Owenyo, California

Owenyo (formerly, New Owenyo) was an unincorporated community in Inyo County, California.[1] It was located on the Southern Pacific Railroad 5 miles (8 km) north of Lone Pine,[2] at an elevation of 3697 feet (1127 m).[1] The town was abandoned in the 1960s, and all that remain now are a few traces of building foundations. There are no standing structures and no inhabitants in or anywhere near Owenyo, which remains on 21st century maps only as a reference point along the bleak, unkept and itself abandoned Owenyo-Lone Pine Road which runs about two miles east of, and running parallel with, Federal Highway 395.

Owenyo
Unincorporated community
Owenyo Location in California Owenyo Owenyo (the United States)
Coordinates: 36°40′42″N 118°02′39″W
Country	United States
State	California
County	Inyo County
Elevation [1]	3,697 ft (1,127 m)

Owenyo's original townsite was half a mile (0.8 km) to the southeast on the Carson and Colorado Railroad.[2] The town, whose name is a portmanteau of Owens and Inyo, was originally started by Quaker colonists in 1900.[2] They sold out in 1905, when the Carson and Colorado Railroad arrived, establishing the town as a transfer point for freight to be carried by the narrow-gauge railway which began there, serving points southward.[2] A post office operated at Owenyo from 1902 to 1905 and from 1916 to 1941.[2] The town moved to its present location in 1910, and for a while was known as New Owenyo on that account.[2]

References

1. U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Owenyo, California
2. Durham, David L. (1998). California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Clovis, Calif.: Word Dancer Press. p. 1192. ISBN 1-884995-14-4.