Inyo County, California

Inyo County is situated at the extreme east of the state, with the Sierra for a western boundary, has an area of 10,156 square miles, the greater part being mountainous land. It is shut off from the rest of the state by the enormous mountain chain, of which the highest peak is Mt. Whitney, 14,887 feet above sea-level. Its population, given by the 1880 census as 2,928, has now increased to about 5,000. Independence, the county seat, is in the midst of a rich mining country. Only a few thousand acres in Owens valley are under cultivation, but large irrigating projects are now under way, which will convert the sage-brush desert into fertile fields. Mining has always been the chief source of wealth, but large deposits of borax and soda are worked in Death Valley, and a vast quarry of the purest marble. The Carson and Colorado Railroad now furnishes transportation, which was formerly lacking. The assessed valuation in 1889 was $1,548,695.

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Source: California State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1890, Volume II, R. L. Polk & Company, 1890.