DAY 5

Fortune flowed into Southern California. The delivery of water encouraged more settlement in the LA region, and in response, more roads and infrastructure, hydroelectric plants and dams.  

But Mulholland’s legacy was not to be untarnished. The glory of the Los Angeles aqueduct cost the residents of the Owens Valley their livelihood. The residents of Mariposa county would remember him as a robber, a member of a corrupt circle that encompassed Ben Eaton. Residents of the San Francisquito Canyon about 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles (close to what is now known as Santa Clarita) would remember him as a murderer.  

Above the picturesque town of San Francisquito, a dam served to harness the abundance of water. (St. Francis Dam) By this time, Mulholland himself was the Superintendent of the MWD. In the wee hours of the night of March 12,1928, the St. Francis dam gave way, causing a catastrophe that killed close to 600 people as the megatons of water bulldozed canyon. The 120 foot high wave travelled at 18 mph, tossing electric lines, homes, and people.  5 1/2 hours later,  the water had traveled 54 miles from the dam. As the current Superintendent and the chief engineer of that dam, Mulholland was devastated. He also happened to know that there was a growing crack in the dam two weeks prior.  He had tried to address it, ordering repairs and diverting water away from the dam. But it was all for naught. There were no surviving witnesses. Mulholland would never recover from the guilt.  

He did, however, continue to build aqueducts, bringing water from the Colorado River in 1941 via the Colorado River Aqueduct.  His audacity inspired resource managers around the world to dare.   

Day 4AQUEDUCT CONSTRUCTION 

So, 1908 and construction of the LA Aqueduct was well under way.   

Heavy equipment was used to excavate soil. The first “Caterpillars” were utilized, and named as such by Mulholland because of the way they inched along. Canyons were dug and lined with concrete. Mule teams hauled pipes through the desert and over the Grapevine (before there was an Interstate 5). After five years of toil on the part of man and beast, work was complete.  William Mulholland was hailed for his monumental achievement of transporting water a full 230 miles from the source. People came from near and far to witness the historic first release of water from the aqueduct. As millions of gallons of water came rushing down the cascade, William Mulholland victoriously proclaimed, “There it is!  Take it!”  And for the last 100 years, that’s exactly what we’ve been doing.  (see LA Aqueduct)

EFFECTS

Naturally, new water enabled southern California’s population to grow. The success of the aqueduct was undeniable. That is, unless you lived in the Owens Valley. Residents of the once lush valley who did not live in the path of the aqueduct were not approached with purchase offers way back when the Superintendent of the Metropolitan Water District came to town.  And, by 1924, they found themselves in a dustbowl of useless, undesirable land; no where to grow crops, no where to graze cattle. They  railed against the Metropolitan Water District to no avail. Taking matters into their own hands, they blew up a portion of the aqueduct with dynamite, temporarily returning water to their land- until the aqueduct was repaired a short time later. But it was too late for the Owens Valley Paiute tribes. They were already utterly devastated.     

DAY 3

Land Acquisition

As the superintendent of the Metropolitan Water District, Benjamin Eaton sought new sources of water to sustain the booming LA area population.  He turned his sights to the Owens River running east of the Sierra Nevadas and south of Mammoth Lakes though the Owens Valley, 240 miles away from LA!  

Remember our young ditch digger? His name was William Mulholland. He had by now become a valued employee with MWD. Eaton turned to him for ideas about how to make water flow from the the Owens Valley to southern California. Together, they dreamt up a wild plan to build an aqueduct that would transport water from the Owens Valley through the Mojave Desert to Los Angeles. Mulholland was named the chief engineer of the project. 

Beyond the topographic challenges of the plan, they had a few obstacles to overcome. The plan involved land that was already owned by private parties; farmers who were operating in the rich, fertile Owens Valley. Never daunted by a challenge, in 1905 Eaton showed up in the Owens Valley sporting all the wealth of Hollywood “in an automobile” no less. He visited the farmers and offered 3-4 times the expected amount for their land. Under the impression that he represented the federal government (a misperception that he did not take pains to correct), and dazzled by his charm and wealth, the farmers one by one accepted the offers. And, oh, by the way, Eaton secured a few heads of cattle and land for himself personally. As non-land owners, the Paiute native Americans living in the vicinity were not consulted. LA Times July 29, 1905 

Thus, the land necessary for the construction of the revolutionary Los Angeles Aqueduct was acquired. Almost! You will recall that Benjamin Eaton purchased some of the land for himself.  According to his plan for personal gain in his wildly successful business endeavor, he now attempted to sell his fortunate acquisition to the Metropolitan Water District at a higher cost, so as to allow the MWD to move on with its plans. Upon learning of the breach of trust, William Mulholland refused to negotiate with Eaton.  He purchased land nearby and diverted the construction plans around Eaton’s property. The construction of the LA Aqueduct began in 1908. It was the end of the Eaton- Mulholland friendship. 

DAY 2

While Benjamin Eaton was celebrated for bringing water to the enormous ranch, he was equally at odds with the natives who lived in the canyon from which he diverted water.  The native Tongva (also known as the Gabrielinos) struggled to maintain their way of life. The diversion of water thinned their streams, causing the fish population (their food source) to decline. The flora lining the streams changed as well, changing the natural filtration of their drinking water. The Tongva had no deed to the land where the water flowed, and no legal recourse. They were forced to accept the changes to their environs. 

Meanwhile, due to the provision of water to the area, the population of the region began to change.  It became a resort town, and in 1886 was renamed to Pa-sa-de-na (a Chipewa Indian word that means “of the valley”).  That canyon where the Tongva lived, became known as Eaton Canyon, and Benjamin Eaton was crowned “The Father of Pasadena”.  

Years passed, and Benjamin’s son Fred grew up to be the mayor of Los Angeles and later, the Superintendent of the Metropolitan Water District. He hired a young nobody to dig ditches for the water company.  That young man would end up being responsible for tripling Pasadena’s population from 9,000 in 1900 to 30,000 by 1910.  He would set the standard for water import methods across the country.  Come back to find out who that young nobody was!

What happened to all OUR water?

Surely by now you’ve learned that we Californians are in the midst of an historic drought.  Well, “historic”, if you count only the period of time during which we’ve been noticing.  The truth is that, during the years we’ve actually recorded, California has experienced an unusual 100 or so years of wet weather, as compared to the hundreds of years prior. During these most recent 100 years, our state has experienced unprecedented population growth (from some 92,000 in 1850 to over 38 million in 2011, CA population records), making us the most populous state in the US. But even with the last century’s “wet” California weather, there’s no way that we could possibly have sustained this growth if not for the provision of water. Don’t kid yourself, California was never “wet” enough for all 38 million of us to live here. We’ve been living the dream here in So Cal, thanks to the engineering ingenuity and, some would say, the political corruption of a few men who were determined to establish Los Angeles and is environs (Pasadena, Altadena in specific) as a city with which to be contended.     

Suffice it to say that the Gold Rush of 1849 brought an enterprising man from Connecticut to California, and eventually south to a dusty ranch called Rancho San Pasqual in what was then known as the Indiana Colony.  That man, Benjamin Eaton, was hired by Don Benito Wilson (yes, the Don Benito for whom the school is named) to divert water from a nearby source for his citrus trees.  Hmmm, what would that nearby source be?