Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water

Chapter 2 details the water disputes between Los Angeles and the residents of Owens Valley in eastern California over access to the Owens River. In the mid-1800s, Los Angeles was a “torpid, suppurating, stunted little slum” (52). It had limited access to water due to its location in an arid coastal basin. Thanks to the arrival of the railroad, the city’s population exploded. The scarcity of water became even more pronounced, as the city’s only water source, the Los Angeles River, became strained under this new demand.

Few understood the water scarcity issue better than Fred Eaton, who was a native Los Angeleno, former superintendent of the Los Angeles City Water Company, and a politician. Eaton, recognizing that there were no sources of water nearby that could sustain the city’s growing population, turned his attention to the closet water source: the Owens River, which was 250 miles away. As Reisner notes, the only drawback to this water source was “that the city might have to take the water by theft” (61). After touring the Owens Valley with Joseph Lippincott, who was head of the Bureau of Reclamation’s California project and who became an ally, Eaton and his good friend (at the time)

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