CARRYING WATER THROUGH A DESERT 



571 



and cease with the coming of April, not 

 to descend again until the approach of 

 another winter, the truth of this saying 

 is appreciated. Los Angeles lies in the 

 heart of such a land, where through the 

 long summer growing things usually 

 mark moisture artificially applied. 



Five years ago, when the city stood 

 face to face with the grave problem of 

 a steadily decreasing water supply and 

 a rapidly increasing population, Owens 

 Valley, the cleft in the Sierra from which 

 the waters are to be taken, was almost 

 unknown. Today even the children of 

 the public schools have familiarized the 

 location and characteristics. 



The valley is a narrow one. Seven 

 miles will span it at almost any point. 

 To the eastward are the brown Inyos, 

 to the westward the white Sierra. This 

 latter range of mountains forms the roof- 

 shed of the United States. Mount Whit- 

 ney, snow-clad monarch of them all, rises 

 to a height of 14,502 feet. Twenty-three 

 other peaks exceed 13,500 feet in eleva- 

 tion. Along the Sierra the snows lie 

 deep throughout the year. From the base 

 35 streams debouch and pour into Owens 

 River from a drainage of 2,800 square 

 miles. 



Since the time when the land was new 

 this river has spent its volume in alkaline 

 Owens Lake, which has an approximate 

 area of 75 square miles. Without an 

 outlet, the very high evaporation of 90 

 inches each year has kept the lake at 

 about the present size. Some water from 

 the river has been used for irrigation in 

 the valley, but by far the larger part has 

 done service for no man. 



To insure a water free from alkali, 

 Los Angeles has gone 35 miles above the 

 mouth of the river to build the intake of 

 the aqueduct, and the supply that the city 

 will use in the future will be of almost 

 half the mineral content that its citizens 

 are now drinking. There are a few scat- 

 tering settlements in the valley, but the 

 rugged mountain chain which yearly 

 sends down its floods ofifers scant encour- 

 agement to the settler. Moreover, the 

 government has included the territory 

 within a forest reserve, so that freedom 



from human contamination, apparently, 

 is forever preserved. 



vSi:CURING THE IvAND RIGHTS 



The ranches which carried water rights 

 were purchased for cash in hand. Land 

 was cheap then in Owens Valley. Los 

 Angeles bought 120 square miles for a 

 little over $1,000,000, and did this so 

 quietly by the use of water-works funds 

 that speculators who follow, a city in its 

 enterprises like dust follows in the rear 

 of an army were unaware of their oppor- 

 tunity until too late. Compare the ex- 

 penditure for this item with the millions 

 which New York city h3.z paid to insure 

 the pureness of its new supply. 



So much for the prize for which Los 

 Angeles paid little more than a million, 

 and for which it is now expending $23,- 

 000,000 to bring within the city limits! 

 Now to follow the sinuous course of 

 aqueduct building, marked today by hun- 

 dreds of tents and unpainted buildings 

 strung out along the desert, or perched 

 high on mountain sides, or hidden away 

 in canyons. 



The big water-course is designed to 

 deliver a daily supply of 260,000.000 gal- 

 lons to the two storage reservoirs at its 

 lower end. 



The first 22 miles, from the intake to 

 the toe of the Alabama foothills, is in 

 canal 50 feet wide and 10 feet deep, un- 

 cemented and at a slightly higher eleva- 

 tion than the river. The excavation is 

 here being done by three electric dredges 

 working night and day, and with 8 miles 

 completed April i, 19 10. 



At the Alabama foothills we strike 

 into the mountain side, where a concrete 

 ditch 18 feet wide and 15 feet deep is 

 being constructed. This will receive the 

 flow of half a dozen good-sized mountain 

 streams in addition to that of the river, 

 and will carry the water, at an elevation 

 of 200 feet above the surface of Owens 

 Lake, a distance of 38 miles to the Hai- 

 wee reservoir. 



THE STORE-HOUSE OE THE WATERS 



The Haiwee basin is the old course of 

 the Owens River before the stream was 



