Author: Thomas Edward Malone
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Irrigation
Languages : en
Pages : 514
Book Description
The Great Thirst
Author: Norris Hundley Jr.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520925298
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 830
Book Description
The story of "the great thirst" is brought up to date in this revised edition of Norris Hundley's outstanding history, with additional photographs and incisive descriptions of the major water-policy issues facing California now: accelerating urbanization of farmland and open spaces, persisting despoliation of water supplies, and demands for equity in water allocation for an exploding population. People the world over confront these problems, and Hundley examines them with clarity and eloquence in the unruly laboratory of California. The obsession with water has shaped California to a remarkable extent, literally as well as politically and culturally. Hundley tells how aboriginal Americans and then early Spanish and Mexican immigrants contrived to use and share the available water and how American settlers, arriving in ever-increasing numbers after the Gold Rush, transformed California into the home of the nation's preeminent water seekers. The desire to use, profit from, manipulate, and control water drives the people and events in this fascinating narrative until, by the end of the twentieth century, a large, colorful cast of characters and communities has wheeled and dealed, built, diverted, and connived its way to an entirely different statewide waterscape. The story of "the great thirst" is brought up to date in this revised edition of Norris Hundley's outstanding history, with additional photographs and incisive descriptions of the major water-policy issues facing California now: accelerating urbanization
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520925298
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 830
Book Description
The story of "the great thirst" is brought up to date in this revised edition of Norris Hundley's outstanding history, with additional photographs and incisive descriptions of the major water-policy issues facing California now: accelerating urbanization of farmland and open spaces, persisting despoliation of water supplies, and demands for equity in water allocation for an exploding population. People the world over confront these problems, and Hundley examines them with clarity and eloquence in the unruly laboratory of California. The obsession with water has shaped California to a remarkable extent, literally as well as politically and culturally. Hundley tells how aboriginal Americans and then early Spanish and Mexican immigrants contrived to use and share the available water and how American settlers, arriving in ever-increasing numbers after the Gold Rush, transformed California into the home of the nation's preeminent water seekers. The desire to use, profit from, manipulate, and control water drives the people and events in this fascinating narrative until, by the end of the twentieth century, a large, colorful cast of characters and communities has wheeled and dealed, built, diverted, and connived its way to an entirely different statewide waterscape. The story of "the great thirst" is brought up to date in this revised edition of Norris Hundley's outstanding history, with additional photographs and incisive descriptions of the major water-policy issues facing California now: accelerating urbanization
Ruling the Waters
Author: Douglas R. Littlefield
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806166746
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 405
Book Description
When Europeans first arrived at what is now California’s San Joaquin Valley, they found a vast landscape of wetlands, small ponds, riparian forests, and grasslands surrounding three large swampland lakes. What greets a visitor to the region today is a dramatically different view of mile after mile of row crops, vineyards, orchards, and grazing acreage—some of the most fertile and productive agricultural land in the world. This remarkable transformation, with its enduring consequences, is at the center of Ruling the Waters, a legal, social, and environmental history of how western water law shaped, and was shaped by, the subjugation of the largest freshwater wetlands wildlife habitat in the West. At the heart of efforts to wrest arable land from the region was the Kern River, which rises in the Sierra Nevada and carries snowmelt to what was once a great network of lakes, sloughs, and marshes at the southern end of California’s Central Valley. In Ruling the Waters Douglas R. Littlefield describes how, over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, pioneers and entrepreneurs diverted water out of this network of waterways to extract gold in the mountains and irrigate farms lower down the river, and how the law was made to accommodate these practices. Struggles over the Kern River’s water established one of the most important concepts in water law in some parts of the United States—that prior appropriation, dependent on the chronological order of diversions from waterways, could legally coexist with riparian rights, which restrict water usage to landownership directly next to a river or stream. Littlefield traces this concept to the 1886 California Supreme Court case of Lux v. Haggin—which pitted the giant farming and cattle company of Miller & Lux against a prominent land baron, James B. Haggin—and shows how the lawsuit profoundly shaped future waters issues, which in turn influenced water laws in other western states that were grappling with similar questions. Far from a dry legal history, Ruling the Waters tells a story with world-wide historical environmental ramifications, a tale of competing personalities and values and visions that forever changed both the economy and the ecology of the American West.
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806166746
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 405
Book Description
When Europeans first arrived at what is now California’s San Joaquin Valley, they found a vast landscape of wetlands, small ponds, riparian forests, and grasslands surrounding three large swampland lakes. What greets a visitor to the region today is a dramatically different view of mile after mile of row crops, vineyards, orchards, and grazing acreage—some of the most fertile and productive agricultural land in the world. This remarkable transformation, with its enduring consequences, is at the center of Ruling the Waters, a legal, social, and environmental history of how western water law shaped, and was shaped by, the subjugation of the largest freshwater wetlands wildlife habitat in the West. At the heart of efforts to wrest arable land from the region was the Kern River, which rises in the Sierra Nevada and carries snowmelt to what was once a great network of lakes, sloughs, and marshes at the southern end of California’s Central Valley. In Ruling the Waters Douglas R. Littlefield describes how, over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, pioneers and entrepreneurs diverted water out of this network of waterways to extract gold in the mountains and irrigate farms lower down the river, and how the law was made to accommodate these practices. Struggles over the Kern River’s water established one of the most important concepts in water law in some parts of the United States—that prior appropriation, dependent on the chronological order of diversions from waterways, could legally coexist with riparian rights, which restrict water usage to landownership directly next to a river or stream. Littlefield traces this concept to the 1886 California Supreme Court case of Lux v. Haggin—which pitted the giant farming and cattle company of Miller & Lux against a prominent land baron, James B. Haggin—and shows how the lawsuit profoundly shaped future waters issues, which in turn influenced water laws in other western states that were grappling with similar questions. Far from a dry legal history, Ruling the Waters tells a story with world-wide historical environmental ramifications, a tale of competing personalities and values and visions that forever changed both the economy and the ecology of the American West.
Drought, Water Law, and the Origins of California's Central Valley Project
Author: Tim Stroshane
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
ISBN: 087417001X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
This book is an account of how water rights were designed as a key part of the state’s largest public water system, the Central Valley Project. Along sixty miles of the San Joaquin River, from Gustine to Mendota, four corporate entities called “exchange contractors” retain paramount water rights to the river. Their rights descend from the days of the Miller & Lux Cattle Company, which amassed an empire of land and water from the 1850s through the 1920s and protected these assets through business deals and prolific litigation. Miller & Lux’s dominance of the river relied on what many in the San Joaquin Valley regarded as wasteful irrigation practices and unreasonable water usage. Economic and political power in California’s present water system was born of this monopoly on water control. Stroshane tells how drought and legal conflict shaped statewide economic development and how the grand bargain of a San Joaquin River water exchange was struck from this monopoly legacy, setting the stage for future water wars. His analysis will appeal to readers interested in environmental studies and public policy.
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
ISBN: 087417001X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 401
Book Description
This book is an account of how water rights were designed as a key part of the state’s largest public water system, the Central Valley Project. Along sixty miles of the San Joaquin River, from Gustine to Mendota, four corporate entities called “exchange contractors” retain paramount water rights to the river. Their rights descend from the days of the Miller & Lux Cattle Company, which amassed an empire of land and water from the 1850s through the 1920s and protected these assets through business deals and prolific litigation. Miller & Lux’s dominance of the river relied on what many in the San Joaquin Valley regarded as wasteful irrigation practices and unreasonable water usage. Economic and political power in California’s present water system was born of this monopoly on water control. Stroshane tells how drought and legal conflict shaped statewide economic development and how the grand bargain of a San Joaquin River water exchange was struck from this monopoly legacy, setting the stage for future water wars. His analysis will appeal to readers interested in environmental studies and public policy.
Engineers and Irrigation
Author: United States. Board of Commissioners on the Irrigation of the San Joaquin, Tulare, and Sacramento Valleys of the State of California
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 192
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 192
Book Description
This Bittersweet Soil
Author: Sucheng Chan
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520067370
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 536
Book Description
The role of the Chinese in California agriculture during the later decades of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century was an integral aspect of the agricultural history of the western United States. Although the number of Chinese involved in agricultural occupations at one time never exceeded 6000 to 7000 workers, their lack of numbers does not diminish their impact. Author Chan, of Chinese origin, has made extensive use of census records and county archival sources to produce the first full history of the Chinese in California agriculture.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 9780520067370
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 536
Book Description
The role of the Chinese in California agriculture during the later decades of the 19th century and early part of the 20th century was an integral aspect of the agricultural history of the western United States. Although the number of Chinese involved in agricultural occupations at one time never exceeded 6000 to 7000 workers, their lack of numbers does not diminish their impact. Author Chan, of Chinese origin, has made extensive use of census records and county archival sources to produce the first full history of the Chinese in California agriculture.
Sunset Limited
Author: Richard J. Orsi
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520940865
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 640
Book Description
The only major U.S. railroad to be operated by westerners and the only railroad built from west to east, the Southern Pacific acquired a unique history and character. It also acquired a reputation, especially in California, as a railroad that people loved to hate. This magisterial history tells the full story of the Southern Pacific for the first time, shattering myths about the company that have prevailed to this day. A landmark account, Sunset Limited explores the railroad's development and influence—especially as it affected land settlement, agriculture, water policy, and the environment—and offers a new perspective on the tremendous, often surprising, role the company played in shaping the American West. Based on his unprecedented and extensive research into the company's historical archives, Richard Orsi finds that, contrary to conventional understanding, the Southern Pacific Company identified its corporate well-being with population growth and social and economic development in the railroad's hinterland. As he traces the complex and shifting intersections between corporate and public interest, Orsi documents the railroad's little-known promotion of land distribution, small-scale farming, scientific agriculture, and less wasteful environmental practices and policies—including water conservation and wilderness and recreational parklands preservation. Meticulously researched, lucidly written, and judiciously balanced, Sunset Limited opens a new window onto the American West in a crucial phase of its development and will forever change our perceptions of one of the largest and most important western corporations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520940865
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 640
Book Description
The only major U.S. railroad to be operated by westerners and the only railroad built from west to east, the Southern Pacific acquired a unique history and character. It also acquired a reputation, especially in California, as a railroad that people loved to hate. This magisterial history tells the full story of the Southern Pacific for the first time, shattering myths about the company that have prevailed to this day. A landmark account, Sunset Limited explores the railroad's development and influence—especially as it affected land settlement, agriculture, water policy, and the environment—and offers a new perspective on the tremendous, often surprising, role the company played in shaping the American West. Based on his unprecedented and extensive research into the company's historical archives, Richard Orsi finds that, contrary to conventional understanding, the Southern Pacific Company identified its corporate well-being with population growth and social and economic development in the railroad's hinterland. As he traces the complex and shifting intersections between corporate and public interest, Orsi documents the railroad's little-known promotion of land distribution, small-scale farming, scientific agriculture, and less wasteful environmental practices and policies—including water conservation and wilderness and recreational parklands preservation. Meticulously researched, lucidly written, and judiciously balanced, Sunset Limited opens a new window onto the American West in a crucial phase of its development and will forever change our perceptions of one of the largest and most important western corporations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Engineer Historical Studies
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 192
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 192
Book Description
From the Family Farm to Agribusiness
Author: Donald J. Pisani
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520326474
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 544
Book Description
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520326474
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 544
Book Description
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1984.
Building the Ultimate Dam
Author: Donald C. Jackson
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 9780806137339
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
Offers compelling insight into how designer Eastwood battled government bureaucrats, corporate patrons, and fellow hydraulic engineers to build seventeen dams in the western U.S. during the early twentieth century based on his innovative multiple-arch design. Reprint.
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 9780806137339
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 352
Book Description
Offers compelling insight into how designer Eastwood battled government bureaucrats, corporate patrons, and fellow hydraulic engineers to build seventeen dams in the western U.S. during the early twentieth century based on his innovative multiple-arch design. Reprint.
Flooding the Courtrooms
Author: Mary Catherine Miller
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803231535
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
This legal biography of the California cattle company Miller & Lux illuminates the relationship between law, economic change, and the distribution of wealth and power. It examines law in an environment undergoing rapid development, where the rules governing resources, especially water, were in contention. From the 1870s through the 1930s, Miller & Lux looked to the law to mediate its place amid change. This entailed the hiring of corporate counsel, a new concept for late-nineteenth-century America, and the creative development and use of new legal doctrines. The actions of its lawyers and managers and those of the opponents and judges it faced reveal the complex, dialectical interplay between legal and economic power. Impressively researched from a labyrinth of primary source, Flooding the Courtrooms is an absorbing history of Miller & Lux and its influence in the shaping of the West.
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
ISBN: 9780803231535
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
This legal biography of the California cattle company Miller & Lux illuminates the relationship between law, economic change, and the distribution of wealth and power. It examines law in an environment undergoing rapid development, where the rules governing resources, especially water, were in contention. From the 1870s through the 1930s, Miller & Lux looked to the law to mediate its place amid change. This entailed the hiring of corporate counsel, a new concept for late-nineteenth-century America, and the creative development and use of new legal doctrines. The actions of its lawyers and managers and those of the opponents and judges it faced reveal the complex, dialectical interplay between legal and economic power. Impressively researched from a labyrinth of primary source, Flooding the Courtrooms is an absorbing history of Miller & Lux and its influence in the shaping of the West.