The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism

by Robert W. Righter

  Although the exact numbers and dates of the pamphlets produced by the Sierra Club and, later, by the Society for the Preservation of National Parks are difficult to determine, the first printed circular appeared shortly after Garfield's grant, with the cumbersome title "Mr. John Muir's Reply to a Letter Received from Hon. James R. Garfield in Relation to the Destructive Hetch Hetchy Scheme." In the years to follow these pamphlets, with such titles as "Save the Hetch Hetchy Valley," "Prevent the Destruction of the Yosemite Park," and "Let Everyone Help to Save the Famous Hetch Hetchy Valley," reached numerous people on the eastern, middle, and western parts of the nation.20 They were particularly effective in the Boston area, where Allen Chamberlain saw that every member of the Appalachian Mountain Club received one. J. Horace McFarland provided both labor and money to ensure that members of the Cosmos Club and his American Civic Association were informed. Robert Underwood Johnson mailed brochures to his influential friends and acquaintances.

  With Congressman Frank Mondell of Wyoming presiding, the House Committee on the Public Lands opened hearings on December 16, 19o8. Marsden Manson testified for the city, explaining in detail that San Francisco wished to exchange some Soo acres of Hetch Hetchy Valley land for cityowned land that fell withinYosemite National Park. No sooner had hearings begun than Mondell adjourned until January 12, to observe the holiday break.

  When the hearing resumed, Manson made the rather startling statement that the city would not be interested in Lake Eleanor without assurances that it could immediately develop the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Manson argued that Lake Eleanor would never supply the city's long-term water needs over the next fifty years, given a projected population of 1.5 million to 2 million. Besides, as city engineer he could not recommend such an expensive construction project to the voters of San Francisco without assurance of a reservoir in the Hetch Hetchy Valley.21 San Francisco, therefore, did not want Lake Eleanor if it could not have Hetch Hetchy. Manson's position was a shocking development, for it announced that the city intended to renege on its previous promises. The announcement also contradicted the position of the threesome of Garfield, Pinchot, and Roosevelt, yet none made the effort to call Manson to the carpet. It was, quite frankly, a disgraceful abandonment of an agreed-upon position that offered a sensible compromise. To John Muir it came as no surprise. Earlier he had written Johnson that the San Francisco leaders were "going to Congress to make a desperate effort to get what they want, as I knew they would. Viz, permission to dam H. H. at once without reference to Lake Eleanor & Cherry Creek. For it is Electric power they want, not water. Of course we must fight 'em & I think we'll beat 'em."22

  Muir was right on the city's motives as well as the outcome of the hearing. Most members of the Public Lands Committee received more than a hundred letters of protest, written at the urging of Muir and Sierra Club board members Joseph N. LeConte, Edward T. Parsons, and William Bade. Their circular "To All Lovers of Nature and Scenery" stressed the natural beauty of the valley and the idea that a national park should not be violated needlessly.23 The letter writers advocated preserving the valley as a natural place for the American people to enjoy and appreciate. Through such letters and Sierra Club pamphlets, congressmen who had never heard of the Hetch Hetchy Valley now became informed. The isolated valley was gaining name recognition.24

  The most damaging testimony for San Francisco, however, came not from Sierra Club members but from Edward J. McCutcheon, testifying as attorney for the Spring Valley Water Company. Exacerbating the long-standing tension between the company and the city, McCutcheon maintained that there was no immediate water crisis. Therefore, it made sense to slow down. He reminded the congressmen that "Retch Hetchy Valley is not going to run away." The congressmen were treated to a heated argument between McCutcheon and City Engineer Manson when the Spring Valley attorney raised the subject of a buyout. For years the city and company had haggled over the purchase price. Actually the spread was not great, with the city willing to pay $28.5 million and the company seeking about $32 million, but even this small chasm could not be bridged. In such disagreements the city should have exercised its right of eminent domain, allowing an arbiter to determine the final price of purchase. McCutcheon maintained that Spring Valley was quite willing to enter into the process, yet the city was not. McCutcheon suggested the reason:

  The city of San Francisco is afraid to leave to an impartial tribune the determination of the value of this property, and it comes to you, the Representatives in the Congress of the United States, and says, "Our hands are tied. We are shackled by this monopoly; we are afraid to seek the aid of the courts of San Francisco for the purpose of acquiring this property, and we ask you to give us this big stick in order that we may wield it over the Spring Valley company and make it come to our terms."25

  Manson and A. P. Giannini responded that the city believed it could come to an agreement without going to the courts, but considering the many years of acrimony, such an excuse hardly seemed plausible.26 San Francisco emerged from the House hearings somewhat battered, and without the victory Phelan and Manson anticipated.

  The next month Hetch Hetchy moved to the Senate chambers for hearings on a companion resolution. This time the valley defenders were much better prepared. Robert Underwood Johnson, Alden Sampson, and William Bade for the Sierra Club; Edmund Whitman for the Appalachian Club; Harriet Monroe of Chicago; and J. Horace McFarland for the American Civic Association, all testified. Muir, in poor health as he often was in winter, could not attend. However, he volunteered to pay all the travel and lodging expenses for Bade and Johnson to appear.27

  Senators Francis Newlands and Reed Smoot both attempted to dilute testimony by connecting the interests of the valley defenders with the Spring Valley Water Company. Senator Smoot asked Whitman directly about his connection with Spring Valley. The Boston lawyer replied, "I have no pecuniary interest in this matter whatsoever." Senator Newlands, who had once served as attorney for Spring Valley, asked Johnson the same question and perhaps got more than he bargained for: "I have not the faintest interest in the Spring Valley Water Company, and not one of us who appear here have any interest in it," Johnson declared, adding, "as representatives of the public we refuse to be put out of court on the ground that we happen to travel along the same lines as the argument of the SpringValley Water Company."28 Johnson was annoyed at the question, but no matter what Johnson, Muir, Colby, or anyone else could say, the suspected connection and possible collusion haunted them throughout the struggle.

  This formidable group of witnesses stressed the beauty of the Hetch Hetchy Valley as well as the sanctity of the national parks. Johnson proposed that the nation had four "great natural features": the Grand Canyon, Yosemite Valley, Niagara Falls, and the Hetch Hetchy. Valley. He named the Yellowstone country as fifth. Perhaps the most eloquent testimony came from poet Harriet Monroe, who had spent a week in the summer of 1908 in the valley. In a moving tribute, she called it a garden of paradise, unequaled. Aside from Muir, Monroe would become the most eloquent voice for protection from inundation. Whitman, who had also visited the valley, praised the scenery and particularly the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, the magnificent 20-mile river canyon between Tuolumne Meadows (8,600 feet) and Hetch Hetchy (3,800 feet). He envisioned building a scenic road through the canyon so that others might enjoy it, an idea that would horrify Sierra Club members today.29

  Alden Sampson, a great admirer of Muir and an avid mountain climber, favored total development of the valley, to include hotels, "roads and trails in every direction with small hostelries where people will be put up overnight" Millions of people, he believed, should be able to enjoy the scenery.As for San Francisco's water needs, Sampson had a bizarre idea. He asked the senators, who had topographical maps before them, to note a number of high-country lakes, elevated above Hetch Hetchy and within the Tuolumne River watershed, that, he suggested, could be dammed. The stored water, when released, would skirt the valley by aqueduct on its way to San Francisco. Considering
the loss of at least ro natural lakes and landscape that would be devastated by road construction and maintenance, it was fortunate that no senator took the suggestion serious1y30There is no evidence that Samson presented his idea to the Sierra Club board or anyone else.

  FIGURE 6. This serene prospect gave ample evidence of the opportunity for contemplation in the Upper Hetch Hetchy Valley. Courtesy of the Bancroft Library.

  As the hearing concluded, Edmund Whitman suggested that the senators pass a resolution asking President Taft to appoint a special commission to investigate the Hetch Hetchy issue. Both the senators and the witnesses agreed this would be an excellent idea, although Johnson made a plea for professional diversity. He did not want a commission comprised solely of engineers. The Senate committee was enthusiastic for the commission idea, as it allowed them to withdraw the bill from consideration and set it aside for further study.31 They could postpone a decision on a contentious issue.

  It seemed that Muir's prediction that they would "beat 'em" was indeed coming true.At the opening of 19o8 Phelan and the San Francisco forces felt confident that they had won the battle. A year later, the San Francisco Call voiced disgust that debate in Congress had turned to "a lot of talk about `babbling brooks' and crystal pools." Nothing much could be done until "the New England nature lovers exhaust their vocabularies."32 Both the Call and city officials realized it would not be easy. The congressional hearings revealed a determined opponent with nationwide connections that San Francisco had not anticipated. Furthermore, in March i9o9 William Howard Taft assumed the presidency of the United States. Collier's Weekly, supporting the claims of San Francisco, believed the worst of Taft. There would be no grace period for the new president. In regard to Hetch Hereby the weekly magazine announced that this "simple soul" would be "the most gullible President, in regard to his associates, since Grant left the battlefield for the White House."33 Furthermore, Secretary of the Interior James Garfield resigned, and Taft's new secretary, whoever he might be, would likely be less sympathetic to San Francisco's hopes. What a difference less than a year had made.

  The city had made a serious tactical error when it supported the introduction of the Kahn Resolution (H.J.R. 184) for the purpose of sanctioning land exchanges between the federal government and the city. The attorney general's office had determined that Garfield had full authority to make the grant to San Francisco, exclusive of Congress. There was no compelling reason for the city to let the issue slip from the executive branch of government. The necessary land exchanges could have been negotiated between the Department of the Interior and the San Francisco city attorney. If the courts determined it was necessary for confirmation by Congress, the exchange could have been presented as a fait accompli, requiring a mere voice vote by the two houses. Instead, Kahn's resolution stirred a sleeping giant, one of such size and energy that it would rock the city back to a defensive position.

  For San Francisco, more bad news would come. There is a principle in Western water law that "if you don't use it, you lose it." San Francisco was about to find out the truth of that phrase. Joseph Lippincott of the U.S. Geological Survey, City Engineer Carl Grunsky, and Mayor Phelan had perfected water rights claims at both Lake Eleanor and the Hetch Hetchy Valley in 19oi. However, while the city made surveys and some improvements in the valley, validating its claim, it ignored Lake Eleanor and its outlet. Although Grunsky valued the water potential, even suggesting that Lake Eleanor water alone could meet the city's needs for many years, he focused on the Hetch Hetchy Valley site. As a consequence Grunsky and his staff made no improvements at Lake Eleanor, in effect abandoning the city's water right claim.

  Such an abandonment would have been inconsequential had no one been watching. Unfortunately for San Francisco, William Hammond Hall, an engineer of some ability and an opportunist who sought profit, noticed and prepared to pounce. July of 1902 found Hall camped at Lake Eleanor tacking up claim notices. He was involved in a classic case of claim jumping, but this time it was water, not minerals. His attorney had wired him in Sonora saying, "Abandonment complete and positive, in my opinion." Creating the stories of later Hollywood movies, Hall outmaneuvered not only San Francisco but other water seekers. According to him, two Los Angeles engineers also planned to post Lake Eleanor, but they were three days late. "Old Kibbe," a wizened California prospector who lived near the lake, recalled that after seeing Hall's claim notices, the two engineers "hit the trail for Sonora, cussin' like blazes."34

  With his claim secure, Hall became a middleman for Frank Drum, Eugene de Sabla and John Martin, three principal founders of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company. While fronting for "his clients," Hall approached James Phelan twice in 1907, knowing that Lake Eleanor was bound to be an integral part of any Hetch Hetchy development. He was, as one might expect, met with hostility. Phelan could not quite believe that, through neglect, the city had lost the water rights he had worked to file. When finally convinced, Phelan demanded to know who Hall's principals were, assuming he represented either the Spring Valley Water Company or the Bay Cities Water Company. Hall revealed nothing, simply stating that his clients would entertain a purchase price of $300,000 from the city for the water rights and improvements of the Sierra Ditch andWater Company. Phelan showed him the door.35

  Rebuffed by the city, Hall sought out another purchaser. He settled on John Hays Hammond, a Californian born in San Francisco in 1855 but a mining engineer who left the state with the close of hydraulic mining in 1884. Hammond gained a worldwide reputation and a considerable purse through his activities in South Africa, Russia, and Mexico. He believed devoutly in his profession, convinced that engineers and their "machine civilization" utilized the physical and chemical resources of the world for human advancement. He was, in a sense, a supreme representative of a new faith, based on capitalism, technological knowledge, and a commitment to change. He believed that such places as Hetch Hetchy represented "portions of the globe which for eons had remained comparatively barren and useless" but now might be "transformed into a blessing to man."36

  After some months of haggling, Hammond secretly purchased the Sierra Ditch and Water Company for Hall's $300,000 price tag, hoping to sell his water rights to the city while developing the hydropower. He retained William Hammond Hall to deal with San Francisco or any other interested parties. At this point Hall became deeply enmeshed in city politics, and in time he would be tarred as the bandit who stole Lake Eleanor and then held it for ransom for eight years.37

  The city, embarrassed by its oversight, vilified Hall yet reluctantly had to negotiate. As the year 1909 progressed, the Lake Eleanor-Cherry Creek property continued to appreciate. Manson called for an impartial appraisal of the property, and Charles D. Marx, a Stanford engineering professor, and consulting engineer J. G. Galloway produced a report, dated August 28, 1909. The two engineers suggested a total payment of $150,000 for Hall's Lake Eleanor landholdings and water rights.38 Manson found the price too high. However, in April 1910 the city finally capitulated, purchasing the Lake Eleanor and Eleanor Creek property for $400,000 and the Cherry Creek water rights and property for $600,000. The Cherry Creek (often called a river) water rights actually represented a very significant new purchase, for Phelan's 1901 water filing had never included the creek.39

  This Lake Eleanor water rights adventure, unfortunately, tied San Francisco more tightly to the Hetch Hetchy project. Considering the time, effort, and money invested by the city, it would be difficult to extricate itself. In acquiring all privately owned lands and water rights in the Hetch Hetchy Valley, along the Tuolumne River, and the Hall-Hammond property, the city had spent $1,915,000.40 This sum represented a serious commitment of San Francisco taxpayers' money. With such an investment it would be foolhardy to walk away and in effect abandon the project, much as logic might indicate such a course. San Francisco could not consider other water op tions, but must simply plow ahead, hoping for victory but never admitting defeat.

  NOT ONLY was the San Francisco mun
icipal government rocked back on its heels by Hall's unsavory water dealings, but in March of i9o9 it also had to face a new administration. The sympathetic Washington triumvirate of Roosevelt-Pinchot-Garfield was no more. Gifford Pinchot would stay on to serve in the new administration, but not for long. Theodore Roosevelt was off to Africa, and Phelan must have felt a twinge of concern as he wired him, "BEST WISHES. GOOD VOYAGE. GOOD LUCK. SAFE RETURN" 41 Replacing Roosevelt and Garfield would be President William Howard Taft and Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger, neither of whom had announced, publicly or privately, a willingness to champion the city's cause.

  Sierra Club members were equally unsure of the new president and his interior secretary. Muir sought out information, while Robert Underwood Johnson made contacts in Washington. Johnson was pleased that Ballinger intended to visit Hetch HetchyValley in the summer "in hopes of becoming better informed."42 Furthermore, the new president announced to Johnson that he intended to come west, and Yosemite Valley would be on his agenda. With his political matchmaking skills, Johnson insisted that the new president and his secretary meet Muir in San Francisco. Taft responded: "Tell Muir to join me on my arrival in San Francisco and I'll be delighted to have him on theYosemite trip." A few days later Muir received a formal invitation from Frank Carpenter, the president's secretary, asking if Muir could join Taft on October 6. Muir, of course, was delighted.43

  In early October President Taft arrived in San Francisco for his tour of Yosemite Valley. Muir accompanied him, and the two got along quite famously. Writing to his friends Katharine and Marion Hooker of Pasadena, Muir described the president as "the merriest man I ever saw & he makes all his company merry. The birds & squirrels & deer were half charmed & frightened." Perhaps it was his rotund physical size that alerted the wildlife, but Taft was still quite athletic. He walked the four-mile trail down from Inspiration Point, chatting all the way, while, according to the San Francisco Call reporter, setting a pace that left the others "calling for help." Some of the chat, of course, involved Hetch Hetchy, and Taft laughingly suggested that since the valley was so far from any center of population, it might just as well be used commercially. The jest translated into a headline in the Call, "President Taft Chaffs Muir on Sentimentality," with subheadlines that the president listened "with good nature to Naturalist's Frantic Shriek of' Sacrilege."' The newspaper assured its readers that San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy project had nothing to fear. But the reporter who filed the story was not invited to the noonday meal. There Galen Clark, then 97 and one of the greatYosemite pioneers and protector of the Big Trees, joined Taft and Muir, as did Major William Forsyth, Yosemite's superintendent. All three men questioned San Francisco's motives and intentions, which was bound to make an impression on the president.44