There are lots of dry lake beds in California, and to the untrained eye, Owens Dry Lake is just like the rest. But there is one key difference: while most of the state’s stark, white alkali flats have been dry for thousands of years, Owens was an enormous, gem-blue lake stretching more than a hundred miles square — and an important habitat for millions of migratory birds — as recently as 1917. That’s when the City of Los Angeles stole it, diverting the streams that fed Owens Lake into an aqueduct that watered the booming metropolis 200 miles to the south. As the lake slowly dried up, so did the once-thriving town of Keeler, which had been both a mining town and something of a lakeside resort. Nowadays, the “lakeside” town of Keeler is more than a mile from the “shoreline” of Owens Lake — little more than a collection of marshy mudpits surrounded by an endless expanse of salt flat, the surface of which can reach 150 degrees on hot summer days.
A sarcastic sign near what used to be Keeler’s shoreline.
Losing the lake was one thing. But it wasn’t the disappearance of the waterfowl, or a place to swim or fish or go boating, that drove people out of Keeler — it was the dust storms. When the lake finally evaporated some years after its streams had been diverted, it left behind a three-foot layer of fine-grained salt, sulfates and old mining chemicals. The Owens Valley had long been famous for its whipping winds, and all it took to kick up gargantuan clouds of dust was a stiff breeze. The result: frequent, choking dust storms that made it hard to see, hard to breathe — and for many, hard to justify staying in Keeler. A wider view of “the beach” —
Brief surges in mining operations kept people in Keeler through the end of the fifties, but all such activity ceased in 1960, and the train tracks which once carried valuable ore out of town were ripped out a year later. The lake didn’t dry up all at once — it took years to evaporate, dying a slow and measurable death. The dust storms started to get bad in the 60s and 70s, and the population began to drop. By the 1980s, Keeler had become like many ghost towns in the making: most of those left behind were elderly or disabled. Many suffered from respiratory problems, and deaths from lung cancer and related disorders weren’t uncommon. These days, the Owens Valley ranks as the dustiest place in North America — second in the world only to the Aral Sea, Kazakhstan’s infamous ecological nightmare.
Owens Lake from the air. The wet bits are lawsuit-mandated pools created by the Los Angeles Water Dept. designed to mitigate the dust storms, a technique that’s enjoyed only limited success. Photo by Charles W. Hull.
From a 20-year-old article about Keeler in the Los Angeles Times:
“It was god-awful,” recalled Roberta Ushman, who retired in Keeler from Torrance with her husband, Mike. “You couldn’t see across the street. We had new windows put in, hoping that would slow it down, but it just comes in.” Jeanne Lopez, the former Inyo county clerk, said the dust has eroded the paint from her 1985 Dodge and left her with a prolonged sore throat. “When you’re right in it, it’s frightening. It blots out the sun, it covers everything,” Lopez said. “You just feel if it’s coming in your house, if it’s in your bed, it must be getting in your lungs, too.”
Mike Ushman, a painting contractor, blames the dust for the town’s dwindling population. Four Keeler residents have died recently of lung cancer or other pulmonary troubles, he said. His two tenants decided to move away after the Feb. 3 storm, and Riley isn’t the only man on oxygen, Ushman said. “There’s too many people dying in this town of lung disorders,” Ushman said.
On my way to the Owens Valley, I saw this salt-and-dust storm rising over the horizon. I’m probably 20 miles away, and those are the Eastern Sierras behind it. That’s a lot of salt.
There’s almost no one left in Keeler now. The population has dwindled to less than fifty, and in the two hours I spent wandering its streets, I didn’t see a single person. Still, the town had a sort of eerie, silent beauty. Junked cars and empty shacks, weatherbeaten from years of sun and salt, are being slowly reclaimed by wild grasses.
A tiny beach resort, long ago stripped of paint and nowhere near the retreated water’s edge.
Inside, grass grows in a vacant swimming pool, which gradually fills with wind-blown dirt.
I walked for more than a mile, but never found the lake — only sand dunes.
This gas station closed more than 30 years ago, eliminating the last reason travelers had to stop in Keeler. As a resident of LA, I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty; there is a direct and tragic relationship between the green lawns of my town and the brown decay of Keeler. But those, I guess, are the breaks.
You can check out more Strange Geographies columns here.
If you’d like prints of any of these photos, they’re available here.
Comments (27)
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The deserted backyard with the pool reminds me of the movie Con-Air, where Steve Buchemi had that tea party with the little girl.
posted by Steven on 9-18-2009 at 8:14 am
Wow. That kinda reminds me of Stephen King’s book The Stand. Creepy
posted by Anthony on 9-18-2009 at 9:57 am
I love this series. Keep up the good work!
posted by Lynnie on 9-18-2009 at 11:08 am
Is this what happens when we fool around with Mother Nature? What a shame.
posted by Hyacinth on 9-18-2009 at 11:34 am
Another fascinating post Mr. Riggs. Keep them coming!
posted by steve on 9-18-2009 at 12:16 pm
Anybody interested in further reading should check out Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert. It provides a great overview, and is very readable. The story of L.A. and its water resources, as well as urban development, is incredibly interesting, and almost tabloidesque in content. I ended up writing my undergrad thesis on a related topic, and it was easily one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.
Great job!
posted by ck on 9-18-2009 at 12:36 pm
Is this where they got the plot for Chinatown? Or a similar story?
posted by Mark G. on 9-18-2009 at 12:44 pm
Ransom, would you classify this as a ghost town?
posted by taylor on 9-18-2009 at 12:45 pm
@ ck — this was part of a photo road trip through california and nevada, and it’s amazing how many lakes and rivers I came across in california that had at least part of their water diverted into the aqueduct that feeds LA. We’re almost literally draining about half the state. Even beautiful natural heritage sites like mono lake are way below their normal water level.
I also heard that (though haven’t verified) that the aqueduct we feed all these rivers and streams and lakes into is famously wasteful — it’s open the air, letting tons of water evaporate on its long journey south, and full of cracks that leak water into the dry desert ground.
Siiiiigh.
posted by Ransom Riggs on 9-18-2009 at 12:45 pm
@ Taylor — it’s not quite a ghost town yet, there are still about 50 people living there. Give it a few more years …
posted by Ransom Riggs on 9-18-2009 at 12:46 pm
The water theft by LA was a key plot point in the movie Chinatown.
posted by cainmark on 9-18-2009 at 12:50 pm
That’s right — the “LA water wars,” as they were called, were the basis for ‘Chinatown.’
posted by Ransom Riggs on 9-18-2009 at 1:10 pm
They just featured L.A. on the show Life After People last night. Scientists figure that if people suddenly disappeared and there was no one to maintain the aqueducts, L.A. would become desert-like again in just a few years.
Small consolation, I guess!
posted by Titania on 9-18-2009 at 2:56 pm
I’ve heard that the water that was diverted from there for our water is now just being pumped directly into the ocean (over 80 million gallons in the past few months) because of the environmental restrictions that have been placed on us that won’t allow us to move the water from Northern Cali to Southern Cali. I don’t understand why pumping the water to us is destructive but just pumping it into the ocean isn’t.
posted by Anonymous Dan on 9-18-2009 at 3:02 pm
wow
posted by dooperman on 9-18-2009 at 10:17 pm
You can find out more about the theft of Owens Lake in the book Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner. The Hollywood version of the story can be found in the film China Town.
posted by gene on 9-18-2009 at 10:27 pm
This is the second article in 3 days that I have read that pertains to the ravaging of the earth. I for one find this thought provoking and very very sad.
I hope that more people learn to care about the earth and really pay attention to the current “go green” movement. It is getting to be a bit too late for it, but the effort may grant us more time to enjoy what the natural world has to offer.
posted by RaeAnna on 9-19-2009 at 2:53 am
Amazing facts! This site provides great information. I never new about LA’s water affair.
posted by Introspective on 9-23-2009 at 4:14 pm
great photos and story thanks
posted by Mike wedge on 10-26-2009 at 3:07 pm
I love to steal water and money from everyone.
posted by Kandi Balvins on 10-29-2009 at 8:04 pm
Progress isn’t always happy for the ones who get left behind. http://buddharocks.deviantart.com/art/Ode-To-A-Wrecking-Ball-139603809
posted by Bubba on 11-2-2009 at 3:50 pm
You guys missed the best part of all.
There’s a bottled water plant in the middle of the desert: http://www.wireheadarts.com/blog/bottled_water_plant/
posted by Wirehead on 8-19-2010 at 2:34 am
An excellent set of photos — I also passed through the town back in late 2007, and took some photos of the dying community (here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthigh/sets/72157603340350692/)
For a look at what Keeler was like back before it fell into decline, check out here: http://www.owensvalleyhistory.com/keeler/page71.html Steamboats used to ply the waters of Owens Lake at one time…
posted by mlhradio on 8-19-2010 at 2:53 am
Your photographs are so beautiful.
posted by kirsten ogden on 8-19-2010 at 12:46 pm
LA absolutely stole the lives of the people of this area…An obscene act which is allowed to continue every second of every day.
Everyone seems to concede that this act is atrocious; but “everyone” also acts as though it is a concluded act of the past–perpetrated by others. Nope. It is a crime in progress, and stopping it simply requires honest acceptance of guilt followed by decent action. To continue the crime is to be a perpetrator of the crime.
posted by bannie on 5-28-2011 at 10:08 pm
I agree this is a crime in progress. The water should be allowed to flow back into Lake Owens like it’s supposed to.
If LA really needs the water they have the whole Pacific Ocean right at their doorstep, they can desalinate seawater.
posted by Jeff DeWitt on 10-31-2011 at 12:25 am
Gorgeous photos thanks for the write up!
posted by Andrew on 1-13-2012 at 9:20 am