Track 4: There It Is—Take It! (William Kahrl with John Walton)

In 1907, Los Angeles voters approved a $23 million bond issue allowing construction to begin on the aqueduct the following year. This was the second bond issue supporting the project; in 1905 voters had passed a successful $1.5 million bond to initiate design and development of the aqueduct which was backed by a group of ten wealthy Los Angeles businessman including; Harrison Gray Otis, publisher of the Los Angeles Times; railroad magnates, E.H. Harrison, Henry Huntington, and Moses Sherman, who was also one of the Los Angeles Board of Water Commissioners.

This group, known as the San Fernando Syndicate, had used insider information provided by Sherman and others to purchase 16,000 acres at $35 an acre in the rural San Fernando Valley north of the boundary of the City of Los Angeles. This cheap real estate would be worth millions if water was brought to the area.[2] But the investors hit a snag when President Theodore Roosevelt, who had decided to support the aqueduct project under his Progressive agenda, realized that this group of powerful capitalists would reap unprecedented wealth if the aqueduct was indeed constructed and put into service. The City of Los Angeles’ project was contingent on securing the rights-of-way through federal public lands if they planned to bring the water across the Mojave Desert.

To curtail the speculation and special interests, Roosevelt ultimately decided to limit the sale of the water exported from the Eastern Sierra within the City of Los Angeles—resale of water for profit outside of city limits were excluded. At the time the San Fernando Valley was a sparsely settled agricultural area not yet part of Los Angeles. To deal with the setback, city leaders gathered the necessary public support to annex the San Fernando Valley into the City of Los Angeles. By 1915 the annex was complete resulting in the valley’s unprecedented development and growth just as the syndicate members had planned all along.

Construction of the 233 mile-long gravity-fed aqueduct began in 1908 was completed in 1913 setting records along the way for a total cost of about $23 million. An estimated 5,000 workers labored under extreme environmental conditions using Caterpillar traction trailers, steam shovels, and other modern machinery alongside fifty-two mule teams. When completed, the new aqueduct was the longest pipeline in existence.

On November 5, 1913, a public dedication ceremony was held at the Cascades, the aqueduct’s terminus near Sylmar located at the northern edge of the San Fernando Valley. William Mulholland addressed the crowd announcing, “This rude platform is an altar, and on it, we are here consecrating this water supply and dedicating this aqueduct to you and your children and your children’s children—for all time.” Mulholland then turned to Mayor, J.J. Rose, and uttered his famous statement, “There it is Mr. Mayor. Take it,” as the water gushed down the spillway. The audience celebrated the event by dipping cups into the flowing stream.

With the aqueduct completed and water flowing southward, life in Owens Valley remained relatively calm from 1913 into the 1920s. Farmers and ranchers who had not sold during the first wave of land sales continued to prosper until a real drought hit the region setting off a demand for more water in both Owens Valley and Los Angeles—now rapidly expanding at an unprecedented rate of growth. During this time, the City of Los Angeles was only exporting modest surface river flows. Under a cooperative water exportation agreement, Owens Valley citizens had been led to believe that they would only export surplus water not used by Owens Valley ranchers and farmers.

As a solution, the City of Los Angeles began drilling wells and commenced with extensive groundwater pumping to supplement their surface exports. Between 1923 and 1926, fifty-two new wells were installed alone in a one-mile zone adjacent to the aqueduct in Independence.[3] By 1930, a total of 171 wells ranging from depths of 100 to 850 feet were in service within the valley. These wells were powered by efficient electric turbines pumping at full capacity. Consequently, groundwater levels dropped drastically forcing Los Angeles representatives to look farther north for additional pump sites.[4]

Additionally, during the late teens, Owens Valley farmers and ranchers began using more water upstream of the aqueduct intake. Fearing competition from these upstream users, the City of Los Angeles commenced on another series of hushed land and water rights purchases during the early 1920s. These sales pitted neighbor against neighbor due to the “checkerboard” purchasing pattern of the properties when a ranch and its water rights were purchased but not the one adjacent to it. The City of Los Angeles would then pump their newly acquired holdings depleting the groundwater levels of those who had held out, which, in turn, focused intensified resentment towards the City of Los Angeles. With the majority of the ranches and farms on the valley floor now sold, local businesses began to fail when their customer base moved elsewhere in search of better opportunities.[5]

Eventually, Owens Valley citizenry came together to form a resistance movement in response to the city’s strong-arm purchasing tactics. Led by local bankers, Mark and Wilfred Watterson, the two brothers organized ranchers and farmers to stand up for their rights while urging the City of Los Angeles to provide more favorable rates for the properties they desired to purchase.

“It is deplorable that the farmers of any community should have to continually fight the encroachment of any large city. If the city must have the water, and it seems that such is the case, what wiser plan would there be than to make preparations to buy out the entire valley, not at your price, not at our price, but by a reasonable price fixed by a board of appraisers…We recommend either the complete purchase of the valley at a fair valuation or the institution of a program which will bring the proper agricultural development of the Owens Valley.”[6]

When negotiations failed, the resistance movement turned violent, setting off a series of mysterious dynamite attacks on the aqueduct that began in 1924 and continued through 1928. During the first wave of 1924 attacks, the City of Los Angeles responded by sending armed trainloads of nightriders and Pinkerton guards bearing Winchesters, Tommy guns, and sawed-off shotguns up to the valley with orders to “shoot to kill” anyone loitering near the aqueduct in their attempt to reveal the agitators and control the violence.

The infamous Alabama Gates Occupation, however, was non-violent; approximately seventy unarmed men took over the aqueduct spillway gate and facility just north of Lone Pine with no contest on November 16th, 1924, releasing water flowing south to Los Angeles back into the now dry Owens River channel.

During the four-day event, over 700 Owens Valley men, women, and children joined the occupation in a great act of civil disobedience.[7] The well-publicized event was a festive affair; the townspeople brought food, barbecued, and celebrated the takeover with a community picnic. Western movie star, Tom Mix who was filming at the time in the nearby Alabama Hills, brought his film crew and a band to show solidarity with the protesters.[8] Inyo County Sheriff Charles A. Collins refused to arrest the “insurgents” and instead, joined the picnic.

Newspapers in Los Angeles and around the world reported on the Alabama Gates Occupation, creating sympathy for their cause internationally. But by the end of the decade the resistance had failed; Inyo County Bank, owned by the Wattersons, collapsed after their bank was subject to an audit which some believed resulted through pressure by Los Angeles officials. An investigation into the matter revealed that the Wattersons had embezzled the savings of valley residents to support the resistance. Still, the majority of valley residents that had lost everything in the bank failure generally felt that the brothers were working with the best interest of the community in mind. Both Watterson brothers ended up serving jail terms for embezzlement. Neither would return to the valley.

By 1933, Los Angeles had acquired 85 percent of all residential and commercial properties in valley towns and 95 percent of all farm and ranches along the valley floor.[8] Citizen outrage eventually led to the divestment of some town properties by the City of Los Angeles, but all associated water rights were retained. Today, Los Angeles remains the largest private owner in Owens Valley with its 314,000 acres predominantly located within the valley’s floor.

For further reading:

• William Kahrl, Water and Power: The Conflict Over Los Angeles Water Supply in the Owens Valley (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982).
• John Walton, Western Times and Water Wars: State, Culture, and Rebellion (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992).

POI: Alabama Gates
The Alabama Gates (site of the 1924 Alabama Gates Occupation) can be seen best while heading north on U.S. Route 395. The structure is dramatically lit at night. A historical marker provided by E Clampus Vitus can be viewed at a pull-out just north of the gates, accessed only from the southbound lane about 0.6 miles south of Moffat Ranch Road.

Latitude: 36.672816°

Longitude: -118.097659°

Track Credits
Archival soundtrack excerpt from Frontier Horizon (The Three Mesquiteers series, Republic Pictures, 1939) starring John Wayne, Ray Corrigan, and Raymond Hatton. Music: Venetian Trio, “Evening Chimes” and Athenian Mandolin Quarter, “Cacliz March.” Historic photograph of the Alabama Gates Occupation, November 16 – 24, 1924. Image courtesy of the Eastern California Museum.

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