Olancha

Olancha was established by Minnard Farley, who came to the area in 1860 and discovered silver ore in the nearby Coso Range. The name "Olancha" is believed to be derived from the nearby Yaudanche tribe. For processing the ore, he built a stamp mill just south of Olancha Creek. The remains of a stone wall from this mill still exists and has been designated as a California Historical Site (marker #796).[4]

The first post office at Olancha opened in 1870.[5]

On August 11, 1969, Manson Family members Charles "Tex" Watson and Dianne "Snake" Lake settled down in Olancha two days after Watson had stabbed Sharon Tate to death. Here, Watson bought a newspaper revealing that it still was a mystery who committed the Manson murders and confessed to Lake: "I killed her, Charlie (Manson) ordered me to do so, it was fun". This fact was witnessed by Lake during the Watson trial in 1971. Lake was shortly put into custody in Independence after complaints from Olancha inhabitants for swimming nude. After a few weeks the two of them left Olancha for the final Manson hideout in Death Valley.[9]

California Historical Landmark

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Farley's Olancha Mill Site is a California Historical Landmark number 796, assigned on September 16, 1964, on U.S. Route 395 in California in Olancha, California.

The California Historical Landmark reads:

NO. 796 FARLEY'S OLANCHA MILL SITE - In 1860, while working for the Silver Mountain Mining Company in the Coso Mountains, M. H. Farley conceived the idea of building a processing mill on a creek that flowed into Owens Lake. He explored and named Olancha Pass that year, and by December 1862 had completed the first mill and furnace in the Owens River Valley, on Olancha Creek about one mile west of this marker. [10]