Editing Bishop, California (section)

==History==
The Bishop Creek post office operated from 1870 to 1889 and from 1935 to 1938.<ref name=CGN /> The first Bishop post office opened in 1889.<ref name=CGN />

In order to support the growth aspirations of [[Los Angeles]], water was diverted from the [[Owens River]] into the [[Los Angeles Aqueduct]] in 1913. From the 1910s to 1930s, the [[Los Angeles Department of Water and Power]] purchased much of the valley for water rights and control. The result was a substantial change to the Owens Valley culture and environment. The economy of Bishop suffered when farmers, ranchers and land owners sold much of their property. [[Jack Foley (sound effects)|Jack Foley]], a Bishop resident and sound effects specialist, mitigated the economic loss by persuading several Los Angeles studio bosses that the town of Bishop would be ideal as a location to shoot westerns.

===History and heritage===
[[File:California - Inyo - Bishop - 2023 - June 10.jpg|thumb|Bishop Civic Center]]
The city of Bishop&nbsp;was named for one of the first European settlers in the area, Samuel A. Bishop. [[Owens Lake]] was named for Richard Owens, a member of [[John C. Frémont|John C. Fremont]]'s 1845 exploration party which included [[Kit Carson]] and Ed Kern. Later the entire valley became known as The Owens Valley (see First Settlers below). The [[Northern Paiute|Paiute Indians]] called Owens Lake by the name of "Pacheta" and the [[Owens River]] "Wakopee." Geographically, Inyo County is today the second largest county in California with a population of slightly over 18,000 residents. The county is so large that several eastern states put together would fit neatly within its boundaries. Inyo County contains both the highest and lowest points in the contiguous United States; [[Mount Whitney|Mt. Whitney]], {{convert|14,496|ft|m}} above sea level, and [[Badwater Basin|Badwater]] in [[Death Valley]], {{convert|282|ft|m}} below sea level. The "Inyo" in Inyo County is commonly believed to be a Paiute word meaning "dwelling place of the great spirit," although some scholars are now convinced that it is a mistranslation of the word ''Indio'', which is Spanish for Indian. It is possible that the Paiute were trying to explain to the earliest English speaking settlers in the Owens Valley that this was their land by using a form of "Indio" they had learned from other Indian tribes, who in turn, had learned it from the Spanish or Mexicans, not realizing that not all Europeans spoke the same language. Thus Inyo may actually mean "Indian Land."{{citation needed|date=July 2018}}

===First American settlers===
[[File:SamuelAddisonBishop.jpg|thumb|right|Samuel Addison Bishop in 1870]]
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2020}}
The first American explorers in the Owens Valley of Eastern California included the famous mountain men [[Jedediah Smith]] in 1833<ref name="Owens Valley"/>  and Joseph Walker in 1834.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gilbert|first=Bil|title=Westering Man: The Life of Joseph Walker|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h7BQjaTxHy8C|year=1985|orig-year=1983|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|location=Tulsa|isbn=0806119349|access-date=October 22, 2023|archive-date=November 8, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231108161158/https://books.google.com/books?id=h7BQjaTxHy8C|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|144}} This remote area of California had never been explored by the Spanish and even though it was shown as Mexican territory on early maps, the Eastern Sierra region remained unvisited by them.

The most renowned early explorer to visit the area was John C. Fremont. He was the first [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] candidate to run for President of the United States in 1856 and later a famous [[Union Army|Union]] Civil War general. Officially sanctioned by the federal government, his 1845 mapping party to the Eastern Sierra included the celebrated Indian scout [[Kit Carson]], for whom the capital of Nevada, [[Carson City, Nevada|Carson City]], was named. Also in the party were Ed Kern for whom [[Kern County, California]] was named, and Richard Owens, who gave his name to Owens Lake near [[Lone Pine, California]] and later [[Owens Valley]] itself. Fremont lost a cannon which he had brought along in case of [[Native Americans in the United States|Indian]] attacks near present-day [[Bridgeport, California]] (about {{convert|80|mi|km|disp=sqbr}} north of Bishop).{{citation needed|date=May 2020}}

The city of Bishop came into being due to the need for beef in a booming mining camp some eighty miles to the north, [[Aurora, Nevada]], (Aurora was believed to be on the California side of the border at that time and was the county seat of Mono County, California). In 1861 cattlemen drove herds of cattle some three hundred miles from the great San Joaquin Valley of California, through the southern Sierra at Walker Pass, up the Owens Valley, and then through Adobe Meadows to Aurora. Along the way, some cattlemen noticed that the unsettled northern Owens Valley was perfect for raising livestock.

To avoid the long journey from the other side of the mountains, a few of them decided to settle in the valley. Driving about 600 head of cattle and 50 horses, [[Samuel Addison Bishop]], his wife, and several hired hands arrived in the Owens Valley on August 22, 1861 from [[Fort Tejon]] in the [[Tehachapi Mountains]]. Along with Henry Vansickle, Charles Putnam, Allen Van Fleet, and the McGee brothers, Bishop was one of the first white settlers in the valley.

Sheepmen soon followed the cattlement and they initially struggled due to a lack of forage for their stock in the area. Remnants of the early settlers' stone corrals and fences can still be seen north of Bishop along Highway 395 in [[Round Valley, California]] (barb wire fencing was not invented until 1873). Establishing a homestead, the [[San Francis Ranch]], along the creek which still bears his name, Samuel Bishop set up a market to sell beef to the miners and business owners in Aurora. One of the residents of Aurora at that time was a young [[Samuel Clemens]] who later gained fame as author [[Mark Twain]] (see Twain's book [[Roughing It]] for his comments on the area). By 1862, a frontier settlement (and later town), known as [[Bishop Creek (Inyo County)|Bishop Creek]], was established a couple of miles east of the San Francis Ranch. Though the town continues to prosper, the only reminder of Samuel Bishop's ranch today is a monument placed near the original site at the corner of Highway 168 West and Red Hill Road, two miles west of downtown Bishop.

[[File:West Line Street Cemetery.jpg|thumb|The historic cemetery on West Line St. was established in 1868.]]
In 1866, the County of Inyo was established from part of [[Tulare County, California|Tulare County]]. The Eastern High Sierra and the Owens Valley was the westernmost frontier in America at that time. In 1871, Daniel Bruhn was one of 41 wranglers herding nearly 3,000 wild Spanish mustangs from [[Stockton, California]] to [[Texas]]. Their travels brought them over the [[Sierra Nevada|High Sierra]] and into the remote Owens Valley, where they lost over 500 head of horses. The descendants of those mustangs still roam wild on the California/Nevada border just north of Bishop.

===Water conflicts of the Owens Valley===
{{main|California water wars}}
As Los Angeles expanded during the late 19th century, it began outgrowing its water supply. [[Fred Eaton]], mayor of Los Angeles, promoted a plan to take water from Owens Valley, where Bishop lies, to Los Angeles via an [[aqueduct (water supply)|aqueduct]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Dennis|last=McDougal|title=Privileged Son: Otis Chandler And The Rise And Fall Of The L.A. Times Dynasty|publisher=Da Capo Press|date=April 25, 2001|page=35|isbn=978-0-306-81161-6}}</ref> Between 1905 and 1907, most of the land in the Owens Valley was purchased from farmers and ranchers at bargain prices by Eaton, ostensibly for a his own use.<ref name=Cadillac>{{cite book|last=Reisner|first=Mark|title=Cadillac Desert|edition=revised|publisher=Penguin USA|year=1993|isbn=978-0-14-017824-1|title-link=Cadillac Desert}}</ref>{{rp|66}} The real goal was to send Owens Valley water south to Los Angeles.<ref name = "SmithsonianMag">{{cite news | url = http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/california.html | title = California Scheming | newspaper = Smithsonian Magazine | first = Mark | last = Wheeler | date = October 2002 | access-date = October 8, 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120315135038/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/california.html | archive-date = March 15, 2012 | url-status = dead }}</ref> In 1907, Eaton traveled to [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] to meet with advisers of [[Theodore Roosevelt]] to convince them that the water of the [[Owens River]] would do more good flowing through faucets in Los Angeles than it would if used on Owens Valley fields and orchards.<ref name = "Eaton-PBS">{{cite web | title = Fred Eaton | work = PBS: New Perspectives on The West | url = https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/d_h/eaton.htm | access-date = October 8, 2011 | archive-date = October 10, 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111010224319/http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/d_h/eaton.htm | url-status = live }}</ref> Despite a political fight with Congressman [[Sylvester C. Smith|Sylvester Smith]], who represented the area around Bishop, Roosevelt decided in favor of the aqueduct.<ref name = "LADWPConstruction">{{cite web | publisher = Los Angeles Department of Water and Power | title = A Hundred or a Thousand Fold More Important | url = http://wsoweb.ladwp.com/Aqueduct/historyoflaa/hundred.htm | access-date = May 23, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090223171727/http://wsoweb.ladwp.com/Aqueduct/historyoflaa/hundred.htm | archive-date = February 23, 2009 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

The aqueduct was built from 1907 to 1913 under the supervision of [[William Mullholland]].<ref name = "ripple">{{cite book | title = The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-First Century | first = Alex | last = Prud'homme | year = 2011 | publisher = Simon and Schuster | isbn = 978-1-4165-3545-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/rippleeffectfate00prud_0 }}</ref>{{rp|151–153}} The aqueduct is {{convert|223|mi|km}} long, used no pumping stations; only gravity siphons.<ref name="ripple"/> By 1928, Los Angeles owned 90 percent of the land and subsequent water rights in Owens Valley effectively rendering all agriculture, economic and development interests in the region effectively dead. With the diversion of water to Los Angeles, the Owens Lake and lower Owens River dried up, forcing many valley residents to leave the area.<ref name="Owens Valley">{{cite book | first1 = Genny | last1 = Smith| last2 = Putnam | first2 = Jeff | last3 = James | first3 = Greg | last4 = DeDecker | first4 = Mary |  last5 = Heindel | first5 = Jo | title = Deepest Valley: Guide to Owens Valley, its Roadsides and Mountain Trails | year = 1995 | isbn = 978-0-931378-14-0 | publisher = Genny Smith Books}}</ref> For a number of years, Owens Valley residents expressed much animosity toward the city of Los Angeles;<ref name="Owens Valley"/><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Ernest Bulpitt collection of Inyo/Mono Water wars memorabilia.|url=https://oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;Institution=California%20State%20Library::California%20History%20Room;idT=AGE-4011|access-date=September 28, 2020|website=oac.cdlib.org|archive-date=April 18, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418073717/https://oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;Institution=California%20State%20Library::California%20History%20Room;idT=AGE-4011|url-status=live}}</ref>  for example, in Dry Ditches, a book of poems published in 1934 by the Parcher family of Bishop. The Owens Valley–city of Los Angeles conflict was the inspiration of the 1974 film [[Chinatown (1974 film)|Chinatown]], starring [[Jack Nicholson]].<ref name=beast>{{cite news|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/28/william-mulholland-gave-water-to-la-and-inspired-chinatown.html|title=William Mulholland Gave Water to LA and Inspired ''Chinatown''|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915194827/http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/28/william-mulholland-gave-water-to-la-and-inspired-chinatown.html |archive-date=September 15, 2016|first=Jon|last=Wilkman|newspaper=[[The Daily Beast]]|date=February 28, 2016}}</ref>

===Native American cultural heritage===
[[File:Bishop paiute women 1940.jpg|alt=Paiute Indian hut, reconstructed in 1940|thumb|Example of Paiute Hut, re-constructed for a float in a parade in Bishop, 1940]]
Indigenous peoples live in and near Bishop on four reservations. The southernmost is the [[Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Tribe|Lone Pine Indian Reservation]]; northward is [[Fort Independence Indian Community of Paiute Indians|Fort Independence Reservation]] and [[Big Pine Paiute Tribe of the Owens Valley|Big Pine Indian Reservation]]. The largest and northernmost is the [[Bishop Paiute Tribe|Bishop Indian Reservation]].