Keeler, CA

Just east of Lone Pine, CA 136 runs north of Owens Lake. At one point around the 1900's there had been steamboats on the lake that carried ore from mines in Saline Valley, but the lake has been basically dry ever since the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) tapped the water from the Owens Valley. For many years now the dry lake bed has been a source of toxic air pollution for the surrounding areas, due to how the winds stir up what were the sediments of the lake. In recent years there have been some efforts by the MWD to resolve the air pollution by providing some moisture to keep the dust down. This picture is from Keeler, a former steam boat port.