CHAPTER XV 

 AN UNIQUE REGION 



California geology is exceedingly complex and therefore 

 interesting. To speak of any particular region of the State as 

 "unique" might easily lead to the question which region! 

 There is indeed more that is unique that is, unusual in 

 California probably than in any other State of this great United 

 States. That Owens Valley, with its environs, is entitled to be 

 called unique it is the writer's opinion will not be questioned 

 by any one who has seen and studied this region, among all the 

 "unusual" localities and all the complicated features of the 

 State. 



The Highest, the Lowest, the Hottest, 

 and Perpetual Snow 



Owens Valley is in Inyo County. Inyo County embraces 

 a vast empire between the crest of the great Sierra Nevada 

 range and the State line of Nevada, and includes the northern 

 portion of the Mojave Desert and the famed Death Valley. 

 Not the least noteworthy fact about this remarkable region is 

 that the highest point of land in the United States Mount 

 Whitney, altitude 14,501 feet and the lowest, Death Valley, 

 296 feet below sea level, are within Inyo County and are sepa- 

 rated by a distance of about 60 miles. On the west of Owens 

 Valley is the highest and steepest part of the eastern escarpment 

 of the uplifted block which comprises the Sierra Nevada range, 

 the highest mountain escarpment in the world. To the east of 

 the Valley is the great faulted block of the Inyo Mountains 

 (including White Mountains), the first mountain range of the 

 Great Basin to the east of the Sierra Nevada range. To the 

 south is the Mojave Desert and Death Valley, the most abject 



