The J.D. Black Papers document the legacy of Owens Valley life-long residents. These digitized selections richly illustrate aspects of the famed Water Wars between the City of Los Angeles and the people of that valley in the 1920s, the defining moment in the modern history of the valley. Of particular value are the records of the reparations organizations of Big Pine active during the Owens Valley Water Wars of the 1920s and the photographs documenting life in the mining towns of California's eastern Sierras and western Nevada.