Chrysopolis

Chrysopolis, along with the nearby townsite of Black Rock, came into being as among the earliest of eastern California's Owens Valley settlements in 1863. Chrysopolis, as well as contemporaries San Carlos and Bend City, sprung up on the arid and wild eastern side of the Owens Valley, nestled among the footwall of the imposing Inyo Range. The town briefly flourished, but soon dwindled due to isolation and constant Indian troubles until Fort Independence was established. By then, many began to settle into the settlements springing up in the more fertile and pleasant western side of the Owens Valley. Mining continued, though as a town, Chrysopolis was dead. In the first decade of the 1900’s, a prospecting and mining craze swept the entire region, an outgrowth of the Tonopah / Goldfield / Death Valley boom period, and interest again was focused on the old Chrysopolis mining district. After 1910, the area became again quiet, through leasers continued to methodically take out ore throughout the 20th century.