Visual Materials
Owens Valley views
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The course of water : fieldnotes from California's Owens Valley
Rare Books
"'The course of water - fieldnotes from California's Owen Valley' explores the environmental and social histories of California's Owens Valley by attending to the implications of its peculiar hydrology. A stolen river, a dry lake kept wet, Sierra snowmelt, turquoise springs: water takes strange paths in this desert landscape, rerouted by the lives of the people - Indigenous, settler, internee - who have called it home. At the turn of the twentieth century, a lack of water resources threatened to stall the growth of Los Angeles. The city began diverting water from the Owens River - over 200 miles away - culminating in the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913. This led to the eventual desiccation of Owens Lake and much of the surrounding valley"--From back cover.
657301
The City of Los Angeles' Owens River Aqueduct
Visual Materials
The City of Los Angeles' Owens River Aqueduct in the Southern end of the Owens Valley, showing the tailrace from the Cottonwood Powerhouse.
photCL SCE 01 - 00893
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Owens Valley Water and Land
Manuscripts
A collection of 371 items from 1835 to 1938, which contains letters, manuscripts, documents, and maps, in both English and Spanish, related to the life and career of Reginaldo Francisco Del Valle. It includes material on California politics and government, water resources, agriculture in the Owens Valley, the St. Francis Dam disaster, Stephen Mallory White, the Del Valle family (including a copy of the will of Ygnacio del Valle) and the William Mulholland Memorial. There are also land papers for the Camulos Ranch in Ventura County, California.
mssDelvalle
Colorado River
Visual Materials
Colorado River - Copy of Graph - Showing Power drops on Aqueduct from Owens Valley, and pumping lifts on proposed Colorado River-Los Angeles Aqueduct.
photCL SCE 02 - 14445
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Photograph album of automobile road trips in Owens Valley, California
Visual Materials
A photograph album of group automobile trips chiefly through the Owens Valley, California area in 1932, including visits to the towns of Lone Pine, Panamint City, and Independence; hiking in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains; rifle shooting; and drives to mines and mining camps. Several images depict the filming of the Western movie "Flaming Guns" (1932) around Lone Pine, showing the film crew and actor Tom Mix. The unknown photographer may have been working at the Natural Soda Products Company plant, which was situated on the dry lakebed of Owens Lake near Keeler, as there are several images of the mineral plant, the Keeler swimming pool, and a small bedroom captioned "my room at N.S.P. Co." Other images show an Easter service in Keeler, the Cerro Gordo Mine, Estelle Mine, Onion Valley, and in Nevada, the towns of Lida and Goldfield. There are also travel scenes with friends and family in Southern California, including Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Palos Verdes peninsula, and crowds at a Christian Endeavor convention in Whittier.
photCL 654
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Owens Valley
Manuscripts
The collection consists of letters and documents (including 8 volumes) and 876 maps related to irrigation projects in the western United States. There are correspondence, reports, etc. regarding Colorado River projects (including the Colorado River-Los Angeles Gravity Flow Aqueduct); the Klamath Lake Project in Oregon; the Merced Irrigation District in California; the San Juan River, Little Colorado, and Verde projects in Arizona; and many others. Of note in the collection are diaries of La Rue's Colorado River trips from 1921, 1922, and 1924, and maps of western areas.
mssLa Rue papers