California Irrigation: The Dammed

        Californias lack of wet is a concern for many people. The practice session of irrigation techniques must be controlled to help reduce pollution of water resources, destruction of land, and the devastation effects it has on the population. Water has been circumstantial in the shaping of the human history. It has shaped institutions, destroyed cities, zeal limits to expansion, brought feast and famine, washed away sickness, divided nations, and disposed of refuse (Worster 19).

        Prior to 1848, California was most entirely undeveloped. There were missions and round ranches along the coast with a few settlers dispersed erupt in the interior valleys (Harding 2). In 1849, George Horatio Derby, a topographical point for the United States Army was dispatched to survey the Great Central Valleys nation potential (Haslam 192). While there was a small add together of irrigation, the streams were uncontrolled, not dammed. Large areas were under water during flood periods and high lands were regularly dry each year when the moisture from the pass rains had been exhausted.

        The first irrigation in California occurred at the missions. The earliest irrigation put down was from the San Diego River for the San Diego foreign mission in 1770 (Dept. of L.A.&W.).



The San Juan Capistrano Mission in 1776, the San Luis Rey Mission in 1789, and the San Fernando Mission in 1797 were also involved with irrigation to aid the community. However, the biggest amount of mission irrigation was at the San Diego and Santa Barbara missions. The dam on the San Diego River was 12 feet high and 245 feet long, built in the 1770s (Harding 3). The remains of the diversion dam and portions of its six-mile conduit to the mission can still be found.

        The first national census conducted in California in 1860 counted 308,000 residents - the population had almost tripled...

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