William Arthur Chalfant

William Arthur Chalfant (10 January 1868 – 5 November 1943) was a newspaper publisher, author, and California historian. He co-founded the Inyo Register newspaper in 1885 and acted as its primary writer, editor, and publisher for over 50 years. Chalfant also wrote a number of books about California and American Western history. Upon his death in 1943, the Los Angeles Times referred to him as "dean of western [newspaper] editors and historian of Eastern California and Death Valley."

Biography

Early life Chalfant, known as "Willie" (or alternatively, "Bill"), was born at the silver rush town of Virginia City, Nevada on 10 January 1868 to Pleasant Arthur Chalfant (1831–1901) and Adaline Slater Chalfant (1841–1915).

In 1870, Pleasant co-founded the Inyo Independent based in Independence, which was the county's first regularly published newspaper. At age 8, Willie "first learned to set type and operate a tiny" printing press gifted to him by his father. During his childhood he used this small press to informally print several publications, including the Juvenile Weekly and The Owens Valley Newsletter. By 1881, Willie had begun formally working for the Independent, but soon after his father sold his interest in the paper and the family relocated to Bishop. Stanford University Press printed Death Valley: The Facts in 1930 and Tales of the Pioneers in 1942. Tales contains anecdotes about Eastern California and the southwest, including stories about Mono Lake, Death Valley, Bodie, and Pioche, Nevada.

Personal life Chalfant married Flora Mallory on 21 September 1892.

California historian William Karhl wrote in his 1983 book Water and Power: The Conflict Over Los Angeles Water Supply in the Owens Valley that Chalfant's point of view regarding the City of Los Angeles' activities within Inyo County "informed most of the fictional accounts of the conflict that have appeared as novels and films."

Works The Story of Inyo (1922, revised 1933). Chalfant Press. Outposts of Civilization (1928). The Christopher Publishing House. Death Valley: The Facts (1930). Stanford University Press. Tales of the Pioneers (1942). Stanford University Press. Gold, Guns and Ghost Towns (1947). Stanford University Press. Posthumous compilation of selections from previously published works. Reprinted by Chalfant press in 1975.