Owens Valley Aquaduct

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of the Owens Valley community. Once a fecund and fertile region that was home to many small, prosperous farms and ranches, the Owens Valley has been stripped of its main resource due to the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct.
At the turn of the century, Los Angeles began to thrive in its economic ventures. The metropolis was slowly beginning to become focal point of tremendous business activity. As the city boomed, business leaders began to envision the endless potential of prosperity. The population growth was surging. People were flocking to the area in great numbers. The Los Angeles Water Company quickly realized that an auspicious opportunity was to be had and warned the city of need of a subsidiary water supply to sustain its growth. William Mulholland and Fred Eaton were the masterminds behind the idea that was driven by personal gain. They set their eyes on the Owens River, and portrayed its acquisition as an extremely urgent matter for Los Angeles. In reality, ...

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through the combination of normal land purchases and bribery, the city had secured a substantial amount of land and water rights to dismantle the Owens Valley project of the Reclamation Service.
The purchase of land introduced a scheme that Eaton had conjured up driven by his greed. By planning to mix public service with private gain, Eaton also purchased large parcels of Owens Valley for himself. These pieces of land were crucial points in the architecture of the aqueduct because they would house the important dams. By doing so, Eaton had positioned himself to holdout his share of land when the time came for the city of Los Angeles to purchase the remaining land to complete the ...

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