Alabama Gates

When they are opened, the Alabama Gates, on the west side of the highway, four miles north of Lone Pine, divert the flow of water out of the aqueduct into a spillway leading to the now dry bed of the Owens River. The most famous event in Owens Valley history took place here in 1924 when sixty local men took over the Alabama Gates and opened the spillway to return the water to the Owens River. With the construction of Crowley Lake, the need to divert water into the Owens River in times of abundance has largely ended.