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NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018
(Rev. 8-86)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service

National Register of Historic Places
Continuation Sheet

Section number 8 Page 3

St. Francis Dam (Site of), Los Angeles County, California — Narrative Statement of Significance
[continued]
This metamorphosis was well underway by the turn of the twentieth century. Between 1900 and 1905, the population of the City of
Los Angeles roughly doubled, to 200,000. Even as the rapidly-growing city was attempting to identify new water sources, local
supplies dwindled. For a number of years, promoters and others had suggested a variety of solutions to the gathering water crisis. One
plan, promoted by Fred Eaton from at least 1892, involved importing water from the Owens Valley on the eastern slope of the Sierra
Nevadas, some 240 miles to the north of Los Angeles. This ambitious and unprecedented scheme was not granted serious
consideration for another decade. [Kahrl, 1982: 14-16]

The Owens Valley Water Project
In 1902, the same year as the City of Los Angeles established jurisdiction over its water system, Congress created the United States
Reclamation Service, a part of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which sought to identify potential water reclamation projects in
which water would be used for irrigation in arid but fertile spots across the western United States. The new policy incorporated the
American “ideal of the family farm” and connected it to “economic development, resource conservation, and social progress,” by
using irrigation to open up new farming lands for thousands of families. The federal government’s reclamation activities also
provided an unanticipated opportunity for the City of Los Angeles to claim the waters of the Owens Valley for its own. [Kahrl,
1982: 17, 39-41]
Frederick Haynes Newell, an experienced engineer from the USGS, was appointed chief engineer for the Reclamation Service, and he
in turn appointed Los Angeles resident J.B. Lippincott, whose experience included work for the USGS and private consulting, as
supervising engineer for California. The Reclamation Service’s first task was to identify potential projects in each state. California’s
possible projects included the Colorado River near Yuma, Arizona; the Klamath River in Oregon, Kings River in the San Joaquin
Valley, the Sacramento Valley, and the Owens River Valley in Inyo County.

Newell first suggested the Owens Valley as a project in April 1903, and Lippincott sent engineer J.C. Clausen to look over the area.
On the basis of the region’s water potential, Lippincott suggested that federal lands be “withdrawn,” or temporarily removed from
lands available to settlers, in consideration of a possible reclamation project in the valley. By the end of 1903 over a half million
acres of the Owens Valley were withdrawn. Valley landowners were enthusiastic about the proposed reclamation project, seeing a way
to use water from the nearby Sierra Nevadas to more intensively farm their naturally arid lands. Clausen began a full-scale survey in
September 1903, while Lippincott also supervised surveys on other possible sites in the state. [Kahrl, 1982: 41]

Clausen’s work continued into summer 1904, although major investigations into a potential reclamation dam site were halted in
April when Lippincott requested a drilling rig to continue the investigation. When the rig did not arrive, Lippincott ended federal
investigations in the Owens Valley in September. [Kahrl, 1982: 43]

Meanwhile, during the late summer, Lippincott took a private trip to Yosemite, stopping in the Owens Valley along the way, with a
group of friends including Fred Eaton. Upon his return to Los Angeles, Eaton decided to bring William Mulholland to the Owens
Valley to show him the potential water resources, and suggested that Los Angeles consider using them. In September, Lippincott
wrote to his Reclamation Service superior, Newell, to tell him that Los Angeles was looking at the Owens Valley as a solution to
its water problems. The residents of Owens Valley remained unaware of the city’s interest. [Kahrl, 1982: 53-58]

Under special arrangement, Lippincott continued to operate his consulting business while in the employ of the Reclamation Service.
Although Newell was concerned about the possibility of conflict of interest between Lippincott’s private work and his government
job, he also was concerned about the lack of a budget to complete all possible reclamation projects in California, and in November
1904 warned his engineers of the possibility that funds would be insufficient to complete all of the proposed work. [Kahrl, 1982:
59-61]