USA > California > Los Angeles County > Los Angeles > Los Angeles from the mountains to the sea : with selected biography of actors and witnesses to the period of growth and achievement, Volume I > Part 20
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It is difficult to believe that Southern California, before the coming of white men, was really a desert. But that is what it was. It is now a great garden and lush with bloom, its agricultural and horticultural products running into many millions of dollars in a commercial way annually. But when the mission of San Gabriel was founded in 1771, and the pueblo of Los Angeles founded ten years later, water was the least plentiful thing to be found between the Tehachapi and San Diego. The rivers and streams of the country were then, as now, dry streaks of sand throughout the long hot summers.
When Los Angeles was founded in 1781 there was in sight a quantity of water available for domestic and farming pur- poses sufficient only to meet the needs of a small community. And everything was all right in this respect for many and many a year while Los Angeles remained a mere village, sleepy and contented.
It was only when the "gringo" came and insisted on mak- ing a city where it seemed that neither God nor man ever intended a city should be, that the problem of water became momentous.
It is true, however, that by one means and another, the ingenuity of the engineers was able to cope with the situa- tion. But the engineers were always at their wits' ends. Every year more and more people came to make Los Angeles a bigger town, but Nature did nothing to bring more water to it.
We can realize what the situation came to be if we will go back to the year 1905 when the population of Los Angeles was in the neighborhood of 200,000 souls.
In the month of July of that year the city found itself using every day 4,000,000 gallons of water more than was flowing into its reservoirs. The water commission found itself figuratively tossing on its bed and spending sleepless nights. It sent out its engineers on a quest for more water, as though by some magic or miracle the rocks might be smitten and heretofore unknown springs might be discovered.
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And the engineers came back only to say that no possible source of water supply that could by any stretch of the imag- ination be considered adequate existed anywhere south of the Tehachapi or west of the range of mountains whose backbone lies back of San Bernardino.
It was of the future that these worried water commission- ers and the engineers had to think. Los Angeles absolutely declined to cease growing. The experts estimated that by 1925 Los Angeles would have reached a population of 400,000 people. And it would be a city then tragically short of water. We can see now that as a matter of fact the estimate of the experts was entirely too conservative. For, as we are writ- ing this book in the year of our Lord 1920, the population of Los Angeles is quite 600,000, and that in all likelihood it will reach 750,000 in 1925, the time fixed by the experts for it to reach 400,000.
It was in this critical year of 1905 that there came down from the snows of the high Sierras in the character of a Moses, an old-time lover and long-time resident of Los An- geles who had abandoned his old home town to devote his life to ranching far away to the north among the great moun- tain peaks of Inyo County.
This man was Fred Eaton, sometime city engineer and sometime mayor of Los Angeles.
The day that Fred Eaton came down from the mountains of Inyo to lay before the officials of Los Angeles his plan for a water supply is a day that should be set down in history. And Fred Eaton himself must be set down in history. His idea was to secure possession of the Owens River with its inexhaustible supply of snow waters from the high Sierras and divert its course through conduits over mountain and desert, a distance of 250 miles, for the relief of the city that was well beloved by him and that had heaped upon him its favors and its highest honors.
With the eye of the engineer, Fred Eaton saw that in for- mer ages the Owens River had probably flowed along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada and had emptied itself into the Mojave Sink. A rock uplift, maybe a million years ago, had interrupted this flow and confined it to the unfathomed
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basin of Owens Lake, from which today there is no known outlet.
In these statements concerning the Owens River Aqueduct, I wish to say that I am quoting freely, and frequently ver- batim, from authoritative published documents.
Fred Eaton was convinced from long and careful study of the Owens River waters and the geological formations hedging it in, that the obstacles standing in the way of mak- ing the old river available as far south as the San Fernando Range, near Los Angeles, could be easily overcome by means of tunnels and siphons, and thus be delivered to the City of Los Angeles. He was also convinced that the project, if carried to a conclusion, would develop electrical power of immense capacity.
Permeated to the very soul with this great dream, Fred Eaton came on a fateful day to Los Angeles, and unfolded his vision to the devoted officials in whose hands the destinies of the city were then entrusted.
Eaton submitted his idea in the greatest secrecy. His con- suming fear was that his great dream might become pub- licly known with the result that private commercial interests would seize upon it, and that the city-which meant all its people-would lose forever the one supreme opportunity which was its salvation.
Wherefore, with the utmost stealth, and as men going forth on a profound secret mission, the discovery of which would spell disaster, the city sent its engineers to examine into the whole project. And when the engineers had reported the project to be entirely feasible, the Board of Water Commis- sioners secretly acquired all the necessary options on land and water rights to safeguard the project from every con- ceivable angle.
The engineers estimated that to build the aqueduct an ex- penditure of $23,000,000 would be necessary. The tremendous cost, almost unparalleled in the history of American munici- palities, and the boldness of the project-bolder than British dreams of Egypt-did not for a moment dismay the Los Angeles city officials. The officials knew their people-a peo- ple brave to do, and long used to big achievement. And they
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laid the propect before the people with the utmost confidence as to what the answer of the people would be.
I well remember that great morning in the month of July when this thrilling dream of the Owens River for Los An- geles was first made public in the columns of The Times, where it was published exclusively. The announcement sent a wild thrill through the whole population. And no wonder. Here was deliverance and salvation. It was like that time in Canaan when Joseph's brethren came back from Egypt laden with corn to succor their famine-stricken homes.
I think it is safe to say that upon the first announcement of this great news there were no discordant voices in the acclamations of joy with which it was received. It is true that later on the project was bitterly assailed from various sources and by various selfish interests. Even to this day, indeed, there are to be found those who will say that the Owens River Aqueduct constituted an extravagant and useless expenditure of the people's money. There are those who say that a sufficient water supply could have been secured nearer at hand and at one-tenth of the expense of the aqueduct. But these carping criticisms are so childishly founded and are voiced by those who are so comparatively outnumbered that they may be dismissed with scant notice. The proof of these statements lies in the fact that when the bond issue was sub- mitted to the people for their approval on September 7, 1905, it was carried by a vote of approximately 15 to 1.
The engineers who surveyed and designed the aqueduct and later built and carried it to completion were William Mul- holland, J. B. Lippincott and O. K. Parker. In the actual con- struction Mulholland and Lippincott were the active spirits, with Mulholland as the real head.
In passing, it would seem that more than this mere men- tion of William Mulholland should be made in these pages. In future generations it will be his name that will be most remembered when the people of the future recount with well- founded pride the achievements of the men who went before them in the building of their great city. In those times, if not now, some kind of lasting memorial in connection with the Owens River Aqueduct will be erected in honor of Fred
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Eaton and William Mulholland-the dreamer and the doer, the man who brought from the snows of the high Sierras the great dream, and the other man who caused the dream to come true.
It seems only natural that a city like Los Angeles should produce such men as William Mulholland. The city, besides being a most stupendous practical achievement, is also a ro- mantic dream. And out of the romance of the town comes the romance of this man Mulholland, who rose from his humble station as the tender of its water ditches when it was a sleepy pueblo to become its chief engineer and to stand in the front rank of the world's greatest engineers when the city had come to take its place among the great cities of the world.
I have been told that when William Mulholland was a boy in Ireland, where he was born, he had a longing for the sea. And that he ran away from home, and that he was taken away on a ship, and that he held to the sea till he served at last before the mast and became a real sailorman; that then he abandoned his sea-faring life and came ashore in America and drifted westward with the restless tides that have ever drifted westward in human history and that are westward drifting still. Until one time, on a sunny morning when he was still young, he found himself in the pueblo of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels, where, happily, he decided to locate.
Mulholland secured a job as "zanjero," which was the old Spanish title given to the man who attends to water ditches. He lived by himself in a cabin beside one of the ditches which were under his care. He followed around about the pueblo on the trail of surveyors and the occasional engineers that the community from time to time employed. At night, in his cabin, he studied books-books on mathematics, surveyor's manuals and works on engineering. His brain was alert and his desire for knowledge of this special nature was insatiable. He plodded patiently and with undaunted courage. And, step by step, he rose in knowledge and ability and in the confi- dence of the people. He became superintendent of the city's water system. He became known far afield, and was fre-
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quently called into consultation to help other engineers solve big problems.
And the time came at length when his own city stood face to face with as big a problem as any city had ever faced in history-a problem requiring the expenditure of $23,000,000 of the people's money. And without the least hesitation, with- out discussion whatever, the whole project was placed in William Mulholland's hands and he was told to go ahead.
Of course Mr. Mulholland was supported by the best ad- vice available. Three of the most prominent engineers in the United States were at the beginning employed as a con- sulting board to thoroughly canvass the project. They en- dorsed Mr. Mulholland's report and pronounced his plans as being thoroughly feasible. It was then proposed that a bond issue of $23,000,000 be submitted to the voters, this amount to cover construction. The people, at an election held June 12, 1907, gave their approval to this proposal by a vote of 10 to 1.
The Board of Public Works then took charge of work and, in combination with the Water Board, worked out a plan and the details of the great enterprise. The plan in brief was: To take the water from the Owens River, 35 miles north of Owens Lake, carry it through an open canal for 60 miles to a large reservoir, the Haiwee, with a capacity of 20,000,000,000 gallons, then to carry it another 128 miles through combina- tion of conduits, tunnels and siphons to a reservoir at Fair- mont on the northern side of proposed tunnel through the San Fernando Mountains, the tunnel to be 26,870 feet in length and to be a pressure tunnel regulated by the reservoir at Fairmont. From the southern portal of the tunnel the water would drop from the rapidly descending San Fran- cisquito Canyon, where big possibilities for power develop- ment existed, and by natural channels, tunnels, siphons and conduits, a distance of fifteen miles to the San Fernando res- ervoir and the upper end of the San Fernando Valley, a total distance of about 225 miles from the intake to the San Fer- nando reservoir.
It was realized that the long tunnel under the San Fer- nando Mountains would be the largest piece of work in con-
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nection with the enterprise, and this work was at once started, working from both ends.
The general water plan of the city is now laid down roughly as follows: The water now developed and carried through the aqueduct is sufficient to accommodate a population of some 3,000,000 people. The city has laid down the policy that no territory shall be given the use of its present surplus supply which is not prepared to amalgamate with and be- come a part of the city. Large areas now inside the incor- porated limits of the city are still farming lands, and sur- plus water is used on these for irrigation purposes at rates which they can afford to pay. Rights have been obtained for additional sources of supply, and plans are made for their development for future use. Preliminary steps are even now being taken to reservoir the Long Valley, an immense area and catchment basin many miles north of the present in- take of the aqueduct.
The whole enterprise constitutes a comprehensive plan fully capable, when finally worked out, of taking care of water needs of the city of any possible size in this locality. During its development there has, of course, been much oppo- sition, and many legal difficulties thrown in its way, but these have been mostly overcome and it does not now seem possible that anything can mar the full realization of the plan.
So much preliminary work had to be done that little other permanent construction was under way before the end of 1908. The preliminary work referred to was gigantic in its scope. A branch line from the Southern Pacific Railroad had to be built from Mojave up to the proposed line of the aque- duct to connect with the Owens River Valley. Hundreds of miles of road, pipe line, power transmission line and tele- graph and telephone lines had to be built. Fifty-seven camps had to be established along the line, and all their facilities and equipment provided and installed. Provision had to be made for the vast quantities of cement needed for lining conduits and tunnels, and for this purpose the city bought thousands of acres of land in the Tehachapi Mountains cover- ing the necessary deposits of limestone, clay, etc., and built a cement mill with a capacity of 1,000 barrels a day. Large areas of land had to be negotiated for and bought for the pro-
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tection of water rights and reservoir sites, and the land so bought aggregated some 135,000 acres.
After general construction started in October, 1908, it was found that in nearly all features of the work the rate of prog- ress was greater and the cost less than the engineers' esti- mates. Naturally, there were setbacks and delays such as are inevitable in all large works, but notwithstanding these, water was turned through the full length of the aqueduct and de- livered at San Fernando on November 5, 1913, where its ad- vent was hailed by a great outpouring of some 30,000 citizens who congregated to welcome the flood which insured the life of Los Angeles as a great city of the future. As it gushed from the mouth of the outlet, the chief engineer, William Mul- holland, was called upon for an appropriate address to the assembled citizens. The address consisted of the remark, "There it is, take it."
A fitting finish to a work well conceived and successfully accomplished.
When we speak of the aqueduct being completed and ac- cepted by the city when its flow was delivered to a point at the head of the San Fernando Valley, it must be explained that this was considered a finishing of the aqueduct proper and the further connection to the existing city distributing system was apart from the building of the aqueduct itself.
As a consequence of the bringing of water to the city from Owens River Valley, and of hardly less importance than the water itself are the opportunities made available for elec- trical power development. In the fall of the aqueduct at various points on its southward course there is available for such power a total gross fall of over 2,000 feet. The general plans for the development of this power were recognized throughout the construction of the aqueduct and provision made to avoid duplication of work, and in September, 1909, the Bureau of Aqueduct Power was created as a part of the organization of the Department of Public Works. A con- sulting board of three eminent engineers was appointed to pass on the plans, to investigate all the power possibilities, and to advise as to the best methods of maximum develop- ment.
As a start for carrying out the power plans, a $3,500,000
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ILLUSTRATING LOS ANGELES AS A WESTERN METROPOLIS Miniature of a Giant Photograph Showing the Arrival of the Pacific Fleet in Its Harbor
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issue of power bonds was anthorized at election in April, 1910. But this bond issue was not available until two years later because of court proceedings brought to test their validity. Meantime it was realized that this first bond issue would serve only to build the initial plant for the develop- ment of a small proportion of the possible power, and if the greatest benefit was to be obtained power developed by the city must be distributed by the city. Consequently, in May, 1914, an additional power bond issue of $6,500,000 was voted for the purpose of extending the development work and also for building or procuring by negotiation a distributing sys- tem in the city itself.
Los Angeles is already finding that her municipally owned, almost inexhaustible and cheap water supply, together with unlimited and cheap electric power, is to be the deciding fac- tor in making of Los Angeles one of the large manufacturing cities of the United States. Other contributing factors, of course, being the climate, which makes almost continuous work possible, and the harbor, which provides shipping facil- ities to and from all parts of the world.
In the old days, Los Angeles, tied down by coal at $9 to $11 a ton, could not compete as a manufacturing city with districts having cheap fuel available. Then came the year of California oil development which reduced the price of fuel more than half, and manufacturing began to show its head as a possibility. Now the city is entering on its third year from the basis of manufactures, and power development and distribution now make possible successful competition in manufacturing with any city in the United States.
This, therefore, is practically the story of the Owens River Aqueduct. But the mere relation of the facts leaves out much that the imagination must supply. It was a bold stroke. Courage of the very highest order was necessary even to merely consider so gigantic an undertaking. It is not every city of the size of Los Angeles in 1905 that would have had the vision to go 250 miles afield over strange deserts and under mountain peaks to corrall a river and lead it captive to its gates.
But it is achievements of this nature that have made Los Angeles what it is today and what it is to be tomorrow.
CHAPTER XIII
THE GLORY OF THE SCHOOLS
We are indebted to Laura Grover Smith for the following very illuminating and inspiring chronicle of the birth and growth of public education in the City of Los Angeles :
The school in the early pueblo of Los Angeles was not re- garded as an indispensable thing in a new community, as it was in New England settlements. Outside of the missions, learning was only fitfully pursued for many years. Now and then an early Spanish or Mexican governor deplored the fact that there were children of school age and that no teachers could be found, but the matter appears to have gone no farther than that for a long time.
The brief records of those early times, as far as "school- ing" was concerned, are picturesque reminders of the easy- going days on the great ranchos with more or less indolent splendor, and later of the outer circle of the adventurers of '49 who came this way. It was not until the tide of immigra- tion brought eastern men and women from communities where schools had been established, that education by way of schools became important in the little pueblo of Our Lady of the Angels.
Thirty-seven years from the time of the founding of the pueblo, under a Spanish governor, Maxima Pina taught the first school. It lasted a short two years and he received $140 a year.
There was a long vacation of several years, and the next record found in the early archives of the city is an item al- luding to the fact that the ayuntamiento had allowed the pur- chase of a bench and table for the use of a school in the pueblo. It does not elaborate the fact, but doubtless the bench and table were for the school kept by Lucian Valdez from 1827-32.
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THE LOS ANGELES HIGH SCHOOL
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This was the longest school period under Mexican rule, and was followed by the inevitable long vacation.
The school affairs of the pueblo were entirely under the ayuntamiento, which was all powerful, and its authority ex- tended indefinitely from a geographical standpoint. To be- long to this body was an unpaid honor. The only paid offi- cials in the pueblo were the secretary of the ayuntamiento, the sindic or tax collector, and the schoolmaster, when there was one. The schoolmaster's salary was not to exceed $15 a month, and the chief qualification and requirement was that he should not expect, and certainly must not ask for an in- crease of salary. In the latter event he was to be dismissed as unfit for the office.
In addition to the long vacations, there were frequent short ones when the teacher would be called before the ayunta- miento to explain. It was apparently quite a satisfactory excuse to say that the scholars had run away! Saints' days were holidays, and each child's name saint's day was invaria- bly celebrated, so schools, to say the least, were intermittently conducted.
In 1844 Governor Micheltorena took the matter of educa- tion in his own hands and secured from the state funds a grant of $500 for any school to be established in the pueblo of Los Angeles. Doubtless he was regarded as very radical, for he went so far as to advocate education for girls. Up to this time girls were not regarded as a part of any scheme of edu- cation. What they learned at home in the way of embroidery and sewing were considered quite enough education for women.
A boys' school was soon under way with Ensign Don Guadalupe Medina as teacher. He had already been detached by leave of absence from his military duties. The school was conducted on what was considered at the time most modern methods. And certainly he had an ingenious plan in teach- ing. By cleverly developing a class of older children under his immediate supervision, these same children were able to teach the younger ones and, in this way, all of his hundred or more pupils had some benefit of direction.
Among the many good things told about this enthusiastic
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young man, is the fact that he copied all the reports of the first census ever taken in Los Angeles. This was in the year 1836.
Don Guadalupe Medina, to the regret of the community, was recalled to military duty in 1844. His inventory signed February 2, 1844, reads :
"Thirty spelling books, eleven second readers, fourteen catechisms by Father Repaldi, one table without cover, writ- ing desk, six benches and one blackboard."
A side light on the recall of Medina to military duty, and the consequent closing of the school, is the fact that the school- house was needed by Pico and Castro for the soldiers, and the bigger boys were expected to change their pens for swords.
A five years' vacation followed.
Standing out in the intermittent teaching of these early days is the school which was presided over by Don Ignacio Coronel and his daughter, Soledad, in 1838-44. The children met in his own house, which was in the neighborhood of the Plaza. Don Ignacio was a man of ability, and the daughter far in advance of her day. She introduced in a simple way something of dramatic teaching and dancing in addition to the usual accomplishments. This was surely a "neighbor- hood school" and is a charming memory of the early days.
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