Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Independence, CA

Independence is an unincorporated census-designated place and the county seat of Inyo County, a small Owens Valley town bisected by U.S. Route 395 at an elevation of about 3,930 feet.

The town traces its start to a trading post founded by Charles Putnam in 1861, known first as Putnam's and later as Little Pine; Putnam's Cabin, across from the courthouse, is California Historical Landmark No. 223.

Independence grew out of Camp Independence, a U.S. Army post established by Lieutenant Colonel George S. Evans on July 4, 1862; the post was later re-established as Fort Independence and abandoned in 1877, and its site is now the reservation of the Fort Independence Indian Community of Paiute Indians.

Independence became the Inyo County seat in 1866 after its chief rival, the mining camp of Kearsarge, disappeared under an avalanche, and its first post office opened the same year.

Independence had a population of just 593 at the 2020 census, down from 669 in 2010, making it one of California's smallest county seats.

Independence has 284 households, and about 72% of its occupied homes are owner-occupied.

The town's landmark Inyo County Courthouse, designed by W. H. Weeks, was completed in 1921, and the Inyo County Free Library is housed inside it.

West of town rise the Sierra Nevada and 14,375-foot Mount Williamson, and Onion Valley Road makes Independence a gateway to the John Muir Wilderness and a popular resupply stop for Pacific Crest Trail hikers; Forester Pass, at 13,153 feet the highest pass on the entire PCT, lies directly west of town.

The Manzanar National Historic Site, the best-preserved of the World War II Japanese American incarceration camps, sits a few miles south of Independence along U.S. 395.

Independence is home to the Eastern California Museum on North Grant Street and to the preserved home of author Mary Austin, who wrote The Land of Little Rain.