshone tribes of Native Americans.

Owens River's party included Kit Carson, Edward Kern, and Richard Owens, the latter for whom the river, lake, and valley are named.

Until 1924, Owens River Lake was still so large that a steamboat ferry operated between its east and west sides, ferrying freight and passengers across in three hours, much less than the three days required to semi-circumnavigate the lake.

In 2011, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power decided to trap beaver out of the Owens River Valley, claiming that beaver are damming flows into their diversions of water to Los Angeles.

The diversion of water and the subsequent desiccation of Owens River Lake remains highly controversial, and the restoration of the lake has been a long-time goal of the California environmentalist community.