Chalfant (also Chalfant Valley) 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

Mono County Mono County ( ) is a 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. The county seat is Bridg ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, United States. It is located on the abandoned

Southern Pacific Railroad The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials) was an American Railroad classes#Class I, Class I Rail transport, railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was oper ...

south-southeast of Benton, at an elevation of . The population was 660 at the 2020 census. Chalfant is a small, primarily residential community located on

U.S. Route 6 U.S. Route 6 (US 6) or U.S. Highway 6 (US 6), also called the Grand Army of the Republic Highway, honoring the American Civil War veterans association, is a main route of the United States Numbered Highway System. While it ...

, north of the city 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 ...

. Most residents commute to Bishop for work and school. The Chalfant post office operated from 1913 to 1928. The ZIP Code is 93514. The community is within

area codes 442 and 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 Californ ...

History

The town was named after William Arthur "Willie" Chalfant, who moved to the area in 1885 with his family, where they started ''The Inyo Register'' newspaper. Chalfant was the editor for 55 years. A 6.2 earthquake occurred on July 21, 1986, in the Bishop and Chalfant area, and injured two people, causing damages estimated at $2.7 million. There was a

foreshock A foreshock is an earthquake that occurs before a larger seismic eventthe mainshockand is related to it in both time and space. The designation of an earthquake as ''foreshock'', ''mainshock'' or aftershock is only possible after the full sequenc ...

before the initial quake, and an aftershock occurred ten days after the initial temblor. Smaller aftershocks occurred through September 30, 1986.

Geography

Chalfant is in southeastern Mono County, lying in the Chalfant Valley at the western base of the White Mountains. The valley drains south to 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 ...

Inyo County Inyo County () is a county in the eastern central part of the U.S. state of California, located between the Sierra Nevada and the state of Nevada. In the 2020 census, the population was 19,016. The county seat is Independence. Inyo County is ...

. 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 Chalfant CDP covers an area of , 99.90% of it land and 0.10% of it water.

Demographics

The 2020 United States census reported that Chalfant had a population of 660. The population density was . The racial makeup of Chalfant was 552 (83.6%)

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 ...

, 2 (0.3%)

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 23 (3.5%) Native American, 4 (0.6%) Asian, 1 (0.2%)

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 ...

, 21 (3.2%) from other races, and 57 (8.6%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 55 persons (8.3%). The whole population lived in households. There were 268 households, out of which 51 (19.0%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 140 (52.2%) were married-couple households, 4 (1.5%) 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, 53 (19.8%) had a female householder with no partner present, and 71 (26.5%) had a male householder with no partner present. 90 households (33.6%) were one person, and 54 (20.1%) were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 2.46. There were 165

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 ...

(61.6% of all households). The age distribution was 130 people (19.7%) under the age of 18, 26 people (3.9%) aged 18 to 24, 114 people (17.3%) aged 25 to 44, 217 people (32.9%) aged 45 to 64, and 173 people (26.2%) who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 52.6years. For every 100 females, there were 100.6 males. There were 313 housing units at an average density of , of which 268 (85.6%) were occupied. Of these, 222 (82.8%) were owner-occupied, and 46 (17.2%) 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). ...

, Chalfant 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 ...

, Chalfant is in .

References

{{authority control Census-designated places in Mono County, California Owens Valley Census-designated places in California