March 28, 1934 — Mulholland, Van Norman, Scattergood, Lippincott and other prominent L.A. water officials attended opening ceremonies of the Bouquet Canyon Reservoir, which replaced the ill-fated St. Francis Dam and reservoir with roughly the same storage capacity (12 billion gallons). Mulholland died just over a year later at age 79.

World Wide wire photo, 8x10 inches. Cutline (below) reads:

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A new unit was added to the water-storage supply of Los Angeles yesterday when a torrent or water was turned into the Bouquet Canyon Reservoir at a signal from Mayor Shaw while a large group composed of municipal water and power officials looked on.

The huge reservoir was completed at a total cost, including road work and laying of a steel pipe line connecting it with the Owens River Aqueduct, of $4,000,000 after two years' work.

The dam creating the reservoir cost $3,000,000 and the four-mile-long steel pipe line, ninety-four inches In diameter, represents an outlay of $1,000,000. The new storage reservoir's capacity is 12,000,000,000 gallons, or 34,500 acre feet.

The ceremonies placing the dam in use followed welding of the last section of steel pipe carrying water from Cherry Canyon to the reservoir. The final welding took place at the west portal of the 1,027-foot tunnel joining the reservoir and the pipe line.

At the base of an inlet-outlet tower in the reservoir, towering 130 feet in the air [sic]. A spillway gate was raised and water from the Fairmount [sic] reservoir swiftly gained in depth on the reservoir's floor.

The opening ceremonies took place at noon. The group then proceeded along the route of the pipe line to Power Plant No. 1, where they were entertained at lunch in picnic grounds near by after inspecting the turbines set in motion by the movement of the water through the pipe toward the new reservoir.

The water flowing into the Bouquet Reservoir passed into the basin of the reservoir at the rate of 100 cubic feet a second. H.A. Van Norman, chief engineer and general manager of the Bureau of Water Works and Supply, explained that it would require 170 days of steady flow to fill the reservoir.

The earth-fill type dam was built with dirt excavated from borrow pits on the reservoir site. Tamped by hand and later packed by steam rollers, the earth attained a density almost equal to that of concrete. The dam's up-stream face is covered with reinforced concrete. The dam face is 225 feet above bed rock. Its crest is fifty feet wide and 1,160 feet long. The base is one-fourth of a mile thick.

A feature of the project is that water is delivered from the aqueduct to the reservoir and from there to the penstocks of San Francisquito Power Plant No. l, the operation being accomplished by means of gates which may be closed and opened at both ends of the pipe line.

Among the more than fifty persons attending the opening were, besides Mayor Shaw and Van Norman, William Mulholland, Henry L. Jacques. E.F. Scattergood, President Hugh J. McGuire of the Board of Public Works; Lloyd Aldrich, City Engineer; Water Power Commissioner Arthur J. Mullen. T.A. Panter, William W. Hurlbut and Mrs. Harriett Sunday, of the Civil Service Commission; J.B. Lippincott consulting engineer, and President W.P. Whitsett of the Metropolitan Water District.

The tall control tower pictured here gave forth the first flow of water to reach the new Bouquet Canyon Reservoir yesterday at official opening ceremonies attended by leaders in power and light activities for Los Angeles. The water came from Fairmont Reservoir and will be [piped] from the Bouquet Canyon reservoir to the penstocks of San Francisquito Canyon's power plant, combining water resources with added power impetus.

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