Posts Tagged ‘Water’

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.

“A big rain is coming,” predicted Henry Cooper, Escondido’s celebrated, amateur weather prognosticator. The Escondido Weather Prophet, as he was known, spoke in early February 1927, predicting a major storm for later in the month. “We shall have copious rains all along the coast,” Cooper declared, “with assured runoff from a heavy mantle of snow in the mountains.”

Read the story of one of San Diego’s biggest rain years: the Flood of 1927.

Mission Valley under water, Feb. 1927.

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.

Water flowing from the San Diego Aqueduct into the San Vicente Reservoir.

San Diego today imports about 80% of its water supply. But until 1947 all of our water came from local wells and reservoirs. This article explains how our addiction to outside water supplies began just after World War II: The story of the San Diego Aqueduct.

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.