Aqueduct Echoes
By Jake Brouwer
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."
Mulholland
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.
Our 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.
At 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.
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Last modified: February 12, 1999
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Jake Brouwer
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