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[[File:Ca owens.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Map of California showing the Owens Valley, the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and the city of Los Angeles]]
Admin moved page What Were the LA Water Wars? to What Were the LA Water Wars
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[[File:1280px-Los_Angeles_Aqueduct_Map.png|left|thumbnail|200px|Map of the Los Angeles Aquaduct]]
The Los Angeles Water Wars represent a significant moment in Los Angeles history. As Los Angeles swelled in the first few decades of the 20th century, it quickly used up much of its available water resources. Historians of the American west have extensively noted that water was often the key to determining the success or failure of a settlement. In much of the arid landscape of the American West, water was a sacred commodity and source of life . Water was critical to the indigenous communities that originated there, and became essential to accommodate the Americans immigrants who eventually made their way west.<ref>Donald Worster, ''Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992).</ref>
====California's unusual water laws====
====Water Wars====
[[File:occupation-LA-aqueduct.jpg|left|thumbnail|350px|Occupation of the LA Aquaduct]]
The Los Angeles Water Wars, which have been (perhaps incorrectly) immortalized in by Roman Polanski's ''Chinatown,'' emerged against this backdrop. Fighting for water justified legal cunning and violence for many Angelenos in the late 19th and early 20th century. When a lengthy long drought from 1892-1904 threatened to damper Los Angeles' growth and survival, city official officials recognized the need to find a new source of water quickly. The Mayor of Los Angeles, through bribery and trickery, facilitated the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct to feed the water needs of Los Angeles--much to the detriment of those where the water came from--the Owens Valley.
====The Players in the LA Water Wars====
====Altering the Los Angeles River to Increase Water to LA====
[[File:Ca owens.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Map of California showing the Owens Valley, the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and the city of Los Angeles]]While the Los Angeles River had been adequate for early settlers, it was unable to sustain Los Angeles’ growth after a series of booms. The completion of the Southern Pacific Railroad line and the railroad line from Los Angeles to San Pedro, and the discovery of oil in the early 20th century made modern Los Angeles possible. As Los Angeles became linked to the rest of the global economy through railroads and ports, and as Los Angeles became the center of a quintessentially-American resource extraction story, it gradually outgrew its water supply—with no other water in sight. Enter Frederick Eaton and William Mulholland (See [[Who Was Involved in the LA Water Wars?]]).
Frederick (Fred) Eaton was the Mayor of Los Angeles from 1898 through 1900. Under his leadership, he created the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and placed William Mulholland in charge. Eaton had met Mulholland while employed at the privately-held Los Angeles City Water Company. Both men had experience in Los Angeles’ nascent water companies and were well-acquainted with the water problems facing this region. Beginning in 1904, Mulholland and a group of engineers were tasked with finding a new source of water for the growing city. Mulholland collaborated with Eaton, and together they found the solution to Los Angeles’ problems in the Owens Valley.<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/d_h/eaton.htm] "Fred Eaton," New Perspectives on the West, PBS.</ref>
====The Reclamation Act and the expansion of water projects====
In 1902, the Reclamation Act passed and was designed to establish water and irrigation projects in western states. The idea was that reclamation or irrigation, projects would make the arid west suitable for American settlement.<ref>[https://www.usbr.gov/history/borhist.html] "The Bureau of Reclamation: A Very Brief History," US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation.</ref> President Theodore Roosevelt—who would become so important to other massive projects like the Panama Canal—supported these projects. However, the Bureau of Reclamation, this nascent federal bureau tasked with reclamation projects, was already interested in the Owens Valley. Since the Owens Valley held so much potential, it only made sense to the Bureau to improve the irrigation systems there to the benefit of Owens Valley farmers and the Americans who would end up buying their produce.
Nevertheless, Eaton was a convincing man with connections, and by 1905 he had convinced the Bureau of Reclamation and President Roosevelt that it was more beneficial to put the water to use in Los Angeles. Furthermore, Eaton and Mulholland were able to assure this resolution by purchasing enough of the water rights in the Owens Valley to block the project, anyway. Eaton and Mulholland orchestrated the purchase of land plots in and around the Owens Valley. These individuals—who were working on behalf of the city of Los Angeles—eventually ceded their water rights to the city. Through deception, and in some instances, bribery, Eaton, and Mulholland were able to purchase enough of the land and water rights to prevent the reclamation project.
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====Building the Los Angeles Aqueduct====
[[File:LA Times cover.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Cover of the ''Los Angeles Times'' showing the First Water Flow from the Los Angeles Aqueduct]]