Owenyo, California facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Owenyo
Unincorporated community
Owenyo Location in California Show map of California Owenyo Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Country	United States
State	California
County	Inyo County
Elevation	3,697 ft (1,127 m)

Owenyo (formerly, New Owenyo) was an unincorporated community in Inyo County, California. It was located on the Southern Pacific Railroad 5 miles (8 km) north of Lone Pine, at an elevation of 3697 feet (1127 m). 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's original townsite was half a mile (0.8 km) to the southeast on the Carson and Colorado Railroad. The town, whose name is a portmanteau of Owens and Inyo, was originally started by Quaker colonists in 1900. 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. A post office operated at Owenyo from 1902 to 1905 and from 1916 to 1941. The town moved to its present location in 1910, and for a while was known as New Owenyo on that account.