Independence, California

The same ground, surveyed 87 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1907 1994

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

• Inyo County Courthouselisted 1998

Independence fell from 669 to 593 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

• 1907 USGS Mt. Whitney quadrangle1:125000, 10 printings
• 1919 USGS Mt. Whitney quadrangle1:125000
• 1937 USGS Mt. Whitney quadrangle1:125000, 3 printings
• 1948 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
• 1951 USGS Independence quadrangle1:62500, 4 printings
• 1955 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
• 1958 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
• 1960 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
• 1962 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
• 1966 USGS Fresno quadrangle1:250000
• 1978 USGS Mount Whitney quadrangle1:100000
• 1982 USGS Independence quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
• 1992 USGS Independence quadrangle1:24000
• 1994 USGS Independence quadrangle1:24000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 49 fires within 5 miles of Independence between 1992 and 2019, burning about 1,331 acres in total. 7 started naturally. None was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Kearsarge
• Manzanar
• Seven Pines
• Reward

Every fire recorded in Inyo County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 5 workings within 5 miles of Independence: 4 producers, 1 past producer. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Gold, Tungsten, Copper. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Every working recorded in Inyo County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Independence in 7 storm reports between 1997 and 2025: 4 flash flood, 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail. The reports record 1 injury. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

Every storm recorded in Inyo County

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1658811. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.