"We, the farming communities of Owers Valley, being about to die, salute you!" OWENS VALLEY Where the Trail of the Wrecker Runs

The Pitiful Story of an Agricultural Paradise, Created by California Pioneers, Condemned to Desert Waste by Water Looters

"This crime was unnecessary . . . A sto. .age dam in Long Valley would have given Los Angeles twice as much water every day in the year as that city has received on any day since the Owens River Acqueduct entered service, and at the same time would have preserved Owens Valley land to cultivation. . . . But not a gallon of storage has been developed by Los Angeles, at Long Valley or any other point on the Owen:, River."

By FREDERICK FAULKNER (Reprinted from the Sacramento Union of March 28 to April 2, 1927) I. The whole thing is ghastly, depressing, disheartening. There is one primary reason for the present plight of BISHOP (Inyo County), March 28.—There appeared Owens Valley: The city of Los Angeles wanted and in Sacramento newspapers last week a full page adver- needed to augument its water supply. It moved through tisement, beginning: a board of public service commissioners who adopted "We, the farming communities of Owens Valley, being and have followed consistently for twenty years a policy about to die, salute you!" of ruthlessness, of "sink without trace," of brutality This message led the owners of The Sacramento Union and sharp pratice which leads crooks to jail or makes to desire an investigation of actual conditions in the them fugfitives from justice. Owens Valley, and the writer hereof was instructed to In its procedure of usurping the Owens Valley water proceed to this region and remain as long as necessary supply, Los Angeles found an ally in the federal govern- to get comprehension and a record of the facts. ment—Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot, then making a bid Humanity has soured in the Owens Valley. A once for the limelight of a reformer, and a reclamation service flourishing agricultural region is in the throes of death engineer who subsequently accepted lucrative employmnt by strangulation. All around are the ruins of homes from the city—Los Angeles secured the benefit of that and farmholds. A people, of the proud breed of moun- policy known to th underworld as "gyp." The victims tain and desert, are broken-hearted. of that policy were the people of Owens Valley. Death and funerals are always depressing to me. I The episodes in the procedure are many, but colorful am never near them except under the compulsion of re- enough to deserve many times the telling. They are the lentless circumstance or upon the plea of a grief-stricken record of political ownership run rabid. They are the friend. I shall be glad when I leave this valley. It is record of a great city which raised itself above the law the land of a thousand deaths, of a thousand funerals, and adopted in practice the rule of, "To hell with the of ambitions, hopes, plans. law." In this valley a few years ago lived seven thousand But we will let these details wait awhile. The most prosperous people. They challenged the world to equal important things are the effects. They should be offered the quality of their life and of their products. at the outset. Among them are: Today this land is being rapidly turned back to sage FIRST—The mental, moral and spiritual loss of the brush and desert waste; to coyotes and jack rabbits. human folk of Owens Valley. Two generations have labored their full allotted spans SECOND—The driving of a population from its pleas- of years, and today their children must seek a new home ant, happy, industrious, productive above which it had in new regions. transformed from the desert. THIRD—The turning back of a reclaimed agricultural area of a pproximately two thousand square miles to non- Those who remain are divided into two camps—those Meantime a reclamation service engineer, J. B. Lippen- productive desert. who have aided Los Angeles to injure their neighbors the water seized from Owens Valley the same land has cott, submitted a report condemning the proposed recla- FOURTH—The unpunished and unrebuked rapacity and those who have refused to deal with the city. To- Fri average worth today of $750 per acre. mation project as not feasible. The people had handed of the great municipality of Los Angeles is destroying - day people watch each other, in suspicion and hatred. Californians who have visited the State Fair in past over their storage claims and filings to the government, an important back country area and the warning of grave The people of this and other Owens Valley towns don't years remember the Inyo exhibits. They were best in now the government gave notice that its agents who and active danger to every other section of California. smile as much as formerly. Laughter and song have hard grain, best in apples, best in corn, best in honey. made the original proposal were wrong and that the been wrung out of their hearts. They have been bruised FIFTH—The bad example in business statesmanship and hurt. The proud apple growers of this vallew went to Watson- promised aid would not be extended. of a metropolitan city in destroying a helpless agricul- ville and captured first prizes. tural community. Those who played the game of life as long as they Never again will there be an Inyo County agricultural Reclaim 80,000 Acres could on the ground that they should insist upon their The venal misstatement on the part of the government The most lamentable of all these things in the loss of exhibit. Owens Valley has been raped and consigned to human values. right to live and not merely consent to die, are devoid barrenness! is amply exposed by the fact that valley people, by their of spiritual strength to go on. They are near the crack- A few years ago a delegation of Los Angeles business own hands and out of their own resources, despite all First White Settlers ing point. When they go out from here their heads will men, having received many appeals, came to the valley to the trickery and obstruction Los Angeles could put in In August, 1861, A. Van Fleet built a mud and stone be unlifted proudly, but their hearts will bleed. There make an investigation. They met with local citizens. the way, went ahead and reclaimed, irrigated and put house at Laws, six miles from Bishop, on the east side may be trouble. Some fear there will be. But in view Attending also were members of the Los Angeles Public under cultivation approximately 80,000 acres of the of the self-discipline already imposed on these people, Service Commission, and the commission's chief engi- desert valley. of the Owens River. This was the first white habitation loyal and true to their beloved valley, we would expect in the valley. But white men reached the valley long them to stand anything now. neer, William Mulholland. The people of the valley re- Shortly following his adverse report, Government En- before that. Joseph B. Chiles led the remnant of a fer to Mulholland as "Old Bill." gineer Lippencott joined the engineering staff of the party of fifty which he organized in Independence, Mis- Yet some of them fail. There goes out today a wife "Not Enough Trees" Los Angeles public service commission. souri, in 1843, down the east side of the valley follow- and mother who has cried every evening when the day's The whole of the engineering data which government ing year, and on to Visalia and thence to Gilroy Rancho. work was done for four years. The doctor says she Somebody at this conference raised the question as to engineers had collected was turnd over to the city of Fremont explored the valley. In the winter of 1849 must remain in a hospital for three months. Maybe she whether some measure of justice was not due these good Los Angeles at the alleged cost of compiling, for the stragglers from The Jawhawkers' ill-fated pilgrimage will not come back ever. people. paltry sum of $14,000. came out to the Funeral Mountains, over the Panamints "Justice!" sneered Old Bill. "Why, there are not Any fair-minded person of average intelligence will There have been five suicides which can be traced di- enough trees in the valley to give the and the Coso, into the valley. Dr. Darwin French, in rectly to this war of extermination which Los Angeles recognize that this data should have been available to 1860, led a party which included Dennis and John has waged against Owens Valley. There are a dozen justice!" the landowners of Owens Valley. Searles, Russ, Henry Siddons and Charles Uhl, to pros- broken homes. One does not have to ask the cause; Cut away all the lies that have been uttered by and From the outset the policy of Los Angeles was pal- pect in the Inyo range to the eastward. men and women who live in anger and outraged feelings in the name of the water and power board of Los An- pably to loot Owens Valley of its water for irrigation But the party to which Van Fleet belonged brought are not fit for husband and wife. geles and the above statement is the only pronounce- and to eradicate agriculture from the valley. Anyone in livestock. They were homebuilders. They were the The men whom the city, mainly by trickery and hidden ment of policy that squares with the record of deeds who will look upon the abandoned farmholds today will foundation of a permanent community. hands, induced to sell their lands and found they had, for and misdeeds. have all doubt on this point removed. From then on the population increased gradually and a few thousand dollars, stuck a knife in their neighbors, But the late W. F. McClure, State Engineer, wrote The engineering setup which Los Angeles planned and rapidly, excepting a brief disturbance caused by the have nearly all left the valley. They are not popular Governor Richardson under date of January 9, 1925: executed is the most remarkable in engineering history. Indian wars. Settlers came in from Tuolumne, from here any longer. They feel a loss of friendship so "The people of the valley are not anarchists, criminals, It is the only project of comparable size which did not Kern and Tulare. For the first three or four decade; heavy that some fail to bear it. Only a few days ago a or thieves, as has been stated, but on the contrary are ordinary, industrious American citizens." provide for the storage of water. the communities of the valley grew much as have grown former civic leader died in a northern county. He had Under the plans of "Old Bill," the Owens Valley aque- all mountain valley areas, where there is reclamation dealt with Los Angeles and lost his soul; men die easily The United States Reclamation Service outlined in after losing their souls. duct, with a maximum capacity of 400 cubic feet per work to be done, where the water hole is vital. 1903 a fairly complete plan for placing about 200,000 second was built without the slightest provision for Farmers dug irrigation ditches with hand tools. The Each day brings fresh heartache to the depleted popu- acres of the valley land under irrigation, at a cost o storage. It was used to carry water diverted from the wife and mother worked. Water from the river and lation of this valley. Wherever the dwellers go they see approximately $23 per acre. This was the total irrigable valley streams and sucked down from the farming land the out-flowing canyon streams was turned onto the a tractor pulling up fruit trees—shame-faced Los Angeles land. It was divided into three classes. The first class by pumps—water that should have gone on the land of parched land by the hands of pioneer women as well as removing the traces of civilization in the hope that the was composed of good land easily irrigable and part of pioneer men. future will not curse her! which already was under water by individual owners and Owens Valley and not on the land of San Fernando. a half dozen mutual water companies. This class covers A Los Angeles politician of Mexican lineage, the presi- Here's an empty schoolhouse where little children about 85,000 acres. To lean backward against the people Reservoir Recommended dent of the water and power board, has ordered that played and studied and learned to love the snow-capped In December, 1906, a board of consulting engineers, these ditches be broken and the farms they once nour- mountains! of the valley, we will consider only this 85,000 acres. ished be abandoned. Mythical Forest composed of distinguished men—John R. Freeman, Here are wrecked homes, dairy barns and stock cor- Frederick B. Stearns and James D. Schuyler—recom- The people of Owens Valley were Americans. They rals; the firebrand has not yet come to reduce them to Reclamation service engineers told the farmers and mended a storage reservoir in Long Valley, twenty-five were proud mothers and fathers. They were good citi- black ash heap that lies a few miles down the highway! mutual water companies that in order to advance prog- miles above the highest diversion point in Owens Valley. zens. They built schools and churches. Their sons chose ress for the government scheme the citizens should sur- They found a foundation capable of supporting a dam for brides the girls of neighboring families. They lived render their rights and claims to the government. This of any construction. A dam 165 feet high and only 525 in friendship. They helped one another. They became was on the face a fair proposal of pooling interests and feet long at the top would store approximately 350,000 noted for the warmth of their hospitality. the trusting citizens accepted. acre feet in Long Valley. JUSTICE DENIED PEOPLE OF OWENS VALLEY; Two years passed without encouraging action. Then These people comprised the seven thousand population I have visited Long Valley. The layman finds no dif- of Owens Valley when a few years ago Los Angeles, OLD MEN'S FUED Los Angeles entered the valley seeking the source of through its public service commission, mad with the municipal water supply. The city also sent its agents ficulty in agreeing with engineers that it is the equal to power it could weild, decided to kill agriculture in to Washington. In 1906 Gifford Pinchot, chief forester the finest reservoir site in the country—a level stretch Owens Valley. Inyo County will have no exhibit at the State Fair in under President Roosevelt, issued an order creating a of meadow land 20 square miles in extent. It is at an Sacramento this year. I attended the meeting of the federal forest district in Oawens Valley. altitude of about 6,500 feet, where the water is uncon- Divided Among Themselves Owens Valley Farm Bureau on Saturday. They ex- taminated by human habitation. plained the valley had nothing to exhibit. About 87 This was among the most picturesque decrees any gov- We shall describe this policy and how it was executed ernment ever issued. There was not a tree in the entire If this storage facility had been developed there would later. Today the outstanding thing is the changed char- per cent of the former cultivated area has been acquired have been an equated water flow of over 900 second acter of the human p by the city of Los Angeles and the water withdrawn from area except the slender, graceful poplars, locusts and cot- is opulation of this valley. It already tonwoods the settlers had planted. cubic feet at the diversion point above the valley. greatly decimated. Friends and neighbors have gone it. This water, incidentally, is transported in the city's Proper conservation of the water coming down from the to other parts of the State to start life anew. Many of acqueduct 300 miles to San Fernando Valley. Pinchot's order stopped settlement, for it closed the various streams in the valley would have produced a them have failed and lost the little money they took out San Fernando lands were bought twenty years ago by government's desert lands against homesteading. Pin- total volume sufficient to have kept under cultivation the with them. real estate operators, politicians, city officials and busi- chot's collusive order remained to aid the Los Angeles 80,000 acres of first class farming land in the valley and ness men on the "inside" for $5 to $50 per acre. With land grabbers until President Taft reopened the valley still have given Los Angeles twice as much water every to homesteading in 1911. • day in the year as has ever been in the aqueduct on ture from Owens Valley and of scattering the pioneer Warehouse Empty IV. any day since the aqueduct entered service. farmers to the four winds before making a gesture to- ward water storage and conservation. A lttle further along the desolate trail I reached Laws. These are facts of record—from the reports of gov- The alfalfa association's warehouse is empty, silent; its LOS ANGELES RUTHLESS TO THROW OWENS ernment engineers and the city's own engineers. winodws are broken. The city owns it now. Down the VALLEY BACK TO DESERT OF Yet Los Angeles did not develop the upper storage. main street of this once prosperous village and railway ALKALI AND SODA DUST There is a story known throughout the valley and Los station one passes a row of empty homes, restaurants STARS AND STRIPES OVER SCHOOLHOUSE and small stores. Soon the railway station will be Angeles which provides the explanation. AS FOUL TRAIL LEAVES WASTE moved. And Laws will be an abandoned agricultural Sergeant X, a young World War veteran, settled in Long Valley Meadows is owned by Fred Eaton, stock- AND BROKEN HOMES town—a new and grievous episode in California history. Owens Valley in 1922. He made arrangements to buy man. Eaton is partially paralyzed and confined to his a small fruit ranch. He made application for a loan bed about half his time. He is 70 years of age. Mul- At the end of a trail of desolation I came upon a This is typical of the trail of the foul feet and hands under the Veterans' Welfare act, and was told he could holland is nearing 70; his hands shake as of one palsied. schoolhouse. It once had been a sightly structure. The of Los Angeles in Owens Valley. It is the trail of the have up to $7,500 to be used in any county in Cali- There is said to be a bitter feud between Eaton and Old outside was built of shiplap. It had been painted and wreckers. fornia, except Inyo County. The benefits of the law Bill. The latter is credited with the statement that Long clean at one period of its career. But today the paint Writing the president of the Los Angeles Clearing were withheld from this soldier who fought for his Valley reservoir will never be built as long as Fred was cracked and scaling off, dust had filled the crevices. country because he proposed to establish a residence in Eaton is alive. Eaton is credited with the proposal that Window panes were broken. House Association, on whose promise of aid in securing Inyo County. If it were a single isolated act of gross he will sell his land in Long Valley at any price an im- justice the valley ranchers closed the Alabama Hills spill- injustice it might be passed over thoughtlessly, but it partial arbitral board may fix or at the price fixed by At the top of the flagstaff surmounting the neat tower way, R. F. del Valle, president of the city water and the Amerioan Flag had flown many a day in the dry power board, said that the public service commission: is one of a thousand episodes of the policy and pro- court condemnation. Valley people deem this a fair wind without attention. Its blood red stripes were now cedure of the Los Angeles public service commission in offer. twined and twisted with the halyard. Seemingly tired "Do not desire to hurt the people of the valley. On "turning this country dry," in turning it back to desert But apparently the feud between these two septua- of neglect, the glorious colors had furled themselves. the contrary, they sincerely wish, so far as their legal waste. genarians, striking deep in the well of personal hates, The national emblem in this case, as in so many others, powers will permit, to preserve the interests and pro- There is no land market in Owens Valley. The only has caused Los Angeles city to pursue a policy of first was the last thing to yield to the decree of abandon- mote the future development of the valley. The board purchaser of land is the city of Los Angeles, and it has looting Owens Valley of its water and its agricultural ment. The three score children who formerly had of public service commissioners, after mature considera- bought to destroy, to withdraw from production. Thus opportunity. gathered in this building and sung the "Star-Spangle tion, has adopted a constructive plan for harmonizing its the only semblance of a market that exists is fictitious. Banner" had been scattered hence, willy-nilly, by the water requirements with the continuation of the valley There is no exchange of land between agriculturalists. There has been lawlessness in the valley. Both sides Los Angeles public service commission in its seizure of as a prosperous agricultural community and its prepared There is no basis of value for such legitimate land deal- are guilty. The aqueduct has been dynamited twice. A the irrigation water supply of Owens Valley. But the to do everything possible to put that plan into effect." ings. few months ago the aqueduct spillway in the Alabama usurpers did not have the decency to haul down the flag. This extraordinary statement was dated January 6, Fickle Buyers hills was opened and a crowd of citizens kept it open 1925. for four days. As far as I can ascertain the dynamiting Before reaching the schoolhouse I had driven along Not only has Los Angeles established and adhered to a and the opening of the spillway was designed as demon- the entire southern section of what was once the Mc- The Los Angeles Clearing House Association has not fictitious basis of land prices; the city has been an ex- strations to make the people of Los Angeles investigate Nally ditch. The first stop, after passing the Collins visited the McNally ditch and consequently it is to be ceedingly fickle buyer. and learn what was being done. ranch, was at the Trowbridge ranch. The beautiful and assumed that it does not comprehend the base and com- On the McNally ditch east of Bishop the city bought ample buildings which Charles H. Trowbridge had plete falsity of the statement. But Los Angeles committed the first acts of outlawry. erected in the development of his property were in a two ranches. They were of the same size, identical Agents of the city, officials and employes of the public worse state of delapidation than the schoolhouse. quality of soil, water supply and transportation fa- service commission, dynamited storage dams at Lake An Affidavit cilities. Improvements were of equal worth. Mary, on Fishlake creek and Hot Springs creek, to get "Charlie" Trowbridge was a college man with a mod- One of these ranches was owned by Walter T. Clark. water for the aqueduct. They built dikes around irriga- ern outlook; he built a home while building a farming E. M. Nordyke of Bishop on December 2, 1924, made He is understood to have aided the city to secure options tion canal intakes in the Owens Valley to divert water business. He used to have a crowd of Whittier college an affidavit for file with W. F. McClure, California State on farms by hidden methods. The city paid him $10,000 into the aqueduct, and did so divert water until citi- students up every vacation to help him put up the hay. Engineer, in which he stated under oath that William for his ranch. zens drove the looters away and broke the dikes. He had good accommodations and treated them as friends Mulholland said to him: and gentlemen. They enjoyed harvesting the 2000 tons The owner of the neighboring ranch, Mrs. Mary E. R. F. del Valle, president of the Los Angeles public of alfalfa and hauling it to the warehouse of the alfalfa "Do not go into Inyo County. We are going to turn Deyo, was paid $5000. service commission, in a letter dated January 6, 1925, association at Laws. that country dry." George Warren had a small acreage here which he to the president of the Los Angeles clearing house com- filed on with the federal government as swamp land. He mission, confesses these acts of lawlessness, and it seems Curse at Work Mulholland, "Old Bill" to the valley people, proved scripted it out for $6.50 per acre. While I have not to me with proud arrogance. He asserted that the city Today the curse of delapidation is working. The city the authentic expositor of the policy of Los Angeles in inspected the official record, it is stated openly and de- had to commit these deeds in order to get the water to o f Los Angeles owns the property now. They turned this case, just as he did when he complained about the pendably here that he paid the government price after he which it was entitled. water out of the ditch four years ago. Sage brush has shortage of trees to accord justice to the pioneers of had sold his ranch to the city of Los Angeles for a flat started in the front patio. The city's agent may come this valley. 'But orderly government contemplates judicial adjudi- along some day with his fire brand; until then it will cash price of $45,000. cation of conflicting claims of rights. Los Angeles, after be a scene of wreckage. But the McNally ditch farmholds are only an incident George W. Naylor, chairman of the board of srper- the manner of the road agent, did not wait upon the And so along the road for five miles, where once were in the procedure of wreckage. There's Manzanar, visors; V. L. Jones, county assessor, and U. G. Clark lawful decree of a court; it put itself above the law and to be seen prosperous alfalfa ranches and gardens, dairy 'Apple Land," where I saw seven children playing in have served the city of Los Angeles as appraisers at the courts. and beef cattle and fast-growing young orchards. The the dry and baked yard of what was a two-teacher $50 per day. The Los Angeles water and power board Los Angeles, through its water and power board, has ranches of Frank Perigoy, C. B. Scott, R. B. Young, Karl school. And there is the Owens river canal along which has boasted, through its accerediate agents, that it pos- spent approximately $11,500,000 for Owens Valley farms Beckman, Charles Geiger, E. S. Bigelow, Andrew Van the city has acquired eighty-three farms out of a total sesses complete data as to title, mortgages and other which it has turned back to desert waste in order to get Fleet, L. P. Yandell, W. R. Ford, George Shuey, 0. II. of 116. Of those still owned privately, eleven are held indebtedness of every land owner in Owens Valley. water into its aqueluct. One-third of this sum would Hampton, Fred Symons, Lester Linscott, Henry Ehlen, by widows. The city has the habit of leaving widows It has also been stated that the city has not indulged have developed twice as much water as has been taken L. H. J. Ehlen, Fred Alpers, Will Symon, Arch Farring- until last, apparently on the assumption that it will be in bribery or showed any favoritism in acquiring farm from the farms through storage in the higher altitudes. ton and a dozen others. easier to drive them to the wall when the hour of driv- lands in this valley! The farms could have lived and continued to blossom. ing arrives. By this procedure over 71,000 acres have been withdrawn Along the McNally ditch were once eighty-five farm Bankers Face Fight from productiveness; only 12,400 acres of irrigated farm homes, with a total acreage of 13,712 acres. Today Then there are the orchards all along the state high- There are two banks in Bishop, with branches in other land now remains in private ownership. there are two privately owned farms, 112 acres in all. way which the Los Angeles water and power board tried valley towns, controlled by M. Q. and W. W. Watterson, One of these is owned by a widow. Los Angeles has to keep the state from building and which, when its ef- brothers. The Wattersons have other large interests—a Taking all heated controversy and recrimination out retired along this one irrigation canal 13,600 acres of forts were doomed to failure, claimed it as their con- soda refining plant at Keeler, mines and livestock. They of consideration the record from day to day is that Los fine land from cultivation; it is rapidly returning to tribution. The orchards are being pulled up by tractors are regarded by the people who still own property here Angeles has followed the policy of eradicating agricul- primitive desert. and burned. as their saviors. These Watterson banks have never called Looters of Valley ing plague in Owens Valley. Every fresh turn reveals a a loan on farm lands, notwithstanding that the value of pany was instructed to sell the old depot a mile to the scene of desolation; every interview a heartache. the security has depreciated from 50 to 75 per cent. northward of the present station. He made a deal with Los Angeles is shamefaced along the highway! After They were builders, not wreckers. a miner of Saline Valley at a ridiculously low price. The the manner of the guilty thief and ravager, she is cov- I experience a sense of failure at having done justice There is another group of Owens Valley men worth miner came to get his purchase and finding nobody around ering her trail. The trees are pulled out by the roots to th story of Owens Valley. It is the most tragic, the mentioning: George Warren, sold land to Los Angeles he took the wrong building, the new Mt. Whitney depot. and burned, the ashes scattered, and in a few years sage most dramatic, real life episode I have ever heard or for $63,000; Charles A. Partridge sold land to Los An- By the time the mistake was discovered the building had brush and tumbleweed conceal the scars from the eyes read of or been permitted to gaze upon. It is absolutely geles for $106,000; George Watterson sold land to Los been broken up and sold to several different parties, so of strangers. The looters of Owens Valley hope the unprecedented. Angeles for $50,000; Thomas Williams sold land to Los it was never restored. future generation will forget their crime and not curse But all that has been said and remains to be said stresses one outstanding and fundamental article of Angeles for $97,000; W. A. Cashbaugh sold land to Los The railway company comprehended the plans of the Los Angeles. Angeles for $125,000. city of Los Angeles in the seizure of the water supply The same procedure is being followed around Inde- policy on the part of Los Angeles. In October, 1926, this group of men applied to the of Owens valley and concluded it could get along without pendence and Big Pine. From Manzanar to Big Pine This was and is to kill completely and as quickly as comptroller of the U. S. treasury for a charter to es- replacing the depot. There would soon be nothing to the city has purchased 12,000 acres, representing 123 possible all agriculture in the Owens Valley; to elminate tablish a national bank in Bishop. The comptroller sent stop for at Mt. Whitney, anyway. holdings, for approximately $3,000,000. This acreage is the demand of the land for irrigation water. consigned to desert now. a bank examiner to the valley to survey conditions. He Fifteen years ago the William Penn colony existed Put another way, Los Angeles adopted and adhered reported that there was not enough business for two This same $3,000,000 would have constructed a dam to a measured program for the looting of Owens Valley banks, much less for three. along the railroad at Mt. Whitney station. The project in Long Valley sufficient to have stored water to give land of its water. Execution of this program has cost consisted of 30,000 acres of land, with water rights an equated flow of a volume four times as great as Los Angeles a lot of money. To date, about $11,500,000 Seek State Bank amounting to 9000 miner's inches, capable of adequate needed to irrigate the 85,000 acres of first class farming has been paid for farmholds, for no other purpose, but This same group of men thereupon filed application irrigation for about 23,000 acres of land. More than land in Owens Valley. But Los Angeles has not pro- to devastate them of improvements and turn them back with the California Bank Commissioner for a charter forty homes had been built when the city came into the vided for the storage of a single gallon of water above to desert, in eleven mutual water and ditch companies valley and bought the land to get control of the water. that had developed small irrigation systems without bond for a state bank. They were a beautiful community of farms—alfalfa the highest diversion point in the Owens Valley. A hearing on the application was had in San Fran- issues. From Big Pine to Manzanar the city has bought fields, orchards, truck gardens, stock pastures. Flowers Five miles south of Bishop is Sunland—once a fair land for which it has paid an additional sum of approxi- cisco today (March 31, 1927). A committee of Owens bloomed, bees gathered the nectar and Inyo County community of orchards and vineyards. C. W. Leffing, mately $3,000,000. Altogether the city has acquired Valley citizens went to San Francisco to submit state- honey went out to the metropolitan markets. well, capitalist and citrus grower, owned 136 acres of ments opposing the proposed bank. Superintendent of about 71,000 acres solely to withdraw and withhold orchards in Sunland. When brought to maturity they from cultivation. Banks Wood announced that he would visit Owens would have represented an investment of $1000 per acre. Valley and make a thorough examination before grant- Primitive Desert Again He saw the handwriting on the wall and sold out; he The several valley towns, at one time on the way to ing the desired permit. had come into the valley as an investor and Los Angeles prosperity and good fortune, are doomed to retrogres- It has been openly stated here that the group of ap- Today there is not a trace of William Penn colony ex- was about to destroy him. sion. The urban citizen is suffering along with the plicants for the new bank charter do not plan to operate cept in the bitter memories of the people of Lone Pine, farmer. School accommodations, warehouses, packing The orchards of Sunland have nearly all been pulled plants, shipping facilities, lighting, telephone, street pav- the bank. It is proposed to turn it over to the Los which, like all valley towns, was built upon encircling up. I saw the wreckers at work here also and grew to Angeles public service commission for operation, thus agriculture. Sage brush and alkali comprise the whole ing—all public facilities face a decreased demand. placing the city in the banking business. landscape. There is only a scene of primitive desert. hate a tractor. Theaters, churches and business accommodations are Everywhere one goes it is the same dismal story. overbuilt. One hardware store sold 135 farming ma- Agents of the city have boasted that with a bank to The seat of a once-thriving colony at Mt. Whitney work with, they would force the Watterson banks out Shade trees along the highway and the county road chines in 1920; two machines in 1926. station is an example of the completed trail of the have been permitted to die and the ax has been laid upon All the things told and intimated, however, are merely of business, get possession of the farm mortgages and wrecker; the McNally ditch district about which I wrote them. These trees had from twenty to sixty years of wind up land cultivation completely. two days ago is a demonstration of the heart-rendering the fruits of a great city's program of desolation and growth in them. There were poplars, locusts and cot- destruction. These may be only threats, but their execution would journey back to desert waste. Seven years is ample to tonwood. They were accustomed to cast welcome shadows merely square with the record to date. So they envision complete the trip. over home and farm in the heat of summer. no particularly new menace. The fate of William Penn colony and McNally ditch Pioneer women planted these trees. "We'll Make This Country Dry" As I drove back to Bishop this afternoon I was in a has been designated for the other farming communities Los Angeles politicians destroyed them. cloud of fine soda dust for thirty miles north of Cartago. of Owens Valley. Make no mistake about that. If any In the latter part of 1905 William Mulholland, chief Diversion of the Owens river is drying up Owens lake. one doubts, let him come and see. There has been a lot of silly talk about the greatest engineer of the Los Angeles aqueduct, "Old Bill" to the The stiff winds are picking up the fine precipitated min- good for the greatest number. Los Angeles officials have valley people, according to sworn affidavit said: "We are Manzanar was once famous for its apples. The or- hypocritically mouthed this bromidic catch phrase. But going to turn that country dry . . . we will turn erals and carrying them far and wide. A chance alfalfa chardists of Manzanar won first prizes at the State Fair it does not apply here. field still under irrigation is covered with soda and the in Sacramento and at the Watsonville apple show. A that back to sage brush." stock will not eat it. Owens lake has been a great cool- Los Angeles committed unnecessary harm to the peo- This was the voice of the destroyer gone made with commodious packing plant was erected. The community ple of Owens Valley. She has been ruthless, cruel and ing agent for the valley. When it is dried up, the boil- was prosperous. It was growing rapidly. The village the inordinate power lodged with the political crew com- ing heat of midsummer will make the valley much more crooked. She has warred on the institution of agricul- posing the Los Angeles water and power board. school had two teachers and there was talk of a new ture and blotted out of existence a great and prosperous difficult to live in, for those who elect to remain here. school building. The saddest part of it all is that the desolation was Alkali and soda dust will make the passage of travelers community. not necessary. an ordeal. The Los Angeles water and power board came and She could have gained vastly more benefit for herself bought every orchard and ranch that its agents could by developing water storage on the Owens river above On April 17, 1920, there was a hearing before the But this is only a phase of the blight of Los Angeles trick the owners into selling. The city immediately di- the farming communities. Having done this it would public lands committee of the United States Senate. upon this splendid valley. verted the water from the ditches into the aqueduct. It not have been necessary to injure a single acre of cul- W. B. Matthews, counsel for the city of Los Angeles, dug wells and installed pumps to exhaust the under- tivated land. This could have been done for less than testified before that hearing, saying in response to a ground water supply. question from the late Congressman Raker regarding V. one-third the money which has been spent to buy land Long Valley reservoir: Today Manzanar is a ghastly place. The orchards and turn it back to desert. have died. The city has sent tractors to pull up the "It is the largest and finest reservoir in the country." LOS ANGELES TEARS UP VERDANT OR- VI. Not a gallon of water storage has been provided by CHARDS, PLANTED BY PIONEER MATRONS, apple trees. This should be a week of pink and white blossoms in "Apple Land," instead there is only desola- Los Angeles at Long Valley or at any of the other adapt- TO MAKE WAY FOR ERA OF DESOLATION tion. Vigorous trees just coming into full bearing are TO SAGE BRUSH—AND DESOLATION RULES able sites above the former diversion points of Owens FRUITFUL OWENS VALLEY RANCHES BACK Valley irrigation. prostrate in one field; across the road the blazing trail L Two miles east of Lone Pine, in the southern end of of the fire brand is visible. Not only has the city spent for farming land in com- Owens Valley, is the Mount Whitney station of the nar- These orchards are along the highway into Mono The articles which I have sent out of this valley during mission of its crime of desolation three or four times as row gauge railway running between Keeler and Mina. County, Lake Tahoe, the Yosemite via Tioga Pass; to the past week have recounted only a portion of the much as would have been necessary to store twice as Some time ago the traveling agent of the railway com- the Tonopah district of Nevada. record of the city of Los Angeles moving as an annihilat- much water as the city has ever obtained through its aqueduct; it has, through amazing acts of wastefulness of farm and orchard land in the vicinity of Sacramento; and inefficiency, let thousands of tons of cement de- this despite the fact the irrigation impounding dam would teriorate to uselessness and buried much costly machinery be forty miles below the proposed Silver Creek dam. along the aqueduct line. And it is to be remembered that the Mulholland of Owens Valley is the same Mulholland who has been em- What does this record of the destroyer mean to the ployed as consulting engineer for the Silver Creek people of other sections of California? project. The people of the Imperial Valley should take warn- Valley Is Warning ing from the fate of Owens Valley. Certainly there is a warning to be heeded. The All-American canal which Los Angeles politicians Here is a case where political ownership of public are striving to attach to the Boulder Canyon dam project utilities had full sway for demonstration. on the Colorado river is designed to lead the waters of The city concerned reverted to ruthlessness, savage the Colorado to Los Angeles. The farmers of the Im- disregard for moral and economic equations, to chicanery perial may justifiably expect that Los Angeles will and faith breaking. show utter disregard for their rights if this canal is built. If the great city gets control of the Colorado, The municipality adopted the code of the worst ele- the future of the Imperial Valley may be devastation and ment of its population; not the best element. desert waste. The municipality became a destroyer deliberately, un- conscionably, boastfully. It responded to the emotions Lobbyists Busy of lust, hate and revenge. It reflected the character of the weakest, most untutored, unguided member of society. Lobbyists for Los Angeles are now in Sacramento working for the passage of the Metropolitan Water Dis- The municipality raised itself above the law. trict bill, which would enable them to seize the Colo- It transported explosives and unlawfully fired them rado waters. The smaller cities in this proposed dis- under storage dams of Owens river irrigationists. Its trict should be on guard. Los Angeles is always on the agents, working in the dead of night, threw dikes around receiving end; she has never learned how to give. irrigation canal intakes and diverted water to its aque- The McKinley and Rochester bills are pending in the duct. Legislature. New laws for disposing of the precious water of California have been designed by special plead- The municipality has shown an utter disregard for its ers of urban interests—all because the supreme court promises, its printed word. Its idea of justice has been recently interpreted existing law in favor of a farmer. expressed in a desire for more trees from which to hang those who stood in its way. The agriculturalists are unorganized. The water- grabbers of the big cities don't concede that agriculture What Los Angeles has done in Owens Valley may be has any rights. They say the farmer is not entitled to anticipated from the Eastbay utility district (Oakland's consideration. municipal water project) on the Mokelumne river. The When the big city pleader speaks of "domestic use" of irrigationists of tl;te Lodi, Stockton and Delta regions water he refers only to the city dweller. He does not should be on guard. admit that the farmer needs water either for his land The proponents of the Silver Creek project in Sacra- or for his children. mento already have appeared in the open to oppose any Agriculture should stand on guard and read the dis- water control project that would irrigate 150,000 acres mal story of Owens Valley again.

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