Sandy Valley Alternative
January 24, 2012 - At a workshop in Tecopa on January 12, 2012 the California Energy Commission requested BrightSource Energy submit a plan for a potential alternate site in Sandy Valley, California, right along the Nevada border again, on private land and some Bureau of Land Management land. The main problem with this site is multiple land-owners, but it is not impossible to aggregate a chunk of land. The Hidden Hills site is having cultural resource issues come up strongly: the project site was placed on top of the Old Spanish Trail network, and Old Spanish Trail Association just intervened to oppose the project. There also may be Native American burials on the site (at least one cremation pit feature).
^Map presented at the CEC workshop at Tecopa.
^Key to map.
^Traces of the Old Sanish Trail as mapped by Old Spanish Trail Association, on the current Hidden Hills project site, north of Sandy Valley, along the California-Nevada border in Inyo County, California.
^The map above illustrates the variant routes that developed as merchants developed their trade with the Rocky Mountain and Mojave Desert peoples, and the rancheros of coastal California. In 2002, the Old Spanish Trail received designation as a National Historic Trail and today it is widely known as the longest, most arduous and crookedest pack mule route in America. (Source: http://www.oldspanishtrail.org/)
