Bishop, California

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Bishop (formerly, Bishop Creek) is a city in Inyo County, California, USA. Though Bishop is the largest (and only) city in Inyo County, the county seat is in Independence. It is located near the northern end of the Owens Valley, at an elevation of 4147 feet (1264 m). The population was 3,575 at the 2000 census. The town was named after Bishop Creek, flowing out of the Sierra Nevada: the creek was named after Samuel Addison Bishop, a settler in the Owens Valley. Jill Kinmont(Boothe) grew up in Bishop, California, skiing and racing at Mammoth Mountain. In early 1955, she was the reigning national champion in the slalom, and a top prospect for a medal at the 1956 Winter Olympics, a year away. While competing in the downhill at the Snow Cup in Alta, Utah, on 30 January, 1955, [1] she suffered a near-fatal accident which resulted in paralysis from the neck down. It ironically occurred the same week that Kinmont, weeks shy of her 19th birthday, was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine dated 31 January 1955. Kinmont was the subject of two movies: The Other Side of the Mountain in 1975, and The Other Side of the Mountain Part II in 1978. Both films starred Marilyn Hassett as Kinmont. She was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame in 1967. Bishop is known as the "Mule Capital of the World" and a week long festival called Bishop Mule Days has been held since 1969 on the week of Memorial Day, celebrating the contributions of pack mules to the area. The festival attracts many tourists, primarily from the Southern California area. Bishop is well known in the rock climbing community. Near the city are numerous climbing spots that attract visitors from around the world. There are over 2,000 bouldering problems in Bishop. There are two main types of rock: volcanic tuff and granite. Bishop was the home of Galen Rowell, and his wife Barbara, before their death at the Eastern Sierra Regional Airport. Stuntman and NASCAR driver Stanton Barrett also calls Bishop home. Matt Williams, former Major League Baseball 3rd baseman and slugger, was born in Bishop. Horace M. Albright the second director of the National Park Service was born in Bishop in 1890. The actor Robert Bray, who portrayed forest ranger Corey Stuart in CBS's Lassie from 1964-1968 and Simon Kane in ABC's Stagecoach West from 1960-1961, retired to Bishop, where he died in 1983 at the age of sixty-five. Former child actor Richard Eyer, who played Bray's son in Stagecoach West, is a teacher in Bishop. Tod Griffin, a television actor from 1953-1961, resided in Bishop at the time of his death in 2002. The town is the nearest incorporated city to Deep Springs College.