WATER STORAGE ON SWEETWATER AND SAN JACINTO RIVERS. 367 



DrFFICTTLTY OF FINDING CLAIMS TO WATER IN RECORDS. 



The claims to water which were filed in §an Diego County prior to 1893 were 

 recorded in the miscellaneoas records and scattered through six volumes, with no 

 clue to their whereabouts, except the note of "water notice" in the index. To find 

 anj' claim posted prior to 1893, therefore, it is necessar\' to look at everj' one in the 

 index which is marked "water notice," a task which is laborious, to say the least. 

 In the first two volumes of the water-claim records there is no index to the streams, 

 and to find the claims filed upon any stream it is necessarj- to examine every claim 

 recorded in the first two volumes of water claims, as well as those in the six volumes 

 of miscellaneous records. The third volume is so indexed that anj' claim upon any 

 stream can be quickly found, and the records are convenientlj' arranged for refer- 

 ence, as they should be. In cases of county division the claims to water on certain 

 streams must be looked for in the records of both counties at their respective county 

 seats. An example of this sort occurs in the division of San Diego County to form 

 Riverside County. San Jacinto River is not wholly within the boundaries of River- 

 side County, and one who is in quest of information as to the claims of water on that 

 stream must visit the count}' seats of both counties, 130 miles apart, and search 

 through the records of each. In Riverside County the water records were begun 

 June 9, 1893, and from that time to May 15, 1900, something over 300 claims had 

 been filed. They are all recorded in one book devoted to water claims, with an index 

 which shows, in separate coluums, the month, day, and jear of the posting of 

 the notice; the month, daj*, and year of the recording of the claim, the name of the 

 claimant, the stream upon which the claim is made, and the book and page of 

 the record. This is a very satisfactory index, and one can find all claims to anj' 

 particular stream b}' simply going through all of the index. The methods and 

 records of the newer countj' in this respect are, therefore, much in advance of those 

 of the older one. 



In neither of them, however, is there any way of determining the validit}' of the 

 claim from any existing record. There is an entire absence of anj'thing like an 

 adjudication of water rights, or anj' sort of proof of the validitj- or invalidity of the 

 great mass of recorded filings. The law does not requii'e anj- such proof to be made, 

 and therefore none is made and the records are barren of all evidence as to whom the 

 water really belongs. No doubt there are valuable rights that have been acquired on 

 the stream, but no one knows definitelj' their extent or volume, and such information 

 can be acquired only bj'^ a formal judicial inquirj' and a determination made by court 

 deci'ee. 



UNRECORDED WATER RIGHTS. 



There are water rights existing in the stream which depend for their validity 

 upon actual appropriation and prescriptive use, and not upon a recorded claim. The 

 first of these above the Sweetwater Reservoir was a ditch appropriation made 1)y 

 David Little, on lands at the head of the reservoir. A small ditch was taken out in 

 the rocky gorge above the reservoir and used to irrigate a few acres, but it was 

 abandoned in 1887. The land from above the point of diversion to and including 

 the oj'iginal tract irrigated was purchased by the San Diego Land and Town Com- 

 pany in 1895, after the dam and resei'voir were enlarged. 



