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William Mulholland presided over the creation of a water system that forever changed the course of southern California's history. Mulholland, a self-taught engineer, was the chief architect of the Owens Valley Aqueduct—a project ranking in magnitude and daring with the Panama Canal—that brought water to semi-arid Los Angeles from the lush Owens Valley. The story of Los Angeles's quest for water is both famous and notorious: it has been the subject of the classic yet historically distorted movie Chinatown, as well as many other accounts. This first full-length biography of Mulholland challenges many of the prevailing versions of his life story and sheds new light on the history of Los Angeles and its relationship with its most prized resource: water.
Catherine Mulholland, the engineer's granddaughter, provides insights into this story that family familiarity affords, and adds to our historical understanding with extensive primary research in sources such as Mulholland's recently uncovered office files, newspapers, and Department of Water and Power archives. She scrutinizes Mulholland's life—from his childhood in Ireland to his triumphant completion of the Owens Valley Aqueduct to the tragedy that ended his career. This vivid portrait of a rich chapter in the history of Los Angeles is enhanced with a generous selection of previously unpublished photographs.
Los Angeles Times Best Nonfiction Book of 2000
- Sales Rank: #949001 in Books
- Published on: 2002-05-06
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.10" h x 1.01" w x 6.14" l, 1.43 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 432 pages
From Publishers Weekly
Controversial, self-taught engineer Mulholland (1855-1935) was almost singlehandedly responsible for transforming Los Angeles from a dusty pueblo of 9,000 souls into a teeming megalopolis. The tough-as-nails Irishman, who ran off to sea as a teenager and arrived in California in 1877, began as a ditchdigger, rose to become waterworks superintendent and, in 1913, gave L.A. its first abundant water supply by building the Owens Valley Aqueduct with an army of 5,000 men. Critics charge that the aqueduct, which diverted water to L.A. across desert and mountains from the Owens River 233 miles northeast, was created through devious land deals, water thievery and cronyism. Owens Valley farmers and ranchers, who felt their water had been wrongfully taken from them, committed acts of sabotage, dynamiting sections of the aqueduct in 1924 and 1927 (the 1979 movie Chinatown dealt with parts of this saga). In this sympathetic, scholarly biography, the engineer's granddaughter attempts to refute these charges, which she labels "myths," but her explanations are not always convincing. In a densely detailed narrative unfolding against a backdrop of land booms, earthquakes, oil drilling, local scandals, labor unrest and the rise of the Progressive movement, she portrays Mulholland as a pragmatist with integrity, guided by an overarching vision. She uses recent research pointing to geological conditions undetectable by 1920s technology to exonerate him of the 1928 St. Francis Dam disaster, which unleashed a flood that killed 500 people and destroyed Mulholland's career. Though the scent of whitewash hovers over its pages, this biography will appeal to readers of regional history, city politics and environmentalism. 40 b&w photos. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
The remarkable life of the self-taught, Irish-born civil engineer who led the long, extraordinary effort to bring water to early Los Angeles.Catherine Mulholland (The Owensmouth Baby, not reviewed), William's granddaughter, researched her highly detailed biography from office files, vintage newspapers, city archives, and interviews covering the early history and rise of a great city. William Mulholland's story began with the discovery of a rich water source in Owens Valley. The transportation of this liquid gold to distant Los Angeles was made possible by the massive engineering feat of the Owens Valley Aqueduct-a project that took over a decade to build amid disheartening problems involving financing, hostile landowners and politicians, a biased media, and some radical sabotage. The author describes an unflappable man of iron character, construction expertise, and courage. Mulholland was an avid reader and yet a man of action-a dam builder, a solver of problems who planned and directed the application of the hardest and most dangerous physical labor in planting pipelines through wild deserts and the blasting miles of tunnels through mountainous countryside to finally bring precious water and hydroelectric power to the fast-growing city. In 18 years, Mulholland rose from obscurity to become a leading citizen. His later years were saddened by the mysterious collapse of one of his dams, a tragedy that took 400 lives. Part of the author's intent in creating this biography was to correct what she claims are misleading and distorted themes in the 1979 movie Chinatown.A comprehensive account of a mostly forgotten era, casting new light on Mulholland's legendary achievements for the city of Los Angeles-as well as an enlightening addition to the history of the American West. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
"A saga of truly heroic proportions, a tale told with both grace and grandeur."--"Los Angeles Times Book Review
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Dull as well, ditch water...
By qwerty
This is a very dull, technical read although no doubt it is accurate. I prefer the fictionalized Chinatown contortion of the story. I am sure William Mulholland's true story is fascinating, but this book has more in it about the passing of regulations and ordinances and so on, than the real drama of his story, and seems to be pretty short of depicting the real characters at work in the creation of LA.
34 of 37 people found the following review helpful.
A Great Story Lost in the Details
By Parker Benchley
One of the great stories in American history was the transformation of Los Angeles from a sleepy, anarchic California town into the megalopolis of today. And in any history of this transformation, the figure of William Mulholland looms large, for it was he who almost single-handedly brought about this transformation by providing Los Angeles with the one thing it needed to grow: an abundant water supply. This was accomplished by building an aqueduct to divert water from the Owens River to L.A. But this was no peaceful project; residents of Owens Valley, farmers and ranchers, felt the water had been appropriated from them through cronyism and legal bullying. They retaliated by blowing up sections of the aqueduct in 1924 and 1927. Mulholland himself met his own downfall with the collapse of the St. Francis Dam in 1928, a disaster that killed over 500 people and destroyed Mulholland's career.
These are but parts of a great story in American history, but one would never know it from reading his granddaughter's tome, for the vivacity of the times is thoroughly lost in needless detail; almost a year by year survey of her grandfather's accomplishments. Instead she is more intent on refuting the critics' charges, painting Mulholland as a pragmatist guided by a progressive vision of what Los Angeles could become. Because of this stand, her arguments are not altogether convincing; the Owens Valley residents tend to be painted as villains exploited by villains on the press that seek Mulholland's downfall. In the Preface we are given warning of this bias when she takes previous books on the subject to task. Her attempt at exonerating her grandfather for the St. Francis Dam disaster is also unconvincing, almost as if she were attempting to refute the movie "Chinatown", itself a piece of fictionalized history.
If by reading the above paragraph one thinks this biography is lively, think again. The best way to obfuscate an issue is to bury it in details, and the book covers its subject almost year by year, which is a shame given the subject matter and the presence of Mulholland, a mover and shaker who, unfortunately, became a prisoner of his own vision. Mulholland's life is akin to a Greek tragedy, and this is the stuff of which history is made, not the mere recitation of facts. The tragedy is that, given the subject matter, this book could have been so much more than it turned out to be.
44 of 50 people found the following review helpful.
The history of Los Angeles is the history of it's water
By Marshall
You would think a biography by a grand-daughter may tend to the less objective side. Catherine Mulholland's work is a referenced account of the fight for municipal control of water, and subsequently power, in the early 1900's in Los Angeles. Mulholland takes you by the hand, almost as if you were on an tour with "The Chief", through Willaim Mulhollands childhood, departure from Ireland, to eventual settlement in Los Angeles. From there she cronicles the water needs of the pueblo (pop. 10,000); Mulhollands rise from digger to the designer of the Los Angeles Aquaduct; his management of the political arena to the St. Francis Dam. It was the 'over success' of Bill Mulholland to bring water to a desert that allowed the expotential growth of Los Angeles in area and character. Discriptions of the water works are fascinating - some surviving parts of it still are in use. If you have ever wondered what the real story was behind the film "Chinatown", this is it.
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