Swall Meadows is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in southern

Mono County, California Mono County ( ) is a county (United States), county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 13,195, making it the fourth-least populous county in California. T ...

, United States. The population was 178 as of the 2020 census. The community is residential, including second homes and a volunteer fire department, but no commercial development. The ZIP Code is 93514. The community is inside

area code 760 Area codes 760 and 442 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the U.S. state of California. These area codes serve an overlay complex that comprises much of the southeastern and southernmost portions of Califor ...

Geography

Swall Meadows sits partway up the Sherwin Grade below the Wheeler Crest of the eastern

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

, at an elevation range of approximately . It is in pinon-juniper/

subalpine zone Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures lapse rate, fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is ...

habitat, with views south along the Sierra Crest of Mt. Tom, and east across the

Owens Valley Owens Valley (Mono language (California), Mono: ''Payahǖǖnadǖ'', meaning "place of flowing water") is an arid valley of the Owens River in eastern California in the United States. It is located to the east of the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra ...

to the White Mountains and Nevada. It is accessed from "old 395", or Lower Rock Creek Road. Swall Meadows is approximately north of

Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

and south of Mammoth Lakes (by highway distance). It also well known in the area as an important deer migration route for the Round Valley mule deer population, which cherish the grazing in the meadow and apple falls from the old orchard trees. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the Swall Meadows CDP covers an area of , all of it land. At the high, northwestern end is the old Sky Meadows Ranch, then houses and firehouse near the meadow, and at the southeast end a development known as Pinyon Ranch. In addition to the predominant pinyon-juniper-sagebrush habitat, there are permanent and seasonal streams and the eponymous meadow with wetter-habitat vegetation such as

Jeffrey pine ''Pinus jeffreyi'', also known as Jeffrey pine, Jeffrey's pine, yellow pine and black pine, is a North American pine tree. It is mainly found in California, but also in the westernmost part of Nevada, southwestern Oregon, and northern Baja Califo ...

s, willows, stream and bog orchids, and the remnant trees of the old commercial apple orchard. In 2011 the Eastern Sierra Land Trust secured a conservation easement to protect of the Swall Meadows meadow area (location of the historic homesite), for the continued benefit of the migrating mule deer. A number of other conservation easements have been completed in Swall Meadows since the ESLT organization was founded in 2001. Between Paradise and Swall Meadows the old wagon road can be seen that climbed about up the Sherwin Grade from Owens Valley toward

Crowley Lake Crowley Lake is a reservoir on the upper Owens River in southern Mono County, California, in the United States. Crowley Lake is south of Mammoth Lakes. The lake was created in 1941 by the building of the Long Valley Dam by the Los Angeles Depa ...

Demographics

The 2020 United States census reported that Swall Meadows had a population of 178. The population density was . The racial makeup of Swall Meadows was 152 (85.4%)

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 3 (1.7%) Native American, 3 (1.7%) Asian, 1 (0.6%)

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, and 19 (10.7%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 12 persons (6.7%). The whole population lived in households. There were 94 households, out of which 11 (11.7%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 56 (59.6%) were married-couple households, 1 (1.1%) were

cohabiting Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become incr ...

couple households, 7 (7.4%) had a female householder with no partner present, and 30 (31.9%) had a male householder with no partner present. 29 households (30.9%) were one person, and 12 (12.8%) were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 1.89. There were 62

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

(66.0% of all households). The age distribution was 11 people (6.2%) under the age of 18, 7 people (3.9%) aged 18 to 24, 29 people (16.3%) aged 25 to 44, 70 people (39.3%) aged 45 to 64, and 61 people (34.3%) who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 63.1years. There were 94 males and 84 females. There were 128 housing units at an average density of , of which 94 (73.4%) were occupied. Of these, 79 (84.0%) were owner-occupied, and 15 (16.0%) were occupied by renters.

Government

In the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...

, Swall Meadows is in , and in . In the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

, Swall Meadows is in .

Round Fire

On February 6, 2015, Swall Meadows and the neighboring community of Paradise were ravaged by the Round Fire, which burned . The fire destroyed 40 homes: 39 homes in Swall Meadows and 1 home in Paradise.

References

External links