Floodpath
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11Blake Gumprecht, The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth (Baltimore & London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001).
12William Henry Brewer, Up and Down California in 1860–1864: The Journal of William H. Brewer (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1930).
13Harris Newmark, Sixty Years in Southern California (Los Angeles: Dawson’s Bookshop, 1984): 366.
14The best account of the Sick Rush is John E. Baur’s The Health Seekers (San Marino: Huntington Library, 1959).
15Mary Austin, Earth Horizon—Autobiography (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1932).
16T.S. Van Dyke, Millionaires of a Day: An Inside History of the Great Southern California “Boom” (New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert, 1890).
Chapter 1: Monday
1The first aqueduct from the Owens Valley to Los Angeles is sometimes referred to the Los Angeles-Owens River Aqueduct, but a simpler name, Owens River Aqueduct, referring to its source, is used throughout this book.
2Ruth Waldo Newhall, A California Legend, The Newhall Land and Farming Company (Valencia, CA: The Newhall Land and Farming Company, 1992): 50–52.
3Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript (1928): 723.
4Ibid., 20
5Ibid., 726.
6Ibid., 100.
7Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Intake (January 1926): 24.
8Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript (1928): 13.
Chapter 2: The Chief and the City of the Angels
1Elizabeth Mathieu Spriggs, “The History of the Domestic Water Supply of Los Angeles” (Thesis, University of Southern California, January 1, 1931): 67.
2William Mulholland, Autobiography (unpublished manuscript, 1930).
3Catherine Mulholland, William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles (2000) is the most reliable secondary source for information about William Mulholland’s personal history.
4William Mulholland, Autobiography, 1.
5Scott Zesch, The Chinatown War, Chinese Los Angeles and the Massacre of 1871 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012): 122–52.
6William Mulholland, Autobiography, 3.
7Joseph Le Conte (1823–1901) was a professor of geology and natural history and biology at the University of California. His Elements of Geology (1878) was probably the book Mulholland was referring to.
8William Mulholland, Autobiography, 3.
9J.B. Lippincott, “William Mulholland—Engineer, Pioneer, Raconteur,” Civil Engineering (1939): 107.
10Catherine Mulholland, William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles, 32.
11David P. Billington, Donald C. Jackson, and Martin V. Melosi, The History of Large Federal Dams: Planning, Design, and Construction in the Era of Big Dams (Denver: U.S. Department of the Interior, 2005): 11.
12Catherine Mulholland, William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles, 43.
13Ibid.
14William Mulholland, Autobiography, 6.
15Lippincott, “William Mulholland—Engineer, Pioneer, Raconteur,” 161.
16J. Gregg Layne, Water and Power for a Great City (unpublished manuscript, 1957): 67.
17Catherine Mulholland, William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles, 76.
18Quoted in Remi Nadeau, The Water Seekers, 4th edition (Crest Publishers, 1950): 34.
19Tom Sitton, John Randolph Haynes: California Progressive (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992).
20David Cutler and Grant Miller, “Water, Water Everywhere: Municipal Finance and Water Supply in American Cities.” In Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America’s Economic History (Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2006).
21Reynold E. Blight, “Municipal Government 50 Years from Now,” California Outlook (1911). Quoted in Robert M. Fogelson, The Fragmented Metropolis: Los Angeles, 1850–1930 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1967): 211.
22The standard study of this political movement is George E. Mowry, The California Progressives (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951). A recent reevaluation is California Progressivism Revisited, eds. William Deverell and Tom Sitton (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994).
23J. Gregg Layne, Water and Power for a Great City: A History of the Department of Water and Power of the City of Los Angeles (unpublished bound typescript, 1952): 77.
24Los Angeles Almanac, www.laalmanac.com/weather/we13.htm.
25Remi Nadeau, The Water Seekers, 12.
26Quoted by Paul Soifer in “Water and Power for Los Angeles,” The Development of Los Angeles City Government: An Institutional History, 1850–2000 (Los Angeles: Los Angeles Historical Society, 2007): 221.
27William Mulholland, “The Water Supply of Southern California.” Text of a speech delivered to the Engineers and Architects Association of Southern California, 1907.
28J. David Rogers, “A Man, a Dam and a Disaster,” in The St. Francis Dam Disaster Revisited, ed. Doyce B. Nunis.
29Frederick H. Newell, Irrigation in the United States (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1902).
30Abraham Hoffman, “Joseph Barlow Lippincott and the Owens Valley Controversy: Time for Revision,” Southern California Quarterly (Fall 1972): 239–54.
31Leonard Pitt, “Los Angeles in the Owens River Valley/Rape or Enlightened Self-Interest?” In California Controversies (Los Angeles: ETRI Publishing Company, 1985): 111.
32Quoted in Robert Gottlieb and Irene Wolf, Thinking Big: The Story of the Los Angeles Times, Its Publishers, and Their Influence on Southern California (1977): 19.
33William L. Kahrl, Water and Power (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982).
34Ibid., 42.
35Quoted in Catherine Mulholland, William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles, 125.
36Quoted in John Walton, Western Times and Water Wars: State, Culture, and Rebellion in California (University of California Press, 1992): 150.
37Quoted in Catherine Mulholland, William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles.
38Letter from William Mulholland to Henry Dockweiler, June 1, 1906.
39Catherine Mulholland, William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles, 131.
40J. Gregg Layne, Water and Power for a Great City, 105.
Chapter 3: “There It Is, Take It!”
1Bureau of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of the Los Angeles Aqueduct to the Board of the Public Works (July 1911).
2Ibid.
3Quoted in Catherine Mulholland, William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles.
4Quoted in Robert William Matson, William Mulholland, A Forgotten Forefather (Stockton, CA: University of the Pacific, 1976).
5Abraham Hoffman, “Joseph Barlow Lippincott and the Owens Valley Controversy,” 239–54.
6Los Angeles Board of Public Service Commissioners, Complete Report on Construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct: With Introductory Historical Sketch, Drawings and Photographs (Department of Public Service, 1916): 21.
7Sixth Annual Report to the Bureau of the Los Angeles Aqueduct to the Board of Public Works (1911): 42.
8Ibid.
9Complete Report on Construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct with Introductory Historical Sketch, 219.
10Robert V. Hine, California’s Utopian Colonies (University of California Press, 1953): 129.
11William L. Kahrl, Water and Power, 203.
12“Press Reference Library (Southwest Ed.): Being the Portraits and Biographies of Progressive Men of the Southwest,” Los Angeles Examiner (1912).
13William L. Kahrl, Water and Power, 202.
14Ibid., 192.
15Complete Report on Construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct with Introductory Historical Sketch, Appendix B, 292.
16Letter from William Mulholland to Charles Dwight Willard, January 24, 1913.
17Los Angeles Times, November 5–6, 1914.
18Quoted by Catherine Mulholland in an interview with the author, 2004.
19Los Angeles Times, November 5–6, 1914.
> 20Ibid.
21Official Program for the Los Angeles Aqueduct Opening, November 5, 1913.
22William Mulholland, Autobiography, 5.
23Elizabeth Mathieu Spriggs, “The History of the Domestic Water Supply of Los Angeles,” 67.
Chapter 4: Holding Back the Future
1Abraham Hoffman, Vision or Villainy.
2Vincent Ostrom, Water & Politics: A Study of Water Policies and Administration in the Development of Los Angeles (Los Angeles: The Haynes Foundation, 1953): 157.
3Steven P. Erie, “How the Urban West Was Won: The Local State and Economic Growth in Los Angeles, 1880–1932,” Urban Affairs Quarterly (June 1992).
4Kevin Starr, Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990): 60.
5Complete Report on Construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct with Introductory Historical Sketch, 29.
6J. David Rogers, “Dams and Disasters: A Brief Overview of Dam Building Triumphs and Tragedies in California’s Past,” California Colloquium on Water Lectures (November 3, 2002, updated 2012).
7Los Angeles Times, January 30, 1916.
8J. David Rogers, “Brief Overview of Dam Safety Legislation in California,” Missouri University of Science and Technology, web.mst.edu/~rogersda/dams_of_ca/Dam%20Safety%20Legislation%20in%20California.pdf.
9Memo from M.M. O’Shaughnessy to Edward Hyatt, October 3, 1928.
10Los Angeles Times, December 16, 1916, 115.
11Robert A. Pearce, The Owens Valley Controversy & A.A. Brierly, the Untold Story (Pearce Publishing, 2013): 36–37.
12Letter from Court Kunze, Watterson brother-in-law, to Charles Neumiller, chairman of the California Prison Board, October 12, 1928.
13Remi Nadeau, The Water Seekers, 56.
14W.A. Chalfant, The Story of Inyo, rev. ed. (Bishop, CA: Chalfant Press, 1933): 282–283.
15Ibid., 22.
16J. David Rogers, “A Man, a Dam and a Disaster,” 20.
17David P. Billington, Donald C. Jackson, and Martin V. Melosi, The History of Large Federal Dams, 104.
18Paul Williams, Beachwood Canyon Homeowner’s Association, www.beachwoodcanyon.org/HISTORY.htm.
19Matthew W. Roth, “Mulholland Highway and the Engineering Culture of Los Angeles in the 1920s.” In Metropolis in the Making: Los Angeles in the 1920s, eds. Tom Sitton and William Deverell (University of California Press, 2001): 45–76.
20Gerard News (December 27, 1924).
21Brian H. Greene and Courtney A. Christ, “Mistakes of Man: The Austin Dam Disaster of 1911,” Pennsylvania Geology 29, no. 2/3: 7–14.
22Eric C. Wise, “The Day Austin Died,” Penn Lines (September 2005): 8–11.
23Bureau of Water and Power Commissioner’s Annual Report, 1922–23.
24Los Angeles Times, May 30, 1923.
25“San Francisquito Canyon Dam Disaster (California), Report to His Excellency Arizona Gov. George W.P. Hunt,” (1928): 6.
26Salome B. de Raggio et al., Plaintiffs, vs. City of Los Angeles, a municipal corporation, et al., Defendants, April 29, 1925.
27Memo from John Randolph Haynes, UCLA Special Collections.
28Ibid.
29Los Angeles Almanac, http://www.laalmanac.com/weather/we13.htm statistics.
30Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners, Annual Report, 1924.
31John Walton, Western Times and Water Wars: State Culture and Rebellion in California (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992): 154.
32Robert A. Pearce, The Owens Valley Controversy & A.A. Brierly, the Untold Story, 36–37.
33Quoted in Vincent Ostrom, Water & Politics: A Study of Water Policies and Administration in the Development of Los Angeles (The Haynes Foundation,1953): 130.
34William L. Kahrl, Water and Power, 302–03.
35Remi Nadeau, The Water Seekers, 72–73.
36Vincent Ostrom, Water & Politics, 123.
37Gary D. Libecap, Owens Valley Revisited: A Reassessment of the West’s First Great Water Transfer (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007): 65.
38Los Angeles Bureau of Water and Power Commissioners, Annual Report, July 1, 1924.
39William Mulholland, letter to City Council, August 1, 1924.
40Robert A. Pearce, The Owens Valley Controversy, 42.
41Ibid., 62–63.
42Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster: The Story of the St. Francis Dam, 2nd rev. ed. (Glendale: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1977): 26.
43Ibid., 33.
44C.E. Grunsky Company, “Report of the Water Resources of the Santa Clara River Valley” (July 1925): 6.
45W.F. McClure, Office of the State Engineer, Letter of Transmissal and Report of the State Engineer Concerning the Owens Valley-Los Angeles Controversy to Governor Friend Richardson (1925).
46Los Angeles Times, March 16, 1928.
47Remi Nadeau, The Water Seekers, 78.
48Vincent Ostrom, Water & Politics, 98.
49Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 40.
50Ibid., 42.
51Report to William Mulholland from office engineer, June 30, 1926.
52Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, rev. and updated (New York: Penguin Books, 1993): 95.
53Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 49.
54Inyo Independent, August 6, 1927.
55John Walton, Western Times and Water Wars, 189.
56J. Gregg Layne, Water and Power for a Great City, 174–75.
57Catherine Mulholland, William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles, 310.
58John Walton, Western Times and Water Wars, 190.
59Los Angeles Times, November 11, 1927.
60John Walton, Western Times and Water Wars, 181–82.
61Gary D. Libecap, “Chinatown Revisited: Owens Valley and Los Angeles—Bargaining Costs and Fairness Perceptions of the First Major Water Rights Exchange,” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization Advanced Access (May 4, 2008): 2.
Chapter 5: A Monster in the Dark
1Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 598–99.
2John M. Barry, Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997): 286.
3Spirit of St. Louis 2 Project, “Charles Lindbergh, an American Aviator,” http://www.charleslindbergh.com/history/gugtour.asp.
4The Port of Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles, “Cabrillo’s Legacy,” http://www.portoflosangeles.org/history/cabrillo.asp.
5Catherine Mulholland, William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles, 279.
6Kevin Starr, Material Dreams: Southern California in the 1920s (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).
7Limoneira Company, “History,” http://www.limoneira.com/About-Us/History.
8Union Oil Company of California, Sign of the 76: The Fabulous Life and Times of the Union Oil Company of California (1976): 95.
9Judith P. Triem, Ventura County: Land of Good Fortune (Northridge, CA: Windsor Publications, 1985): 109.
10Margo McBane, “The House That Lemons Built: Race, Ethnicity, Citizenship and the Creation of a Citrus Empire, 1893–1919” (Doctoral thesis, 2001).
11Santa Paula Chronicle, March 11, 1928.
12Judith P. Triem, Ventura County, Land of Good Fortune, 127
13Correspondence with Mark A. Vieira, author of Greta Garbo: A Cinematic Legacy (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2005).
14J. David Rogers, “A Man, a Dam and a Disaster,” 35.
15Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 247.
16Ibid., 303.
17Author interview with Bob Phillips, 2002.
18Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 178.
191928 memo from DWP engineer C.C. Rubel documenting residents of Powerhouse 2 and those who died.
20Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 55.
21Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 247.
22Ibid., 422.
23Newha
ll Signal and Saugus Enterprise (March 22, 1928).
24Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 61.
25Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Intake (March 1928).
26Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 433–34.
27Ibid., 429.
28Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 234.
29Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 641–45.
30Ibid., 669.
31Ibid., 459.
32Letter from Frank Thees to L.L. Dyer, “Experience of Frank Thees in the Saugus Flood” (March 27, 1928).
33Author interview with Ivan Dorsett, 2001.
34Transcript of interview of Lillian (Curtis) Eilers by Don Reed, from research by Don Ray, 1978.
35San Francisco Chronicle, March 13, 1928.
36Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 445–49.
37Written note to author from Vince Raggio, November 11, 1996.
38Los Angeles County Coroner’s Inquest transcript, 180.
39Ibid., 184.
40Transcript of C. Clarke Keely interview (1985): 28.
41Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 103.
42Don Ray, “1928 St. Francis Dam Disaster Reunion Honors Victims and Survivors,” Los Angeles Historical Society Newsletter (March 1988).
43Transcript of C. Clarke Keely interview, 29.
44Report from DWP engineer J.E. Phillips, 5.
45Oral history, Frank Thees Jr.
46Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 114.
47Ibid., 92–94.
48Los Angeles Record, March 17, 1928.
49Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 109.
50Catherine Mulholland, William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles, 319.
Chapter 6: No Time for Nightmares
1Charles F. Outland, Man-Made Disaster, 128.
2The Pacific Telephone Magazine, 1928.
3Los Angeles Times, March 19, 1928.
4Los Angeles Examiner, March 18, 1928.
5Newhall Signal, March 22, 1928.
6George Travis, “St. Francis Dam Disaster and Subsequent Restoration Program” (August 1929).