Inyokern is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Kern County, California, set on the western side of the Indian Wells Valley at an elevation of about 2,434 feet. The eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada rise immediately to the west, while the broad, arid valley floor stretches toward Ridgecrest, eight miles to the east. U.S. Route 395, the main north-south artery of the eastern Sierra, runs through the valley, and the community's name reflects its location near the Inyo-Kern county border. Inyokern began as a railroad settlement in the early 1900s, when the Southern Pacific Railroad established a siding here; its name blends Inyo and Kern to mark the community's position near the county line. The area's human history runs far deeper: the Indian Wells water hole on the Joseph R. Walker trail of 1834 was a critical stop for travelers, and the Manly-Jayhawker parties of 1849 found their first water there after crossing the desert. A state historical landmark marks the site. The community's modern identity is closely tied to the military. Inyokern sits adjacent to the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, a vast weapons research and testing installation that is one of the region's dominant employers, and the area once hosted a naval air facility whose role later became part of the Naval Weapons Center. Today Inyokern is a small, spread-out desert community of roughly 900 to 1,000 residents, oriented toward Ridgecrest for shopping and services and to the base for employment. Its setting — broad valley, dark night skies, and the wall of the Sierra to the west — gives it a distinctly high-desert character.