CHAPTER 12: RIM OF THE WORLD

…a town of six hundred…

2010 official US Census

Groveland got its start during the gold rush and used to be called Garrote…

The Big Oak Flat Road (1955), The Garrotes-First and Second by Irene D. Paden and Margaret E. Schlichtmann, chap. VIII, Yosemite.ca.us, http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/big_oak_flat_road/garrote.html

…the Rim Fire, largest in the history of the Sierra Nevada, devoured more than four hundred square miles…

“Rim Fire: Largest fire in recorded history of the Sierra Nevada,” The Rim Fire: Why Investing in Forest Health Equals Investing in the Health of California. Sierra Nevada Conservancy, SierraNevada.CA.GOV, https://sierranevada.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/sites/236/attachments/10.31rimfirefactsheet.pdf

…including 10 percent of Yosemite.

Author made this calculation using figures on the size of the fire’s destruction and the size of Yosemite from the following sources:

“Fire History.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/nature/firehistory.htm

Also:

“How Big Is It?” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/bibe/learn/management/park_sizes.htm

…allegedly after embers from a bow-hunter’s camp blew onto a drought-dry hill.

Alexander, Kurtis. “Bow Hunter Charged in Devastating Yosemite Rim Fire.” SFGate, San Francisco Chronicle, 8 Aug. 2014, http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Bow-hunter-charged-in-historic-Yosemite-wildfire-5675072.php

…that burned down seven times between 1854 and 1866…

The author made this calculation using major fire documentation from the Columbia Historical Society archives.

…until the local women got tired of waiting around for their husbands and raised funds to buy a firefighting hand pump.

From the following film transcript:

The Streets of Columbia at Columbia State Historic Park, California State Parks, https://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/735/files/transcriptcolumbiashptour.pdf

…snowmelt from the western Sierra Nevada mainly feeds San Francisco and the Central Valley, while snowmelt from the east feeds Los Angeles.

“Los Angeles Water Issue: Why It's Not Just the Drought,” University of Southern California School of Engineering , https://viterbi.usc.edu/water/

LA proper, without imported water, might be home to five hundred thousand instead of almost four million.

Carle, David. Water and the California Dream: Historic Choices for Shaping the Future. Counterpoint., 2016, pp. 105-106

…twenty-thousand-year-old stores…

“Source, Movement, and Age of Ground Water in a Coastal California Aquifer.” United States Geological Survey, https://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps56081/lps56081/ca.water.usgs.gov/archive/fact_sheets/b08/index.html

When not enough snow falls on the mountains, we pump groundwater…

Choy, Janny, et al. “Understanding California's Groundwater.” Water in the West, Stanford University, http://waterinthewest.stanford.edu/groundwater/overview/

Eighty percent of California’s native fish species face extinction in the coming decades.

Kerlin, Kat. “Climate Change Threatens Extinction for 82 Percent of California Native Fish.” College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of California Davis, 13 Mar. 2018, http://www.caes.ucdavis.edu/news/articles/2013/06/climate-change-threatens-extinction-for-82-percent-of-california-native-fish

Humans are sixty percent water.

The Water in You: Water and the Human Body, United States Geological Survey , https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science-school/science/water-you-water-and-human-body?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects

The Central Valley was once a freshet…and planted cotton.

Ingram, B. Lynn, and Frances Malamud-Roam. The West without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us about Tomorrow. University Of California Press, 2015, pp. 203-204

California’s farms now feed a quarter of the nation.

ibid. p. 210

Also:

California Water Science Center. “California's Central Valley.” California's Central Valley | USGS California Water Science Center, United States Geological Survey, https://ca.water.usgs.gov/projects/central-valley/about-central-valley.html

This state is home to 12 percent of the US population.

US Census Bureau. “Census.gov.” Census.gov, https://www.census.gov/

…each of us in California requires about two thousand gallons for one day of life.

The author arrived at this figure using a water footprint calculator:

“GRACE's Water Footprint Calculator.” Water Footprint Calculator, https://www.watercalculator.org/

Ninety thousand people lived in California in 1850…and over 33 million at the next.

Source for historic population stats:

“Resident Population and Apportionment of the U.S. House of Representatives,” U.S. Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/dmd/www/resapport/states/california.pdf

Source for California’s population in 2017:

“U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: California.” Census Bureau QuickFacts, U.S. Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/CA

Westerners have hauled glacial ice from Alaska…

Sherwood, Morgan B. Alaska and Its History. University of Washington Press., 1967, p. 175

…plotted to tow icebergs from the Antarctic…

“California Legislature Endorses Plan to Tow Iceberg from Antarctic,” Toledo Blade, 1 Apr. 1978

…and eyed the Great Lakes.

“NASA Scientist: Undoing Great Lakes Progress Would Take Generations To Recover.” Ideastream, 5 Apr. 2017, http://www.ideastream.org/news/nasa-scientist-undoing-great-lakes-progress-would-take-generations-to-recover

The Colorado River Aqueduct, completed in 1941…

Bureau of Reclamation, and Lower Colorado Region Web Team. “HOOVER DAM.” https://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/parkerdam.html

…runs 242 miles from the Arizona border to the inland reaches of Los Angeles.

“Colorado River Aqueduct.” American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), https://www.asce.org/project/colorado-river-aqueduct/

The California Aqueduct of 1997…

The last phase of the California Aqueduct was completed in 1997.

California, State of. “SWP Timeline.” Department of Water Resources, https://water.ca.gov/Programs/State-Water-Project/History/SWP-Timeline

…runs 444 miles from the Sacramento Bay Delta to the farms of the Central Valley and then continues south.

“California Aqueduct.” Water Education Foundation, https://www.watereducation.org/aquapedia/california-aqueduct

“Not the law, but the land sets the limit”

Austin, Mary Hunter. The Land of Little Rain. Modern Library, 2003, p. 3

…at home in Owens Valley…

Austin describes writing Land of Little Rain while living in Owens Valley.

Austin, Mary Hunter. Earth Horizon: Facsimile of Original 1932 Edition. Sunstone Press, 2007, p. 296

Twenty million people in Southern California…

The author came up with this figure using U.S. Census data to tally the population of all counties in Southern California.

[The people of Southern California] get over half their water from hundreds of miles away.

“Central Valley Project.” Water Education Foundation, https://www.watereducation.org/general-information/central-valley-project

Also:

“State Water Project.” Water Education Foundation, https://www.watereducation.org/aquapedia/state-water-project

Since 1850, Californians built more than twelve hundred dams…

Dams Within Jurisdiction of the State of California. State of California: California Natural Resources Agency, Department of Water Resources, Division of Safety of Dams, Sep. 2017, http://www.water.ca.gov/damsafety/docs/Dams by Dam Name_Sept 2017.pdf

…one or more for every river.

Referring to dams.

Ingram, B. Lynn, and Frances Malamud-Roam. The West without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us about Tomorrow. University Of California Press, 2015, p. 180

Sometimes we make the rivers flow backward.

Hallock, Richard J., et al. “Migrations of Adult King Salmon Oncorhynchus Tshawytscha In The San Joaquin Delta As Demonstrated by the Use of Sonic Tags.” STATE OF CALIFORNIA THE RESOURCES AGENCY DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND GAME. Fish Bulletin 151, http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt1p3001mh&brand=calisphere&doc.view=entire_text

Also:

“A More Reliable Water Supply for California—CVP and SWP Water Delivery Challenges,” The Delta Plan, Delta Stewardship Council, 26 Apr. 2018, p. 91, https://deltacouncil.ca.gov/pdf/delta-plan/2018-04-26-amended-chapter-3.pdf

…a part of Yosemite yielded to municipal interests in 1913…

“Timeline - Hetch Hetchy,” Sierra Club, https://vault.sierraclub.org/ca/hetchhetchy/timeline.asp

…which runs for eight miles and stores water for San Francisco and its sprawl.

“Hetch Hetchy.” San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, sfwater.org/index.aspx?page=92

The Rim Fire earned its name because it approached a lookout called Rim of the World.

Rim Fire fact sheet published 3 Sep. 2013 by the U.S. Forest Service.

The Berkeley scientists…the butterflies and wildflowers appear at different times.

Ingram, B. Lynn, and Frances Malamud-Roam. The West without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us about Tomorrow. University Of California Press, 2015, p. 197

Hetch Hetchy was once a valley, but now it is a reservoir kept in place by a concrete wall nearly thirty stories high.

Bolin, Leslie K., “Hetch Hetchy: Facts and Figures,” Environmental Law and Policy Journal of UC Davis, 1997, https://environs.law.ucdavis.edu/volumes/12/1/bolin.pdf

…the Central Sierra Miwok gathered black acorns and buried their dead.

Pierini, Bruce. “How Did the Hetch Hetchy Project Impact Native Americans?” Journal of Sierra Nevada History & Biography, vol. 6, no. 1, 2015, https://www.sierracollege.edu/ejournals/jsnhb/v6n1/pierini.html

Source for Miwok burying their dead:

Gould, Richard A. Aboriginal California Burial and Cremation Practices. California Indian Library Collections Project, 1989

San Francisco officials proposed to dam Hetch Hetchy after an estimated three thousand people died in an earthquake and subsequent fire in 1906.

“Hetch Hetchy Environmental Debates.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, www.archives.gov/legislative/features/hetch-hetchy

“Dam Hetch Hetchy!” John Muir wrote…Sierra Club promised to defend Hetch Hetchy Valley “if it shall take until doomsday.

Sly, Andrew, et al. “The Yosemite.” 'The Yosemite' by John Muir (1912) - The Writings of John Muir - John Muir Exhibit - Sierra Club, vault.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/the_yosemite/

Now the reservoir supplies water for 2.6 million people.

“Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System.” San Francisco Regional Water System , San Francisco Public Utilities Commission , www.sfwater.org/kiwidgets/SFPUC/index.html

Ellen Meloy once tried to tour…she drove away.

Meloy, Ellen. Ravens Exile: a Season on the Green River. University of Arizona Press, 2003, pp. 191-192

…Harlequin lupine, purple and blue, blotted the shade beside the path.

“Common Yosemite Wildflowers.” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/yose/learn/nature/common-wildflowers.htm

…tried to find the “point” of the place, to “locate some message in its history.”

Didion, Joan. Where I Was From. Harper Perennial, 2004, p. 17

California might have gotten its name…ruled by Queen Calafia.

Starr, Kevin. California: a History. The Modern Library, 2015, p. 5

The name comes from the Arabic word khalifa…

Beebe, Rose Marie, and Robert M. Senkewicz. Lands of Promise and Despair: Chronicles of Early California, 1535-1846. University of Oklahoma Press, 2015

…as in “Behold thy Lord said to the angels: ‘I will create a khalifa on Earth.’” And so he created people.

The Qur'an, Surah Al-Baqara 2:30

The prophet Muhammad said…”…and He sees how you acquit yourselves.”

Kutub al-Sittah, collections of Muhamed’s sayings—from the volume: Saheeh Muslim

…including water from Owens Valley.

Petroski, Henry. “St. Francis Dam.” American Scientist, vol. 91, no. 2, 2003, pp. 114-118., doi:10.1511/2003.2.114

The St. Francis Dam, Mulholland believed, would protect the city from shortages during drought.

Standiford, Les. Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles. Ecco, 2016, pp. 4, 239

On the windy morning of March 12, 1928…and dismissed the leak as benign.

Petroski, Henry. “St. Francis Dam.” American Scientist, vol. 91, no. 2, 2003, pp. 114-118., doi:10.1511/2003.2.114

The St. Francis Dam broke three minutes before midnight.

Rogers, David, and James, Kevin. “Mapping the St. Francis Dam Outburst Flood with Geographic Information Systems,” presentation, Department of Geological Engineering, University of Missoula-Rolla, https://web.mst.edu/~rogersda/st_francis_dam/Mapping%20the%20St%20Francis%20Dam%20Outburst%20Flood%20with%20GIS.pdf

Twelve billion gallons…

Stansell, Anne C. 2014. “Memorialization and Memory of Southern California’s St. Francis Dam Disaster of 1928,” masters thesis, Anthropology and Public Archeology departments, California State University Northridge, 2014

…moved down the canyon at eighteen miles per hour…

Blitz, Matt. “On Occasions Like This, I Envy the Dead: The St. Francis Dam Disaster.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 12 Mar. 2015, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/occasions-i-envy-dead-st-francis-dam-disaster-180954543/#88xp6VSQ21QapLQb.99

…a black mass 120 feet high…

This source cites the wall of water at 120 feet:

Standiford, Les. Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles. Ecco, 2016, p. 6

This source cites the wall of water at 140 feet, then decreasing to 110:

A survivor said…he jumped to a hill that rose higher than the flood.

Also:

Nichols, John. St. Francis Dam Disaster. Arcadia Pub., 2002

Also:

Blitz, Matt. “On Occasions Like This, I Envy the Dead: The St. Francis Dam Disaster.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 12 Mar. 2015, p. 21, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/occasions-i-envy-dead-st-francis-dam-disaster-180954543/#88xp6VSQ21QapLQb.99

…people living nearby put up signs that read KILL MULHOLLAND.

ibid. (Blitz, Matt)

But I don’t know whether Mulholland the individual is at fault…its risks and weaknesses not yet understood.

The following source contains a discussion of a possible underground landslide causing the dam to break, an event Mulholland couldn’t have predicted given the technology of the time.

Standiford, Les. Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles. Ecco, 2016

…the 710-foot concrete wall that is Glen Canyon Dam…

Bureau of Reclamation. “Upper Colorado Region.” Glen Canyon Dam | Upper Colorado Region, Bureau of Reclamation, www.usbr.gov/uc/rm/crsp/gc/

…as it almost did in the summer of 1983…sources of water and power for thirty million people in Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson, and Los Angeles.

Powell, James Lawrence. Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West. University of California Press, 2008, p. 4

…came nipping after the worst droughts…

Ingram, B. Lynn, and Frances Malamud-Roam. The West without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us about Tomorrow. University Of California Press, 2015, p. 42

…In the winter of 1861—62, rain fell in California for forty-three days…

ibid. p. 224

…putting Sacramento, the state capital, under ten to twenty feet of water.

ibid. p. 209

Such floods are typical every one or two centuries…

ibid. p. 57

And yet today, Sacramento has the worst flood protection of any city in the country.

ibid. p. 227

California’s Central Valley consists of…Scientists call the region a giant bathtub.

ibid. p. 207

The land is rich for farming because for millennia that bathtub drained and then filled when storms made the rivers overrun their banks.

ibid. pp. 208, 225

As the global climate warms, the scientists predict…which our reservoirs are built to withstand.

ibid. p. 218

Thousands of miles of levees…considers a major flood a “disaster waiting to happen.”

ibid. p. 226

If the storms that once drowned Sacramento return tomorrow…1.5 million people will try to evacuate.

ibid. pp. 225-228

…the national hub of food production…[meaning California]

“FAQs.” USDA ERS - FAQs, United States Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, www.ers.usda.gov/faqs/#Q1.

…his own wife dead from cancer…

Standiford, Les. Water to the Angels: William Mulholland, His Monumental Aqueduct, and the Rise of Los Angeles. Ecco, 2016

…for thirteen years.

ibid. p. 214

“Please, God, don’t let people be killed.” [and story about Mulholland being woken from sleep to receive the news]

Mulholland, Catherine. William Mulholland and the Rise of Los Angeles. University of California Press, 2000, p. 319

We estimate the dead around six hundred…

Powell, James Lawrence. Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West. University of California Press, 2008, p. 72

Also:

Ingram, B. Lynn, and Frances Malamud-Roam. The West without Water: What Past Floods, Droughts, and Other Climatic Clues Tell Us about Tomorrow. University Of California Press, 2015

Also:

…most of them farmers…on the beaches of Mexico.

ibid (Blitz)

…orange-and-yellow fire poppies, endemic to California, found in the first wet season after fire…

Kadereit, Joachim W., and Bruce G. Baldwin. “Systematics, Phylogeny, and Evolution of Papaver Californicum and Stylomecon Heterophylla (Papaveraceae).” Madroño, vol. 58, no. 2, 1 Apr. 2011, pp. 92–100., doi:10.3120/0024-9637-58.2.92

…and sequoias, whose cones need the heat of flame to release seeds.

Hartesveidt, R. J., et al. “Sequoias Dependence on Fire.” Science, vol. 166, no. 3905, 31 Oct. 1969, pp. 552–553., doi:10.1126/science.166.3905.552-a

…shed lower branches as they age to prevent fire from climbing to their crowns.

Gucker, Corey L. 2007. “Pinus jeffreyi. In: Fire Effects Information System,” U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory, Jan. 17 2020, https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/plants/tree/pinjef/all.html

…the cost of water for agriculture is subsidized by California taxpayers…

“California Water Subsidies.” Environmental Working Group , 15 Dec. 2004, www.ewg.org/research/california-water-subsidies#.Wkg1QCOZNE4

…a town where butterflies once crawled inside the ears of Spanish explorers…

Cleland, Robert Glass. “The Gabriel Moraga Expedition of 1806: The Diary of Fray Pedro Muñoz.” Huntington Library Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 3, May 1946, pp. 223–248., doi:10.2307/3816007

Em GallagherApril 3, 2020