VANISHING EDEN (1928-40)
By 1928 the fate of Owens Valley had been sealed: the City
of Los Angeles had nearly won its water war and a domain, a vast
hinterland of sage and agricultural verdure with its coveted wealth of
water resources. By this time ranchers and farmers had begun an exodus
from their beloved Valley. 1928 was also the eve of the Stock Market Crash
and the Great Depression. Paiute and Shoshone Indian cultures were fading
into the recesses of history, and the frontier and most of its raucous
mining camps had transformed into ghostly arrays of shacks and aging
hangers-on.
Into this milieu of changing realities and fading memories
the Eastern California Museum Association was born. A group of people met
in Bishop in the home of W. C, and Louise Parcher and made a compact to
preserve and research the remains of past events and places for a future
generation. The Parchers, including Frank Parcher (first curator), Bessie
T. Best, Douglas Robinson, Charles T. Forbes, William A. Irwin, Jr., Ralph
Bell and G. W. Dow initiated a program to rescue the wonders of Inyo from
oblivion. The Parchers' influence loomed large in the Association's life
in the pre-war years; their dedication to the interests of the Museum
Association was unsurpassed.
In the tradition of the great American historical
societies the new Association was dedicated to the collection,
preservation and interpretation of artifacts, minerals, plants, fossils
and other scientific data as well as the preservation and marking of
prehistoric and historic sites.
The Association was incorporated in 1930; in the following
year these new pioneers acquired humble quarters in the Courthouse to
house historic and scientific collections of the fledgling organization.
It is to the credit of the founders that they operated on a yearly budget
of $500, during the lean years of the Depression and the New Deal. To
raise additional funds the Association sponsored musical performances in
the Bishop Theatre.
From the beginning the Association fostered a tradition of
annual membership dinners, yearly elections of officers, monthly field
trips, a museum library and an energetic landmarks program.
Among the picturesque personalities in the Association
during the 1930's was Mark Kerr, one of the earliest curators. Kerr
collected botanical specimens on behalf of the Museum and participated in
a pioneer archaeological survey of Saline Valley. Kerr resigned his post
as curator to follow his bent for botanical field work.
During the war and early post war years the Museum was
administered by Miss Margrave and Miss Cavitt, County librarians. Miss
Margrave collected invaluable local history including news clippings for
the Museum's files. Mrs. Lulu Mairs, who served the Museum for twelve or
more dedicated years, opened the Museum for patrons on request. Mrs. Mairs
shared her unusual personal knowledge of local history with the Museum's
many visitors.
EXPANSION (1950-60)
During the 50's the Museum entered a phase of regeneration
under the guidance of Ann Sharr, Virginia Fair, Anna Kelly, Curt Phillips,
Dr. Douglas Dyer and Ada Bell. The County provided a second room in the
Courthouse for Museum purposes, new display cases were built, the
collections were organized and their accession records updated. Increased
open hours improved the Museum's accessibility to tourists. Significant
book accessions were added to the library.
The Washington Hand Press was brought to the Museum and
the No.18 Narrow Gauge locomotive was acquired from the Railroad through
the efforts of Anna Kelly. The Charcoal Kilns at Cottonwood Creek were
deeded to the Museum. The herbarium exhibit, composed of plant specimens,
was installed and continues to be a main attraction. The Association
hosted one of the annual meetings of the Archaeological Survey
Association; ASA members visited archaeological sites under the guidance
of Association members.
Elodie Drew entered the scene as secretary. Mrs. Drew has
labored for several years as a researcher into the mysteries of Inyo's
complicated history and has communicated frequently with enquirers into
Inyo's past.
GROWTH AND CHANGE (1960-68)
The 1960's was period of accelerated activity.
The monthly field trips encompassed such places as Cerro
Gordo, Fish Lake Valley, Saline Valley, Chalfant Loop, Little Lake, Nevada
ghost towns and many more. Several field trips were science oriented: the
DeDeckers guided excursions which emphasized local botany. The Association
members had always tended to be a hardy lot, visiting remote corners of
Eastern California and Nevada.
The Association sponsored important archaeological
projects such as the Point Typology Workshop administered by guest
scientist. Ruth D. Simpson; the Mammoth Creek Cave and Crooked Creek
Excavations and other field projects. Rollin and Grace Enfield and Norman
Weller. representing the Association, supervised these Association
sponsored field projects while Ruth Simpson served as technical advisor.
The Enfields envisioned a dynamic and expanding museum, and were
instrumental in acquiring Dr. Louis Leakey as speaker at the annual dinner
in 1965.
Dramatic acquisitions came to the Association such as the
Black Collection comprising hundreds of Paiute-Shoshone baskets. Dr.
Douglas Dyer, Mary DeDecker and others persuaded County officials to
purchase this significant collection for the Museum.
It was a time of intensive publicity, including Dorothy
Cragen's column "Round About the Museum"; membership building,
which reached a peak of 1,300; and fund-raising projects such as the
Bottle Workshops.
Annual County support allowed only maintenance rather than
expansion. As the decade wore on the Association officers pressured the
County to accept the Museum and to administer it as a County agency. A
vote of Association members showed a 97% backing of County control of the
Museum.
The major achievement of the decade was the Association
sponsored building project. G. Walter and Maude Dow donated a large sum
for purposes of building construction; as a result of their generosity and
foresight the desperately needed 40' x 80' cement block structure on Grant
Street in Independence was completed on five acres leased from the City of
Los Angeles.
A landmark change in direction took place in 1967 when the
County accepted the newly constructed museum building as a gift and
created the Inyo County Museum Department. The County assumed all fiscal
responsibilities for the maintenance of the building as well as the
appointment of a County salaried museums director.
The Eastern California Museum Association had been aware
of the importance of Narrow Gauge history and had publicized the need to
preserve the depot at Laws. Mrs. Lois C. Cleman and Senator Charles Brown
rescued Laws from demolition by Southern Pacific. Mrs. Cleman, a long time
member of the Eastern California Museum Association, and other Valley
residents such as Anna Kelly and Paul Payne made the Laws Museum a reality
through acquisitions and loans of Narrow Gauge Americana. The Bishop
Museum and Historical Society formed in 1965 has operated the Railroad
Museum with annual monies from the County of lnyo and smaller allocations
from the City of Bishop. The County owns the fourteen acres, buildings and
Narrow Gauge locomotive.
One of the more influential officers during the decade was
Dorothy Cragen, who corresponded continuously for the Museum, organized
the Bottle Workshops, worked energetically to increase memberships, played
a guiding role in preserving and restoring the Commander's House, worked
for landmarks recognition and authored a column for the Inyo Independent.
Other influential and colorful personalities associated
with the Museum in the post war period were Dr. Horace Albright. Dr. R.
Coke Wood and Norman Clyde. Clyde's mountaineering exploits have been
unsurpassed in Sierra Nevada History.
THE COUNTY MUSEUMS DEPARTMENT (1968-76)
A lesser known participant in the development of the
Museum was Phil Walker, the first County-appointed director of the Eastern
California Museum. Walker moved thousands of artifacts from the County
Court House to the new building donated by Mr. and Mrs. Dow. He also
designed additional vertical display cases. Walker conceived the idea of a
ghost town complex and constructed the first building, the "Assayer's
Office".
Henry Raub served as director from 1969-76. He continued
the expansion of "Ghost Town" by acquiring several early bat and
board buildings from the Department of Water and Power such as the Hanna (Gunn)
residence, the Livery Stable, the Brewery Office, the Pete Mair's utility
shack, a stock room and privies. Also, the Department of Water and Power
historic equipment yard was established.
During his tenure landscaping was developed and fencing
installed around much of the Museum's perimeter by the Ecology Corps.
Profits from sales items were returned to the County general fund, in
keeping with the objective to make the Museum partly self-supporting. The
most successful sales item was the recording taped from Helen Gunn's music
box discs, an idea originated by Walker. Another landmark event during
this period was the first Museum monograph entitled, "Origins and
Ethnography of Prehistoric Man in Owens Valley" by Charles Campbell.
Leonard Sluyter's astronomy lectures, Bill Baucum's
radiograms and the annual historic fashion review furthered publicity. The
reminiscences of early residents were recorded on tape. Raub also chaired
the Bicentennial Commission which sponsored several community projects,
including the Saga of Inyo County.
Before Raub's retirement a storm of controversy broke over
the Eastern California Museum engulfing it in weeks of investigation by
the County Grand Jury. The conflict centered around the question of
whether or not the Museum required a professionally trained and salaried
director and staff or revert to an operation run by volunteers. Also, a
minority argued for inclusion of the Museum under the Department of Parks
and Recreation. However, the Museum has continued with a professional,
salaried staff and retains its integrity and efficiency as a separate
entity directly responsible to the County Administrator and the Board of
Supervisors.
THE BICENTENNIAL YEAR (1976)
Since January, 1976 when Charles Irwin was appointed
director, the key themes in the Department's life have been the
streamlining of the Museum's administration; an upgrading of the exhibit
qualities in the main building and Little Pine Village; closer ties with
the Paiute-Shoshone community; publicity techniques including four-color
process printing and participation in the Tri-County Fair; inventory of
the Museum's collections and County records; archaeological site survey;
and the beginning of a new fund raising program for building expansion.
The most sensational event of the year was the
Bicentennial Variety and Fashion Review sponsored by the Independence
Garden Club and hosted by the Museum. The main acquisitions in '76 were
the Hilderman Estate and two trail wagons used to haul ore from the Santa
Rosa Mine to Keeler (ca.1870).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Brichaga. Irene. Personal communication:
Cleman. Lois C. Personal communication.; Correspondence of the Eastern
California Museum Association. 1928-44, 1950-67.; Cragen, Dorothy. ECMA
newsletter.; DeDecker, Mary. Personal communication.; Drew, Elodie.
Personal communication.; Enfield, Rollin. Personal communication.;
Handbooks of the ECMA.; Kelly, Anna T. Personal communication.; Raub.
Henry. Personal communication.
{*Copied without permission from Saga of Inyo County
©1977 by Chapter 183, Southern Inyo American Association of Retired
Persons.}
