24/7 Biohazard and Crime Scene Cleanup in Cartago, CA

Cartago is an unincorporated census-designated place in Inyo County, perched on the west shore of Owens Lake about 3 miles north-northwest of Olancha on Highway 395.

Cartago takes its name from the Spanish word for ancient Carthage; the settlement was earlier known as Carthage, Daniersburg, and Lakeville.

During the 1870s mining heyday, Cartago was a steamboat port where wood and ore were shipped across Owens Lake between the lake's western and eastern shores.

Silver bullion from the Cerro Gordo mines crossed Owens Lake on the steamer Bessie Brady to the Cartago landing, where Remi Nadeau's 14-mule teams hauled the bars onward toward Los Angeles.

The first post office at Cartago opened in 1918, just as the Los Angeles Aqueduct was draining Owens Lake and ending the steamer era.

The 2020 census counted only 62 people in Cartago, down from 92 in 2010 and 109 in 2000, in a CDP of about 1.2 square miles at roughly 3,629 feet elevation.

An early-1900s soda ash plant near Cartago harvested soda from the mineral-rich lake brine using dikes and evaporation ponds, leaving ruins on the salt flats.

The 218-acre Cartago Wildlife Area now protects freshwater springs and wetlands along the shore, and Owens Lake is recognized as a Nationally Significant Important Bird Area with 144 recorded bird species.