Tecopa Local
Connecting Tecopa: First Sidewalks on the Horizon as Corridor Plan Moves Forward
Tecopa has never really been on the way to anywhere. Tucked at the end of long desert drives, it is a place people reach deliberately, not by accident. But a long-planned bicycle and pedestrian corridor now moving into its design stage could soon make the town itself part of a route — a safer path…
Amargosa Conservancy Unveils Plan to Protect Endangered Niterwort
Fencing, nursery-grown outplantings, and new interpretive signage aim to curb vehicle damage and revive a declining niterwort population in the Tecopa Hot Springs area. On the evening of February 18, 2026, the Tecopa Community Center became a briefing room for a plant most visitors never notice—because it’s only a couple inches tall, blends into crusted…
New Report Tracks Amargosa Springs and Groundwater
On a recent Zoom briefing hosted by the Amargosa Conservancy, hydrologist Andy Zdon and project staff presented new monitoring results that show a mixed trajectory for the Amargosa Basin: some groundwater trends are stabilizing or edging upward in a few locations after years of decline, while several springs that previously showed surface water are now…
Southern Inyo Fire Board Weighs Cell Tower Deal, Reggae Fest, and the True Cost of “Free” Land
The Southern Inyo Fire Protection District’s February 19 board meeting gave a few headlines among the slow work of keeping a rural district stitched together: a proposed cell tower above Shoshone, a first-time reggae festival on private land, a possible future tax assessment, and the true cost of a parcel for Charleston View’s forthcoming substation.…
TecopaCabana: Year in Review 2025
Dear TecopaCabana readers, As we close out our first year of reporting, I keep coming back to the same thought: in a place as small and far-flung as the Amargosa Basin, the stories that matter most are rarely the ones that travel far. They are the ones that change how we understand our own roads,…
Tecopa Town Hall Unites Residents to Tackle Food Insecurity After Federal Cuts
“You guys are tough people out there,” said Jessica from the Inyo-Mono Advocates for Community Action (IMACA), nodding from her Zoom screen toward the handful of desert residents gathered inside the Tecopa Community Center on a cool October evening. “And we’re hungry,” a local resident replied. The exchange captured the tone of a town hall…
Tecopa’s Community Plan Explained
The unincorporated community of Tecopa, in collaboration with Inyo County, laid out its vision for the future after a series of public meetings starting in 2015, preparing a draft document called the Tecopa Community Plan and releasing it in 2018. We thought it might be helpful to refresh our collective memory of what is even…
Heard Around Town: Government Edition
TecopaCabana.com will be previewing highlights and offering special coverage of this week’s Inyo County Board of Supervisors meeting in Tecopa. The Board is scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6, at the Tecopa Community Center, 400 Tecopa Hot Springs Road. The annual spring session in Southeast Inyo offers residents of the region…
Save the Vole: Borehole Spring BLM Lawsuit Explained
In a legal battle aimed at protecting one of North America’s most endangered mammals, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed a lawsuit in 2022 against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for failing to take necessary action to protect the Amargosa vole and its critical habitat at Borehole Spring in the Mojave Desert.…
What to do Before and After a Power Outage
A power pole caught fire near Death Valley Brewing, while another on Highway 127 emitted alarming sparks on Sunday morning, plunging Tecopa into its second 24-hour blackout in a week. The prolonged outage left residents grappling with yet another disruption to their daily lives. Recent windstorms across Southern California have caused widespread power outages, leaving…
Commission Approves $7.8M Active Transportation Corridor Project for Tecopa
The California Transportation Commission (CTC) has officially approved the Active Transportation Program staff recommendations for the Connecting Tecopa: Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Corridor project, a significant initiative aimed at improving transportation safety in the rural communities of Tecopa and Tecopa Hot Springs by establishing bicycle lanes and sidewalks. The approved project will establish a 2.9-mile active transportation…
Guardians of the Desert: Southern Inyo Fire Protection District in Tecopa
In the vast expanse of the Mojave Desert, where arid landscapes meet the boundless sky, the Southern Inyo Fire Protection District (SIFPD) stands as a crucial guardian of the community in Tecopa, California. This dedicated team of firefighters not only safeguards lives and property but also plays a vital role in preserving the delicate balance…