The Battle Over
Hetch Hetchy:
America's Most Controversial
Dam and The Birth of
Modern Environmentalism
Robert W. Righter
THE BATTLE OVER
HETCH HETCHY
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THE BATTLE OVER
HETCH HETCHY
AMERICA'S MOST CONTROVERSIAL DAM
AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN
ENVIRONMENTALISM
Robert W. Righter
For Benjamin, Dylan, Zachary, and Sarah-
the future
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The Hetch Hetchy
HARRIET MONROE
FROM
HARRIET MONROE, YOU AND I
(NEW YORK: MACMILLAN CO., 1914)
195-7.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
IN CONTRAST perhaps to novelists, historians are highly dependent on others. Archivists and librarians deserve special praise. Somewhere in the past they decided to keep material, not knowing whether it might be useful or not. To those past archivists who had the foresight to keep Hetch Hetchy materials, I offer a hearty thanks. Those in the present I can thank directly. The staff at Southern Methodist University were particularly helpful. Michael Foutch helped dig out engineering books and journals, and the staff at Interlibrary Loan assisted in finding some esoteric material. The DeGolyer Research Library held materials on Hetch Hetchy that did, indeed, surprise me. Former director David Farmer, now retired, gave generously of his time. Present director Russell Martin and Betty Friedrich deserve my special thanks. No one can possibly do justice to the Hetch Hetchy controversy without using the invaluable collections of the Bancroft Library, University of California. The staff there, particularly Teresa Salazar, Susan Snyder, Jack Von Euw, and Walter Brem pointed me in directions I might have missed. Also, a special thanks to Jim Snyder, the archivist and librarian at the Yosemite Archives and Library,Yosemite National Park. Archivists at the San Francisco Room of the San Francisco Public Library provided materials unavailable elsewhere. Stanford University; the National Archives, College Park, Maryland; and the Federal Record Center, San Bruno, California, provided interior department and court documents which rounded out the story.
I have, of course, benefited from the help of specialists in the field of environmental history. Michael Cohen, Richard Sellars, and Mark Harvey made many substantive suggestions on one or more of the chapters. I have also profited from conversations with Karen Merrill, Donald Worster, Hal Rothman, Richard Orsi, Richard Lowitt, Richard White, and David Beesley. I owe particular thanks to Dan Flores, who spent hours listening to and com menting on the Hetch Hetchy issue on a memorable backpack trip down the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne River.
I am appreciative of family members who have taken an interest in my history-writing efforts. My brother, Richard L. Righter, and my son-in-law, Loy Lack, read the entire manuscript and, in stimulating conversation, made numerous suggestions which altered my thinking. Daughters Trisha Lack and Bonnie Sanders, and Bonnie's husband Ron, expressed curiosity and offered shelter on research trips. Father-in-law Atwood Smith kept me working.
The history department at Southern Methodist University has been particularly welcoming to a historian who came along with his wife, Sherry Smith, to Dallas, Texas. As a confirmed Westerner, I find Dallas is a little too far east, but the history department has eased the transition. Ed Countryman liked the Hetch Hetchy idea. Tom Knock helped me to understand the Woodrow Wilson era and Christa Deluzio worked to sensitize me to gender issues. John Mears, with his broad interests in world history, broadened my perspective. David Weber, a fine scholar, showed unfailing interest. I must also thank Jim Hopkins, the chair, for his wonderful encouragement. Other members of the department gave valuable criticism when I delivered a seminar paper to the faculty in the spring of 2002. Finally, the department has been wonderfully generous in providing two grants that helped greatly in travel and in the writing of this book.
Ron Good, director of Restore Hetch Hetchy, generously shared his archival material collection. Patricia Martel, former manager of the San Francisco Municipal Utilities District, was gracious in allowing me a phone interview Hetch Hetchy photographs enhance this story, and I found many excellent ones at the San Francisco Municipal Railroad headquarters, where Carmen Magana was most helpful, as were Katherine Du Tiel and Joe Cowan. I appreciate their assistance.
I want to also acknowledge my parents, Cornelius and Margaret Righter. They first introduced me to Yosemite Valley, and particularly the high country of Tuolumne Meadows. Furthermore, they chose to live in Northern California, a region where a certain conservation ethic seems part of the soil. Neither are with us today, but I like to think they would be pleased to know of their influence in this work, which springs from the experiences of my early life.
Copy editor Steven Baker deserves my praise and appreciation. Two persons have been involved with this project from its initial stages. Susan Ferber, editor with Oxford University Press, liked the ideas from the beginning and has given unfailing support. She offered extensive and excellent comments on a draft version that really was not ready for her excellent editing skills. Sherry L. Smith, my wife and fellow historian, spent many long hours with the message of the manuscript and my writing style, always in need of repair and refinement. I would not blame her for the errors of the book, but if there is any graceful writing, she must be given the credit. Above all, she has listened and asked the important questions that are difficult to answer. Why does this story matter? Why would anyone want to read what you have written? I do not know that I have satisfied such questions, but I appreciate that she asks them. I admire her greatly and love her immensely.
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CONTENTS
"The Hetch Hetchy," by Harriet Monroe vii
Hetch Hetchy Chronology xv
Cast of Characters xvii
List of Illustrations xxi
Introduction 3
i. The Uses of the Valley ii
2. The Imperial City and Water 29
3. Water, Earthquake, and Fire 45
4. Two Views of One Valley 66
5. San Francisco to "Show Cause" 96
6. Congress Decides 117
7. To Build a Dam 134
8. The Power Controversy 167
9. The Legacies of Hetch Hetchy 191
10. Restoration 216
Afterword 242
Notes 245
Index 279
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HETCH HETCHY
CHRONOLOGY
CAST OF CHARACTERS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
MAP I. Map of mountain area of the Hetch Hetchy system. xxiii
MAP 2. Map of whole Hetch Hetchy water system. xxiv
FIGURE I. First photograph of the Hetch HetchyValley 12
FIGURE 2. The Tuolumne River enters the valley 15
FIGURE 3. Wapama Falls and Meadow 20
FIGURE 4. Dedication of the Dam - 1923 -James Phelan 48
FIGURE 5. John Muir 51
FIGURE 6. Tuolumne River in Upper Hetch HetchyValley 77
FIGURE 7. Harriet Monroe 87
FIGURE 8. John Muir/Hetch Hetchy Cartoon 94
FIGURE 9. Hetch HetchyValley in spring time 104
FIGURE lo. The dale site 111
FIGURE I I . Wapama and Tueeulala Falls 127
&
nbsp; FIGURE 12. Team of Horses with Saw Logs 137
FIGURE 13. Bankers and politicians raising money 138
FIGURE 14. Supervisors and engineers return from Lake Eleanor 139
FIGURE 15. Hetch HetchyValley Cleared 141
FIGURE 16. San Francisco visitors view the valley 143
FIGURE 17. Dam site debris spread out in the valley 145
FIGURE 18. Packard Truck with O'Shaughnessy 148
FIGURE 19. NightView of Construction 149
FIGURE 20. Dedication of the 1923 darn 152
FIGURE 21. 1923 darn completed and in operation 153
FIGURE 22. School girls at the Sunol Water Temple 156
FIGURE 23. Pulgas Water Temple and Reflecting Pool 163
FIGURE 24. Moccasin Power House 172
FIGURE 25. O'Shaughnessy with Tuolumne watershed map 203
FIGURE 26. "Free the River" on the dam 217
FIGURE 27. AerialView of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir at low water. 238
FIGURE 28. Blending of technology and nature 239
MAP i. This map shows a modern (1992) view of the mountain section of the Hetch Hetchy water and power system. Courtesy of the SFPUC.
THE BATTLE OVER
HETCH HETCHY
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Introduction
ON A GRASSY knoll overlooking Crystal Springs Reservoir on the San Francisco Peninsula sits an unexpected, Roman Renaissance revival temple. As a child I accompanied my father as he drove past the Pulgas Water Temple to and from our home. Often he would stop at the site to let me stretch my legs and work off a little energy. I would run ahead alongside the reflecting pool, but slow to a walk as I approached the temple. The silence of the pool was replaced by the tumultuous roar of 34 million gallons of Hetch Hetchy water, arriving daily. Hesitatingly, I would climb the steps to peer over the low cement wall and watch the frothing water as its roar echoed and reverberated throughout the temple. The scene was fascinating, yet fearful. My father, a Stanford graduate, told me that freshmen students who joined an eating club had to walk blindfolded on a two-by-twelve-inch board across the abyss as part of their hazing ritual. Whether or not this was true, I resolved that I would never attend Stanford University.
More recently, I revisited the temple and for the first time looked up to read the etched inscription on the cornice: "I give Waters in the Wilderness and Rivers in the Desert to give Drink to my People" (Isaiah 43:20). The verse invoked God's role in a project dedicated in 1934 and completed at the sacrifice of many lives and years of struggle and at an astronomical cost. The temple commemorated San Francisco's achievement in bringing water from the distant mountains to the thriving metropolis. It would serve as a permanent reminder of a remarkable effort, and the notion that the bountiful resources of nature are won, not given.
The achievement, however, was not realized without great controversy. This book is the story of that controversy. The struggle over the fate of California's Hetch HetchyValley represents a classic story in the ongoing debate over human land use. It involves water, a valley, and a city. In question was the fate of a spectacular mountain valley located within Yosemite National Park. Would it become a reservoir, storing water for San Francisco's people, or would it remain a natural site, visited by recreationists and developed only to make it more accessible to tourists? The fight, which began in 19oo, brought into broad relief conflicting values. It signaled the opening salvo of a century-long conflict over the "highest and best use" of natural areas.
On one side was San Francisco mayor James Phelan, a wealthy, distinguished, ambitious man who understood that his city, surrounded on three sides by salt water, was in trouble. If his dream of a cultured, thriving metropolis was to be realized, he had to find a reliable water supply. Neither groundwater nor nearby surface water was adequate. Phelan and the city leaders looked to the Sierra Nevada mountains, some 150 miles distant. There they found the Hetch HetchyValley, a potentially perfect reservoir site with the crystal waters of the Tuolumne River flowing through it. The site, if dammed, would supply the city's water needs for at least ioo years of growth and, hopefully, ensure future prosperity. As an added bonus, the new dam would be the centerpiece of a hydroelectric system to generate power for the metropolitan area.
Those opposed to the mayor's vision understood that the Hetch Hetchy Valley was spectacularly beautiful, nearly as impressive as its sister glacier valley, Yosemite. When leaders of the Sierra Club, formed in 1892, became aware of San Francisco's intentions, they protested. Led by the visionary, eloquent John Muir, the little club mounted determined opposition. Hetch Hetchy lay within the boundaries of Yosemite National Park, established in 189o. Club members and supporters considered the park sacrosanct, protected and free from intrusions. The city's plans represented a deep wedge driven into the integrity of the embryonic national park system. Beyond the park issue, Hetch Hetchy's defenders viewed the waterfalls, granite cliffs, and translucent river as a place of spiritual transcendence, one that should never be desecrated by a dam and a reservoir. In their view the city could obtain its water supply elsewhere.
The Hetch Hetchy fight, at first a regional issue testing competing visions of land use, gained a national spotlight. New priorities emerged, causing some people to question the received wisdom of nineteenth-century land use. For the first time in American history, a national audience listened, and often participated in the debate, as valley protectors questioned water development as the best use of a natural resource. Changing cultural values challenged immediate, material ones. The contenders also debated the dollar value of tourism versus water development, in the present and for the future. They asked difficult questions. Were scenic land and national parks impor- taut to the American people? What should be the next human use of the valley? Should it continue to be low impact, preserving the area's integrity, or should Hetch Hetchy be transformed to meet the growing needs of the San Francisco Bay Area? Most Americans knew the answers, but a fresh century ushered in new ideas. For some Americans the idea of progress needed to be redefined, or at least modified. For a small but growing number, scenery and special public lands should be reserved from wholesale development. In their minds the ascendancy of technology and materialism symbolized American civilization gone wrong. It was time to listen to the earnest voices of moderation, rather than to hydraulic engineers with their charts and benefit projections. Five secretaries of the interior, three presidents, and Congress listened, but in the end, legislators passed the Raker Act in 1913, giving the city the right to build the O'Shaughnessy Dam. This resolution, while a victory for San Francisco, has never been fully accepted by the defeated.
Aspects of this story have been told before. When Ray Taylor wrote his book on Hetch Hetchy in 1926, he felt compelled to tell his readers that "more has been written about the Hetch Hetchy than any other subject connected with the city's history. Possibly no subject before a municipality ever was dissected and investigated so thoroughly as the city's water supply."' And yet Taylor's book was published eight years before San Francisco dedicated the Pulgas Water Temple and Hetch Hetchy water flowed through the city's household taps. Taylor's assessment referred to newsprint articles and official documents weighing in on the case, of which there was no shortage from 1905 to 1913. The issue often found the front page of San Francisco's vigorously competing newspapers, led by William Randolph Hearst's Examiner, the Call, and Michael de Young's Chronicle. Since Taylor's time there have been other books, as well as a number of articles.2
A number of issues remain, however. What was this fight all about? We know what San Francisco hoped to accomplish, but what did Hetch Hetchy's defenders want? In effect, if John Muir and the Sierra Club had won the struggle, how would the Hetch Hetchy Valley appear today? In Wilderness and the American Mind, Roderick Nash provided the interpretation that every environmental historian has embraced. In an oft-quoted sentence, Nash framed the issue as a battle over the competing claims of wilderness and civilizat
ion. I, like many others, accepted this statement unquestioningly believing that the fight was for wilderness preservation. In the 196os and 1970s we wanted to believe the Nash thesis. It was so right for the time. The problem with this assertion is that no matter how we might choose to define wilderness, it was not an issue in the Hetch Hetchy fight. The defenders of the valley consistently advocated development, including roads, hotels, winter sports amenities, and the infrastructure to support legions of visitors. The land use battle joined over one question: Would the valley be used for water storage or nature tourism?
As it turns out, the Hetch Hetchy fight represents the seminal battle not over wilderness, but over public power. San Francisco, indeed California, was in the throes of Progressive-era reform. The Lincoln-Roosevelt League wished to curb corrupt control of city and state government, and with the election of Hiram Johnson as governor in 19io, the reformers positioned themselves to pass needed legislation. On a national stage, Hetch Hetchy became caught in the cross fire between the interests of private utilities ownership and those of municipal ownership. Put another way, if Congress denied the city of San Francisco the Hetch HetchyValley, the California Progressive leaders suspected that it would only be a matter of time before the emerging Pacific Gas and Electric Company would grab the area. If, on the other hand, San Francisco gained control, it would signal an important victory for public power, resulting in lower rates for the people. Senator George Norris of Nebraska cared little about water use or recreation potential but considered public ownership of the generation and distribution of electricity essential. He, as well as a number of legislators, believed that Muir and his friends were mere puppets, duped by Pacific Gas and Electric and the Spring Valley Water Company to do their bidding. The defenders of the valley never escaped the charge of collusion with private water and power interests, and it was a major reason why they lost.
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