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Name of the chapter headline 1 1 Chapters 1 The Early Days — 10 2 Isaac Friedlander — 12 3 The Birth of Madera — 16 4 Madera’s Famed Lumber Companies — 20 5 A Base Camp for Yosemite — 24 Copyright © 2020 by Madera Irrigation District 6 Miller and Lux — 26 12152 Road 28 ¼ 7 The First Madera Irrigation District — 30 Madera, CA 93637 8 Maderans Try Again — 34 9 Miller and Lux Strikes Again — 38 All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this work in any form whatsoever without permission in writing, except for brief 10 A Truce in the “Seven Year War” — 42 passages in connection with a review. 11 Frustration Mounts — 44 12 The Growth of Small Family Farms in Madera — 46 Madera Irrigation District General Manager: Thomas Greci, P.E. 13 Early Groundwater Overdraft — 48 Madera Irrigation District Assistant General Manager: Dina Nolan, P.E. 14 The Push to Dissolve Madera Irrigation District — 52 Writer: Jeff Crider 15 The Tide Turns — 56 Project Director: Andrea Sandoval 16 A Change of Plans — 58 Graphic Artist: Angie Agostino, AgostinoCreative Proof Readers: Madera Irrigation District staff and Brooke Greci 17 The Feds Step In — 62 Cover: Thousands line up to see water released from Friant Dam into 18 A New Era Begins — 66 the Madera Canal on June 4, 1944. Photo courtesy of Madera County 19 Dreams Eventually Become Reality — 68 Library, California History Room, Digital Archives. 20 The Next Challenge — 74 21 Madera Irrigation District Acquires the Madera Canal and Irrigation Company — 78 Library of Congress Control Number: TXu 2-179-941 22 The 160-Acre Limit — 82 ISBN: 978-0-578-64756-2 23 Flood Control — 86 24 Environmental Litigation — 88 25 Interest Mounts in Creating a Water Bank at Madera Ranch — 90 26 The Azurix Debacle — 94 27 Madera Irrigation District Enters the Fray — 98 28 The Challenge of Stabilizing the Basin — 100 A water tank in the late 1800s. Photo courtesy of Madera County Library, California History Room, Digital Archives. EPILOGUE —102 2 3 Acknowledgements Preface This book is made possible by the Board of Directors of Madera’s history is not widely known, let alone the history Madera Irrigation District, who felt that it was important to of Madera Irrigation District and its hard-fought battles to celebrate the District’s 100th anniversary with a history book provide surface water and groundwater replenishment in that documents the District’s major struggles and triumphs Madera County. as it has worked to provide supplemental water supplies for Madera Irrigation District was the agency that led some irrigation and groundwater replenishment in Madera County. of the key court battles of the 1920s and 1930s against Miller In addition to the Board of Directors, I would like to thank and Lux, the agribusiness giant that often used its legal and Madera Irrigation District staff, especially General Manager financial power to block the creation of irrigation districts in Thomas Greci, Assistant General Manager Dina Nolan, and locations that threatened its water interests. Madera Irrigation Board Secretary Andrea Kwock Sandoval for their assistance, District also played critical roles in the formation of the as well as District Operations Supervisor Manuel Guillen, Don Central Valley Project and in providing the water that farmers Roberts and Steve Emmert. I also owe a great deal of thanks have used to create Madera County’s $2 billion agricultural to Mary Sholler, an archivist in the California History Room economy. at Madera County Library, who helped me find numerous As Madera Irrigation District celebrates its 100th articles and books that provided critical details involving the anniversary, this book is provided as an informational resource early history of Madera as well as historical photos, many that describes the most significant challenges the District has of which are used in this book. Sheryl Berry at the Madera faced over the past century as well as the various strategies Historical Society Museum was also instrumental in helping and initiatives the District has employed in keeping with its me gather photos to document Madera’s early history. mission of providing affordable surface and groundwater I also would like to thank Dr. Kent LaCombe and his supplies to ensure the long-term viability of irrigated staff at the Water Resources Collections and Archives at the agriculture within the District’s 140,000-acre service area. University of California, Riverside, who helped me gather original letters, memorandums, historical newspapers, photos — Thomas Greci, General Manager and other materials involving Harry Barnes, who served as Madera Irrigation District’s Chief Engineer during the District’s first 30 years. While I have worked to thoroughly document all of the sources I have used to compile this book, any errors in fact or interpretation are my own. A Madera family poses for a photo in the late 1800s. Photo courtesy A man watches logs float down the Madera Flume. Photo courtesy of — Jeff Crider of Madera County Library, California History Room, Digital Archives. Madera County Library, California History Room, Digital Archives. 4 5 A busy Madera street scene in the 1930s. Photo courtesy of Madera County Library, California History Room, Digital Archives. Introduction Madera County is California’s 11th most productive agricultural county, producing $2 billion worth of agricultural commodities, including almonds, pistachios, milk and grapes, according to the 2017 crop report from the Madera County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office. No economy can be sustained without water, let alone one based on agriculture. Madera County’s economic success is, therefore, inextricably linked to Madera Irrigation District, which has focused its efforts over the past century on one primary objective: to provide farmers with the water they need to nourish their crops and recharge the local groundwater basin. But while farmers knew from the earliest days that agriculture couldn’t survive long-term in the San Joaquin Valley without supplemental water from the rivers flowing down the west slopes of the Sierra, bringing water from snow-fed rivers to Madera area farmlands proved to be far more difficult than anyone could have imagined. Indeed, while Madera Irrigation District celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, the District’s history and local farmers’ efforts to bring water to local ranches actually stretch back nearly 150 years. That’s because there were actually two Madera Irrigation Districts. The first Madera Irrigation District lasted for only a few years — from 1888 to 1893 — and was litigated into near insolvency by Miller and Lux, the giant cattle and meatpacking firm that didn’t want any competitors challenging its use and control of the San Joaquin River. Miller and Lux owned more California land than any other company in the late 1800s and early 1900s and routinely filed suit against newly formed irrigation districts to avoid paying taxes to them. Such taxes which would be used by districts to pay for reservoirs, canals and other irrigation infrastructure that Miller and Lux had no interest in funding. But before delving into Madera Irrigation District’s history, it’s helpful to consider what Madera County was like in the pioneer days and how its economy evolved as Madera became the terminus for California Lumber Company’s famous 62-mile flume as well as a base camp for visitors bound for Yosemite and, most importantly, as pioneering farmers discovered the valley’s agribusiness potential. The first chapters provide historical descriptions of Madera County from its earliest pioneer days, when it was still part of Fresno County, as well as the achievements of Madera’s earliest pioneers, including the famous California Lumber Company sawmill and its successors, the Madera Flume and Trading Company and the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company. The evolution of farming is also documented along with the early recognition that a dam, reservoir and canal would be needed to provide irrigation water for farming and to replenish the local groundwater basin. 6 7 Downtown Madera in the late 1800s. Photo courtesy of Madera County Library, California History Room, Digital Archives. This book describes the efforts of Madera County’s early pioneers, including recognized early on that they could best address local water needs by working with Isaac Friedlander and Thomas E. Hughes, as well as Miller and Lux and the state and, ultimately, federal agencies to achieve the District’s strategic objectives. company’s repeated efforts over a span of half a century to litigate Madera-based Madera Irrigation District eventually sold both the site for Friant Dam and irrigation districts out of existence. Millerton Lake as well as its water rights on the San Joaquin River to the U.S. Indeed, after Madera County voters overwhelmingly approved the formation Bureau of Reclamation. But by working cooperatively with the federal government of the second Madera Irrigation District in 1920, Miller and Lux filed a series of as it built the Central Valley Project, Madera Irrigation District was not only able to lawsuits, using the same legal tactics it employed three decades before when it achieve its own long-term water and flood control objectives, but it was able to help litigated the first Madera Irrigation District into near insolvency. farmers throughout the San Joaquin Valley to gain access to Sierra Nevada water Madera Irrigation District’s first dozen years of existence were marked by supplies. Friant Dam is the northern point of the 152-mile-long Friant Kern Canal, its continual efforts simply trying to survive Miller and Lux’s repeated efforts to which provides water from Sierra Nevada rivers to San Joaquin Valley farmers as far destroy the District or otherwise undermine its plans to build the necessary water south as Bakersfield and the southern point of the Madera Canal, which spans north infrastructure to serve Madera County farmers and forestall, at least in the early to Chowchilla and services Madera Irrigation District.

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