Posts Tagged ‘Hiram Savage’

To look at it now, solidly in place, you would never know its disturbed history. The broken course of the Sutherland project is one of those fantastic things that could only happen here.  –Shelley Higgins, former City Attorney, in This Fantastic City.

The story of the ill-starred Sutherland Dam, known in its day as a  A Dam Fiasco.

Abandoned Sutherland Dam, 1930s.

Mission Gorge in the 1920s.

One of the biggest hassles we had was trying to keep some of these idiots from building a dam in Mission Gorge . . . A lot of land would have been flooded . . . Santee, Lakeside, and about a third of El Cajon Valley would have been a shallow lake.
–Fred A. Heilbron, San Diego city councilman

When San Diego seem intent on Damming Mission Gorge.

Sutherland abandoned, 1928.

To look at it now, solidly in place, you would never know its disturbed history. The broken course of the Sutherland project is one of those fantastic things that could only happen here . . .

The story of a dam that took 25 years to build: the Dam Fiasco.

A redwood pipe past its prime.

There wasn’t a lawn in the city. But some people went without baths so they could water their pet shrubs. Everybody with money left town. Those who remained became water experts . . .

Read about the Wooden Pipeline to San Diego.