Posted on 10/31/2015 12:35:45 PM PDT by george76
Water in the aqueduct that helped fuel Los Angeles' growth was flowing toward the city Wednesday for the first time in six months after workers removed an earthen and concrete dam that had diverted runoff to the parched Owens Valley.
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Owens Valley ranchers are .. at the mercy of Los Angeles .. LA owns most of the water rights it furtively bought in the early 1900s in a widely chronicled land grab loosely recounted in the movie Chinatown.
William Mulholland conceived the gravity-fed channel to slake the growing city's thirst and famously quipped, "There it is. Take it," as water first flowed into LA 102 years ago.
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The 338-mile aqueduct system typically provides about a third of the city's water
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The relationship between the locals and the "the city," as LA is called in this rural patch of high desert, has been fraught with conflict that intensified this spring when the Department of Water and Power announced that the historic low snow levels would force it to shut off irrigation water.
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ranching has long been a way of life in a place that provided a backdrop for westerns starring Roy Rogers, John Wayne and Gary Cooper, and featuring the pluck of the Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy.
Cattle forage on the valley floor in winter and chomp on irrigated pasture in summer. Some ranchers drive their cattle up to federal land in the mountains in summer, which is how Scott Kemp managed to keep much of his herd nourished
(Excerpt) Read more at mantecabulletin.com ...
I can’t read this article, it doesn’t have any €™s in it.
That’s Chinatown, Jake.
Well it is the Year of Mercy.
You know what happens to nosy people?
A stiletto up the nostril?
Imagine how things would be different, if LA had not diverted the Owens Valley water a century ago.
No way that LA could be one of the biggest cities in the world without having had access to such a water supply.
LA would be a much smaller city, perhaps the size of Fresno or Santa Barbara.
Would the entertainment industry be headquartered in LA if LA had not developed the way it had?
Just wondering about some of these things.
Being Bi-Lingual has its drawbacks.
I think you’re right Dilbert.
Yep, “they get they’re noses cut!”
My favorite line in the movie though is John Houston, “Oh, I still have a few teeth in my head and a few friends in this town.”
A few years back I 4x4d the Mojave trail - which was a horse/wagon trail through the desert that connects a handful of natural springs and watering holes.
The trail was only used for a few years before the Iron Horse made it obsolete, but it’s an interesting historical context to place oneself in — and really makes you appreciate what the environment would be if there were no fresh water.
DEATH Valley is aptly named.
That trip helped me decide to move my family back East to the mountains from whence the water flows, rather than being corralled with millions of people between the desert and the sea.
Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink.
I removed them .
Here in eastern NM we were in a 5 year drought that was drying up everything. Scary to see dusty soil where there should have been prairie grasses. No one was running cattle. The reservoir, and water sources drying up.
Like you, the water rights had been sold to a distant community a long time ago. So foolish!
The windows of Heaven have opened, and we have had rain all summer! Now we can’t get to our place because the creek crossing keeps washing out!
The day we officially turn over LA back to Mexico, I believe we should destroy every single piece of infrastructure especially aqueducts, and power lines, and roads, and dams, after all, they didn’t build it
Anybody remember the thug who cut Jake’s (Jack’s) nostril was played by the film’s director, Roman Polanski?
Of course! It’s the best performance he ever gave. A terrible actor.
That sounds like an amazing trip! F=
I recommend “Cadillac Desert” very good accounting of the Great American Desert, with allot of information about LA and Inyo Valley.
Neither did we, according to the One.
It really gave me an appreciation of what the pioneers endured.
Pretty fun for the properly prepared. There are also reminders dating back to the depression era of folks who unfortunately weren’t. Old vehicles rusting in the sand testifying to their demise.
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