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

by Robert W. Righter

  After spending three days with Muir, President Taft suggested that his interior secretary might also have Muir as a companion-guide, since Ballinger would arrive the next week for an inspection trip of the Hetch HetchyValley. With the blessings of the president, Muir greeted Richard Ballinger at the El Portal railway terminal. Off they rode to the Hetch HetchyValley, and although no detailed account remains, Muir believed Ballinger was won over by the trip. On their return he wrote Colby that "all seems coming our way, and the silly thieves and robbers seem at the end of their scheme." He informed Katharine Hooker that "the H. H. scheme seems doomed."45 A letter to Ballinger, written later, revealed that the two spent time discussing a reversal of the Garfield grant and particularly the role of Pinchot, who Muir believed "seems bent on stirring up barren strife to blot and becloud the good work he has hitherto done. Whom the Gods wish to destroy they first make mad."46

  Back in Washington, the defenders of Hetch Hetchy continued their campaign with letters inspired by a pamphlet, dated November r9o9, entitled "Let Everyone Help to Save the Famous Hetch Hetchy Valley and Stop the Commercial Destruction Which Threatens Our National Parks."47 The tract contained quotes from newspapers and magazines, photographs of the valley, and some of Muir's most powerful "sermons" stressing the folly of San Francisco's mistaken schemes.

  The pamphlet represented one of the first efforts of a new organization: The Society for the Preservation of National Parks. The Hetch Hetchy issue had estranged many members of the Sierra Club, to the point that it was difficult to speak with one voice. Roosevelt had made it clear that only a groundswell of public support would save Hetch Hetchy, but how could that happen when the club could not even agree? William Colby began to think of another organization-one that would have a national voice and attract only committed members. The idea had been proposed by Edmund Whitman, the Boston attorney much dedicated to saving the valley. Muir concurred. By April of r9o9 Colby had created, largely through his own initiative, the Society for the Preservation of National Parks. Muir would serve as president, and William Bade as vice president. Colby's wife, Rachel Vrooman Colby acted as secretary-treasurer.

  Although Colby founded the society to defend Hetch Hetchy, its larger purpose was to protect all national parks from invasion. To ensure that the society achieved national stature, Colby called the Bay Area group the "California Branch" and then saw to it that the Advisory Council represented all areas of the country:

  With the possible exception of John Noble, all the members would contribute their time and talent, and on occasion their money. With the officers of the Society for the Preservation of National Parks and an eager national advisory board in place, Colby wrote Pinchot a challenging message: "Let me assure you that we have only begun our fight, and we are not going to rest until we have established the principle `that out National Parks shall be held forever inviolate." '49

  Colby's challenge, however, rang hollow as long as the Sierra Club was hopelessly split. Manson, Olney, Professor Alexander McAdie, William Beatty, former California governor George Pardee, and a number of others continued to denounce the club's leadership, believing that a pure water supply was worth the sacrifice of the Hetch Hetchy Valley. They provided ample ammunition for the city of San Francisco and its newspapers. The club was being torn apart. Finally on December i8, i9o9, Colby sent an open letter to the membership. There had been so much bad press and questioning of the Board of Directors' position that it was time to poll the membership. Colby made it clear that the board had never opposed the development of Lake Eleanor and Cherry River for the city's use, only the violation of the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Members were asked to vote for one of two statements: (z) "I desire that the Hetch HetchyValley should remain intact and unaltered," or (2) "I favor the use of Hetch Hetchy Valley as a reservoir for a future water supply for San Francisco." Both sides distributed broadsides printed on club stationery. Warren Olney took full advantage, writing a seven-page statement. Among other things, he reminded the membership that it would be many years before Hetch Hetchy would be utilized, for the Garfield grant required that Lake Eleanor be developed first; thus "most of you can probably feel secure that the right to camp in Hetch Hetchy and enjoy its scenery untouched will not be taken away in your time." 50

  Colby responded for the Board of Directors and surely attacked the soft underbelly of Olney's argument when he sarcastically stated that Olney's camping statement was "entirely aside from the real question at issue. Does Mr. Olney think that you and I are so selfish that we would stand in the way of San Francisco's proposed use of Hetch Hetchy because our personal pleasure would be jeopardized?" Colby outlined the more significant issues at stake, emphasizing the violation of a national park. Evidently he was more convincing, although most members had made up their minds long before the broad- sides.The final vote supported the Board of Directors' position, 589 to 161.

  The opposition, however, had one more political trick to spring. The club's revised bylaws allowed that 30 members could petition for a special meeting. This they did, resulting in a meeting held on February 18, 1910, in San Francisco's Merchants' Exchange Building. The intent of the petitioners was to censure the board for its Hetch Hetchy position, but Colby was determined that this would not happen. Both sides had done their best to rally sympathetic members to attend, and Colby secured a number of proxy votes, should they be needed. The result was near chaos. Marsden Manson presented the city's case, while attorneys William Gorrill and Clay Gooding argued for sparing the valley. Each side presented a resolution, which was then hotly debated. In the end, there was so much interruption and outrage that the chairperson declared the meeting closed, with nothing accomplished save the loss of tempers. Colby frustrated the petitioners, but Muir also took an active role. Later he wrote an amusing account of his premeeting nefarious activity:

  I managed to get about 80 of our Club members out to dinner at the Poodle Dog restaurant. The long flowery table flanked with merry mountaineers looked something like a Sierra canyon so they called it, the Muir Gorge. After dinner we marched to the meeting, every face radiant, and entered the hall in a triumphant rush, fairly overwhelming the poor astonished Hetchy dainmers. Next morning, the Call reported that I had packed the meeting, though forsoothe I had only packed seventy-seven stomachs.51

  Quite thoroughly defeated, the "Hetchy dammers" became of little account, and the club could, with confidence, oppose the intent of the city. This victory was not without consequences, as approximately So members resigned in protest. Other dissenting members stayed in the club only so they could occasionally support the city's aspirations while publicly identifying themselves as Sierra Club members.

  With a national organization in place and the wounds of the Sierra Club somewhat healed, Muir and Colby worked to introduce as many people as possible to the Hetch Hetchy. Valley. They believed that the valley had an enchantment that could not be denied. Exposure to Herbert Gleason's fine photography of the valley was one way, but actually being in the place was preferable. If one could spend time there, Muir believed that one's understanding and appreciation would come through an outdoor, visceral bonding experience with Hetch Hetchy. He had taken plenty of strenuous hikes, but he didn't believe in them. Such outings were all about human egos, not nature. "Hiking is a vile word," he once advised Sierra Club members. "You should saunter through the Sierra.."52 His belief that seeing the valley in a leisurely fashion could be a transforming experience seemed borne out in the attitudes of the four secretaries of interior who, over time, determined its fate. Richard Ballinger and Walter Fisher, who spent time in the Hetch Hetchy Valley, lined up against San Francisco's desires, while James Garfield and Franklin Lane, who never visited, favored the dam and reservoir. Of course, the secretaries were predisposed to their positions, but still the Sierra Club leadership believed that actually experiencing what would be lost was important. Although Muir and Colby were at odds with Gifford Pinchot, they continually urged him to join one of the Sierra
Club outings to see what was at stake. Pinchot declined, and although he spent some time in the Sierra Nevada high country, he never visited Hetch Hetchy.

  Most of those who spent time in the valley did so with the Sierra Club outings in 19o8 and 1909. Appalachian Club member Allen Chamberlain gained new perspective and commitment after a week in the mountain sanctuary. At the conclusion of the 1909 outing, Colby wrote McFarland that it was a great occasion, with Muir, Edmund Whitman, Allen Chamberlain, Harriet Monroe, Edward Parson, and many others coming away with renewed conviction that the valley must be spared.53 Later J. Horace McFarland came under its spell when he accompanied the Walter Fisher party in 1911. However, perhaps the person most transformed by such a sojourn was Harriet Monroe, a Chicago poet who joined the 19o8 and 1909 outings to Tuolumne Meadows and Hetch Hetchy.

  Harriet Monroe was 48 years of age at the time, and just reaching the height of her creative power as a poet. In 1913, the final year of the Hetch Hetchy debate, Monroe began publishing Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, a particularly influential quarterly that introduced Americans to the "Imagist" poets. Her view of nature was also much influenced by long trips to China in both 1910 and 1911. Through the magazine and her anthologies she counted Ezra Pound, William Butler Yeats, and Carl Sandburg among her friends and had an acquaintance with almost every poet of her time. She loved the American West, freely admitting that "there was nothing like the wildest West to cure me of literary disappointments and other gloomy moods."54 Writing of her 19o8 visit to Hetch Hetchy, Monroe reminisced that once in the "secret valley" they walked "three level miles through flowing green grasses shoulder-high-the only human things between those granite walls, where never a hut nor a spade marred the locked inviolate wilderness." On this leisurely trip they spent three days of "enchanted wanderings-up the Rancheria Creek, back to the Little Hetch Hetchy Valley, across the river and under the cliffs; and three nights of enchanted sleep under the high pines and the stars, with the full moon mounting late over the lofty granite shoulder of `Kolana,' and looking down serenely on the human intruders in her quiet world."55

  Monroe had been a defender of Hetch Hetchy before this trip, but the experience of being there transformed her into a devotee. She would soon testify before the Senate Committee on Public Lands, and men like Johnson, McFarland, and Alden Sampson agreed that she was the most effective spokesperson for their cause. Her enthusiasm and her poetic descriptions won the attention, if not the hearts, of the senators. She wrote a lengthy paean to Secretary Ballinger of her love for the valley, and much as she relished the primitive place she experienced, she could not help but stress its tourist value, noting that "the beauty of Italy saves it from starvation.."56 After hearing of her political triumph, Colby asked that she "work up the scenic side of it [the valley] somewhat along the line of your admirable talk before the Senate committee.."57 In the years to follow, Harriet Monroe was the most effective spokesperson, aside from Muir, for the preservation of Hetch Hetchy. And she was quite willing to play that role, traveling from her Chicago home to Washington or California.

  In her role as advisory board member to the Society for the Preservation of National Parks, Monroe wished to be included in strategy sessions. After her testimony she wrote Herbert Parsons that the fight should center on two issues: (1) the beauty of the valley and (2) the sanctity of the national parks. She was quite convinced that the club should abandon other arguments, such as one that involved sanitation. She also gave practical advice, insisting that Sierra Club activists should not send congressmen special delivery letters that would arrive at night. If the senders could hear the outraged, emotional remarks of some congressmen, they would understand. Later, when Taft elevated Chicagoan Walter Fisher to interior secretary, Monroe felt that he would be open to all points of view She proved to be right.sa

  Harriet Monroe may have been exceptional in her commitment, but by 19o8 Muir and Colby understood the importance of the yearly Sierra Club outing. Colby organized the first outing for the summer of T9o1, following a model used by the Appalachian Club and the Mazamas of Portland. In July of that year approximately Too Sierra Club members traveled to Yosemite Valley. The congenial group became somber when Joseph LeConte, the famed geologist, suffered a heart attack in the valley and died. Although some felt the outing should be abandoned, most agreed that LeConte passed away in a special place that he loved and that they should continue the outing.

  FIGURE 7. Harriet Monroe lived in Chicago, where she wrote poetry and launched Poetry magazine in 1912. She loved the Hetch Hetchy Valley and wrote of its beauty and testified before Congress. Courtesy of the University ofChicago Library.

  They then hiked to Tuolumne Meadows while teamsters and their wagons hauled the 15,000 pounds of baggage, equipment, and provisions up the old Tioga Pass mining road. In Tuolumne Meadows they settled down for two weeks, day hiking, eating, occasionally swimming, and conversing. Participants experienced a close but comfortable experience with nature. The campfire was the special highlight of each day, and usually Muir, Frank Soule of the University of California, William Keith, or naturalist C. Hart Merriam would give a talk. But just as often groups would give rather impromptu plays or all would join in a square dance, music provided by a fiddle or two. Theodore Hittell, a lawyer and historian and, at age 70, the oldest member to attend the 1901 outing, described the camaraderie and lighthearted fun of such an occasion as well as the more daunting hikes, such as up Mount Dana and back in a day. 59

  Sierra Club outing participants were of all ages and were evenly balanced between men and women. Reflecting the times, there was no racial diversity, and the level of education was very high.Whatever social barriers might exist in a more urban setting were broken down by camp life and in the shared vigor of hiking, swimming, fishing, and even mountain climbing. Bonds formed and so did commitments to protect the mountains they so enjoyed.

  Not all women who cared about conservation issues traipsed around the Sierra Nevada mountains, however. The defenders of Hetch Hetchy found an effective ally in the General Federation of Women's Clubs, founded in i89o.With a membership of 800,000 women and chapters in every state, the organization was an effective group, with an affinity for conservation issues and the national parks. In a presuffrage era, it was one of the few ways in which women could gain a voice in national issues. In 1910, for instance, 233 clubs reported that they had sent letters and petitions to state and national legislators regarding forest conservation policies.These many petitions originated with the most active branch of the organization, the Forestry Committee, whose members worked tirelessly to plant trees not only for civic beautification but also to preserve pristine wooded tracts.60

  The Forestry Committee supported Gifford Pinchot's policies, but when it came to Hetch Hetchy, they broke ranks. Historian Samuel Hays notes that women could not understand Pinchot's support of San Francisco. "Following their more basic distrust of `commercialism' of all kinds, they vigorously opposed the reservoir. Many `preservationists' wrote the National Conservation Association [which Pinchot controlled] to resign from a group of false prophets." By 1913 and the Raker Act debates, the influence of the General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC) worried Pinchot and the coterie of San Francisco supporters. William Kent, fighting for passage in the House of Representatives, contacted Pinchot to tell him that the "nature lovers" were working through the women's clubs. Harry Slattery, secretary of the National Conservation Association, scornfully remarked that the female "scenic friends" had let "their heart run away with their head."61

  Slattery's remark merely revealed his lack of awareness. Colby had been in close contact with Jessie B. Gerald, the head of the Forestry Committee, since early i9o9, soliciting support for Hetch Hetchy. When Gerald sent out 38 letters to various state "Forestry women," Colby suggested wording for the letter. In late i9o9, when it was time to circulate petitions, Gerald sought help again, noting to Colby, "We do not want any amateurish thing to be sent around do we?"62 All documentation
in the Congressional Record related to the various Hetch Hetchy hearings reveal that the GFWC and the various lesser-known women's clubs played a significant role through letters and petitions against the damming of the Hetch HetchyValley.

  Of course, women did not then possess the vote, which diminished their power in the eyes of many politicians. Some women used that reality to subtlety make a statement for suffrage. In response to Robert Underwood Johnson's appeal to write congressmen on the Hetch Hetchy issue, Dora Ranous responded: