Annual conference of the California Garden and Landscape History Society. 

Lectures and tours featuring:  

• the Alabama Hills in Western film
• the gardens of Manzanar 
• Mary Austin, voice of the landscape  
• local gardens: native, venacular, historic  
• the re-watering of the Lower Owens River

The 2008 Annual Conference of the California Garden & Landscape History Society will celebrate the beauty and diversity of California’s Eastern Sierra region landscape.  Through talks and tours, we will explore art forms inspired by this dramatic mountain, desert, and river valley landscape. The conference will focus on the literature of Mary Austin (among the first to realize that landscapes don't have to be green to be beautiful), western films, local native plant gardens, and gardens created by Japanese Americans who were interned at Manzanar during World War II.  We will also learn about significant changes wrought on the land both by the diversion of water from the Owens River into Los Angeles aqueducts, and by the current re-watering of the Lower Owens River.

Conference attendees will discover a dramatic natural and cultural landscape.  The Owens Valley is bordered by the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the west and the White and Inyo Ranges to the east and was originally inhabited by the Southern Paiute Indians of the Mono Tribe, who occupied the cooler mountain slopes in the summer and retreated to the warmer valley floor during the winter.  The picturesque western town of Lone Pine was founded during the 1860s to provide supplies to local gold and silver mines in the area and later became a ranching center.  Lone Pine is the gateway to Mount Whitney, tallest point in the contiguous United States.  A drive to Mount Whitney portal takes you through the complex rock formations of the dun-colored Alabama Hills, the setting for numerous western films and the Lone Ranger television series.  In the early 1900s, the City of Los Angeles acquired water rights for the construction of its Owens Valley Aqueduct, putting an end to many farms and ranches when the river disappeared in 1913.  Today the ecosystem is recovering along a 62-mile portion of the Lower Owens River that is once again flowing.

The Eastern Sierra from Yosemite National Park south to Death Valley National Park, has long been enjoyed by vacationers, naturalists, anglers, and artists.  The drive to the Owens Valley from northern California is one of the most spectacular anywhere, crossing Yosemite and dropping down through the Tioga Pass to salty Mono Lake, with its dramatic tufa formations and migrating birds.  In the hills above Mono Lake, north of Lone Pine, is Bodie State Historic Park, an amazingly well-preserved ghost town that once was home to a gold mining population of 10,000.  Other extracurricular activities in the area extend from climbing Mount Whitney to visiting Death Valley National Park east of Lone Pine (the lowest point in the United States and one of the hottest places in the world.)  The world's oldest living trees, bristlecone pines (Pinus longaeva), are found in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains near the town of Bishop.  Bridgeport, the Mono County seat, is noted for its stately courthouse, the second oldest continuously occupied courthouse in California.  Architecture buffs will also enjoy the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery near Independence, designed in 1916 in Arts and Crafts style and landscaped by a gardener from Golden Gate Park.  Hikers should visit the Lone Pine Ranger Station of the Inyo National Forest for advice on trails.   

For more specific conference information or to volunteer to assist with the conference please e-mail conference@cglhs.org or call Aaron Landworth at (310) 453-1180.

General Information on Our Conferences
Conferences are held throughout California and focus on a landscape region or theme. Lectures by invited speakers, receptions, and tours of private gardens, parks, nurseries, and cultural landscapes are highlights of the conferences. There are opportunities to visit archives, network with professional colleagues, or meet in more casual settings at the receptions, luncheons, and garden tours.