Two hundred and fifty miles north of the
busy streets of Los Angeles, in Inyo
County, lay the serene Owens Valley.
The Owens Valley is a vast terrain that is
bounded by the towering Sierra
Nevada mountain range at one end and the barren
Death Valley desert at
its other end. As the snowfall from the peaks of the
Sierra Nevadas
annually transforms itself into water, the Owens River drains the
downpour
and flows profusely through the valley. The Owens Lake would
routinely
capture this stream and store the river’s yearly deposits, but the
route of
the stream was redirected. In 1905, an avaricious project was
contrived by the
political agendas of the powerful moguls behind the Los
Angeles Water Company,
building the Los Angeles Aqueduct.(Davis, Margaret)
The project was masterminded
by Fred Eaton and William Mulholland to foster
the growth of the large
metropolis included a larger water supply, and they
were willing to achieve
their goals by any means necessary. They found their
water supply in the Owens
Valley. However, the acquisition of the water
was surrounded by red tape.
Despite the obstacles that stood in their
way, the two men found a way to
fulfill their vision at expense of the Owens
Valley community. Once a fecund and
fertile region that was home to many
small, prosperous farms and ranches, the
Owens Valley has been stripped
of its main resource due to the construction of
the Los Angeles Aqueduct. At
the turn of the century, Los Angeles began to
thrive in its economic
ventures. The metropolis was slowly beginning to become
focal point of
tremendous business activity. As the city boomed, business
leaders began to
envision the endless potential of prosperity. The population
growth was
surging. People were flocking to the area in great numbers. The
Los
Angeles Water Company quickly realized that an auspicious opportunity
was to be
had and warned the city of need of a subsidiary water supply to
sustain its
growth. William Mulholland and Fred Eaton were the masterminds
behind the idea
that was driven by personal gain. They set their eyes on the
Owens River, and
portrayed its acquisition as an extremely urgent matter for
Los Angeles. In
reality, however, the majority of the water was to be used
for irrigating the
San Fernando Valley, where a syndicate of investors
had been actively purchasing
land with the assurance that the value would
increase substantially. The people
of the Owens Valley community had plans
for the water as well. Most of the
residents were farmers and ranchers who
were anticipating an economic outbreak
of their own as soon as the newly
found Reclamation Service completed its
irrigation project in the Owens
Valley. The United States Reclamation Act of
1902 gave the United States
government the primary responsibility of local
irrigation projects. In order
to acquire the Owens River for Los Angeles,
Mulholland and Eaton would
have to deter the government project from continuing.
By means of
bribery, this was accomplished. J.B. Lippincott, a local agent of
the
Reclamation service, and a political crony of Eaton’s was hired at a
generous
salary to develop a plan for the Los Angeles Water Company to overtake
the
Owens River. Lippincott's efforts for the Reclamation Service resulted in
the
public lands of the valley to be set aside for future development; no
rights
to the land were secured. Then Eaton strategically bought land
options- the land
that would be needed for construction of an aqueduct.
Ultimately, through the
combination of normal land purchases and bribery, the
city had secured a
substantial amount of land and water rights to dismantle
the Owens Valley
project of the Reclamation Service. The purchase of land
introduced a scheme
that Eaton had conjured up driven by his greed. By
planning to mix public
service with private gain, Eaton also purchased large
parcels of Owens Valley
for himself. These pieces of land were crucial points
in the architecture of the
aqueduct because they would house the important
dams. By doing so, Eaton had
positioned himself to holdout his share of land
when the time came for the city
of Los Angeles to purchase the remaining land
to complete the construction of
the Los Angeles Aqueduct. He would be enable
himself to attain a sizable amount
of money- a price that he would be able to
set. The measure taken by Eaton
breeched the partnership between him and
Mulholland after it revealed the plot
of extortion that Eaton had planned to
take. Consequently, Mulholland exhorted
city to refuse the purchase of the
vital plots of land owned by Eaton, and order
a further appropriation of the
Owens River.(Mattson, Robert) This diversion in
the route of the aqueduct
would result in the desolation of the new sites of
land, and further
destroying the valley lands. In 1905, a bond was issued by the
city of Los
Angeles to provide Mulholland with the millions of dollars funding
necessary
to build a two hundred and fifty-mile aqueduct that would connect the
water
source of the Owens Valley to the city of Los Angeles. The Los
Angeles
Aqueduct was to be built over the course of next eight years.
Mulholland took
total control in the construction of the aqueduct. He
employed thousands and
directed them as they blasted out tunnels, carved out
sluiceways, cleared roads,
laid railroad tracks, and raised up power lines.
The waterway was finally
completed in 1913, and the vision had been
fulfilled. The massive aqueduct
started at its northern end and ran right
through the valley, and the water that
the valley residents had originally
thought would irrigate their farmlands
instead flowed down and fed the
growing population of Los Angeles. Despite
Mulholland’s dire prediction
of imminent water famine, Los Angeles did not
find the need to draw all the
water from the Owens River.(Mattson, Robert)
During the course of the
eight years of constructing the aqueduct, the city’s
population had more than
doubled with no evident strain on the regular water
supply. The corruption
that manifested within the scheme of the project was
revealing itself. The
initial motives for building an aqueduct were being
replaced by those of
greed at all costs. The long-standing relationship between
Mulholland and
Eaton was terminated. The water from the Owens River and Owens
Lake that
would irrigate the Owens Valley was being transported to Los Angeles;
both of
the water sources were in the process of being desiccated. The
Owens
Valley was caught in the midst of a major change. The character of
the Owens
Valley was being lost. As the community of Owens Valley learned
of the situation
concerning the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and observed the
destruction of their
irrigation system, they became infuriated. With
prospects of their agricultural
ventures were devastated, thoughts of
retaliation dwelled within the minds of
the residents of the valley. Many of
the members of the community gathered
together and staged a massive
demonstration of civic solidarity. On November
24,1924, seventy armed men
seized control of a critical point on the aqueduct
gate and completely halted
the flow of the river. Seven hundred others joined
the demonstration, and
together they protested the injustice that had been
committed against them.
"The Owens Valley War", the title appropriated by a
local newspaper for the
demonstration, had reached its climax. "The Owens
Valley War" was already
over; the dainty valley community suffered its defeat
to the powerful
metropolitan giant. Then one of the greatest civil disasters in
American
history took place. The Mulholland built, St. Francis Dam collapsed.
This
released a fifteen billion gallon flood that scoured a path to the sea
two
miles wide, and seventy miles long. As a result, five hundred people were
found
dead, a majority of the dead being Owens Valley residents. Due to the
fierce
hatred among the disgruntled members of the Owens Valley community
for
Mulholland, rumors of sabotage began to surface. Mulholland was
investigated.
Most of the Inyo County was bogged down in the quagmire of
Owens Valley. The
aftermath of the flood is symbolic of the tragedy behind
the construction of the
Los Angeles Aqueduct. Seventy-seven years
following the series of events leading
to the tumultuous completion of the
Los Angeles Aqueduct, the Owens Valley rests
with tranquility.(Larson,
Ronald) It is now left desiccated. All the water from
the Owens River is
drained. The valley’s most abundant resource has been
completely extracted.
Fred Eaton and William Mulholland are credited with
building the impressive
structure despite their turpitude. Their anticipated
growth of Los Angeles
soared past all predictions into an international
metropolis. Two hundred and
fifty miles away and nearly a century later, the
Owens Valley and the
city of Los Angeles are in dispute once again. This time
the struggle is not
for the water. The struggle is for the land. The rich
mineral deposits left
from the desiccated lake are being fiercely sought
after.(Davis, Margaret)
After all the damage that has been inflicted upon the
Owens Valley, there
may yet be more to come.