Aqueduct Echoes
By Jake Brouwer

Monument at The Cascades

On October 25, 1997 a group from the Altadena Historical society mounted a blue and white bus and headed out on a tour of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. The tour was presented by the historical society and our guide for the day was Mr. Paul Rippens.

Our first stop was at the cascades in the North San Fernando Valley. Unfortunately the water was not running over the cascades that day but it was easy to visualize the crowd of thirty of forty thousand waiting for the gates to be opened and the water released the first time in 1913. As the crowds moved towards the cascades to get a better view that 15th day of November, Mulholland had turned to Mayor Rose and said, "There is, take it."

Altadena Historical TourMulholland had finally completed the project that that voters of Los Angeles had approved back in June of 1907. The aqueducts beginnings were in the Owens Valley, flowing from the river through concrete lined conduit, into various reservoirs, through tunnels and siphon pipes, penstocks and powerhouses to the final glorious vision of water coming down the cascades.

Powerhouse Number 1Our guide took us into the Santa Clarita Valley and up into Bouquet Canyon and past the Bouquet Reservoir. This was a pleasant ride through the meandering canyon bordered by small streams and rustic houses. Farther on up we entered the Leona Valley and finally dropped into San Francisquito Canyon. Along the way numerous spots were pointed out where the aqueduct would cross a canyon or rise up a hill or under a bridge.

Inside Powerhouse Number 1At San Francisquito Canyon we stopped at the site of Powerhouse #1 which has been in operation since 1917. Here we took a lazy tour of the Powerhouse and its museum of artifacts. Afterwards lunch was served and stories swapped until it was time to load up for the next destination, the site of the St. Francis Dam disaster.

Thanks to the pictures and books passed around the bus before arriving at this site one could more easily picture the placement of the dam and the damage it caused. Pieces of the dam that were bigger than houses are to be found quite a ways downstream.

It was an interesting day to see the trouble man has gone through to make Los Angeles green.


Send email to Echowebmaster@aaaim.com to report any problems.
Last modified: February 12, 1999

No part of this paper may be reproduced in any form without written permission from:
Jake Brouwer
All articles and photos were provided by:
Land-Sea Discovery Group
Copyright © 1999