The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism
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11. Gifford Pinchot to Robert Underwood Johnson, April 17, 1905, RUJ Papers, C-B 385, "Pinchot" folder, BL.
12. Sellars, Preserving Nature, 36.
13. Gifford Pinchot to Marsden Manson, May 28, 1904, RUJ Papers, C-B 385, "Pinchot" folder, BL.
14. Sellars, Preserving Nature, 37. In the 1930s Pinchot would find himself and his Forest Service on the receiving end of an aggressive bureau when Interior Secretary Harold Ickes attempted to move the Forest Service into his proposed "department of conservation."As Pinchot was unsuccessful in swallowing the national parks, so was Ickes repulsed in his empire building as a result of what is often called the "Ickes- Pinchot brawl." See Miller, Gifford Pinchot, 341-56.
15. See John C. Miles, Guardians of the Parks: A History of the National Parks and Conservation Association (Washington, D.C.: Taylor and Francis, 1995), for a history of the association.
16. Mark W. T. Harvey, A Symbol of Wilderness: Echo Park and the American Conservation Movement (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1994), 61.
17. Department of the Interior, "Report of the Director of the National Park Service," Annual Report, 1919, 962-63.
18. Quoted in Keith W Olson, Biography of a Progressive: Franklin K. Lane, 1864-1921 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979), 107. See also Pisani, Water and American Government, 115.
i9. Congressional Record, House, 66th Cong., 2nd sess., vol. April 19, 1920, 5856-57.
20. Donald C. Swain, Wilderness DeJ nder: Horace M. Albright and Conservation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970) 122-23.
21. Albright, Creating the National Park Service, 333.
22. Literary Digest 67 (October 23. 1920), 90-91.
23. I agree with the suggestion in Karl Jacoby's work Crimes against Nature: Squatters, Poachers, Thieves, and the Hidden History ofAmerican Conservation (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2001) that the setting aside of national parks and forests often had negative effects on the local populations. Such a theory, however, does not fit well with the Hetch Hetchy controversy, although there is a classbased argument that the defenders were insensitive to the poor working class of San Francisco.
24. "Another Hetch Hetchy," The Outlook, July 7, 1920, 448.
25. Michael J. Yochim, "Beauty and the Beet: The Dam Battles of Yellowstone National Park," Montana The Magazine ofWestern History 51 (Spring 2003), 26-27.
26. M. M. O'Shauglmessy to W. B. Lewis, November 14, 1919, in Central Files, Hetch Hetchy, 660-05-41, 1917-1922,YNPA.
27. Today certain areas of the Spring Valley watershed are opened to supervised walks.
28. Quoted in the Sonora Banner, June 1, 1928: also see Stockton Daily Record, July 10, 1928.
29. National Parks Service, The National Parks: Index 1999-2001 (Washington, D.C., 2001), 30, lists Yosemite National Park at 761,266 acres. If 240,000 is accurate for the Tuolumne River watershed, it would be about one-third of the park. The photograph of O'Shaughnessy proudly points to "San Francisco's 420,000 acre water shed." However, this figure would include acreage in the Cherry Creek and Lake Eleanor area, which is in Stanislaus National Forest.
30. Stockton Daily Record, July 5, 1928.
31. Ibid.,July 7, 1928.
32. Horace Albright to Stephen Mather, May 25, 1928, Central Files, Hetch Hetchy, 660-05.41, 1928-1930,YNPA.
33. San Francisco Bnlletin, July 7, 1928.
34. SF City Engineers, 92/808 C, carton 3, folder "Site Inspection, May 1928," BL.
35. Robert M. Searles, San Francisco, to John Edwards, Assistant Secretary of the Interior, October 27, 1925; Stephen Mather to W. B. Lewis, November 3, 1925; Lewis to Mather, November 13, 1925, in Central Files, Hetch Hetchy, 660-05.41, 1928-1930,YNPA.
36. San Francisco News, June 21, 1928.
37. Quoted in ibid.
38. Press Release, Yosemite, October 5, 1927, Central Files, Hetch Hetchy (General), 601-04-4, 1926-1948,YNPA.
39. Stockton Daily Record, July 5, 1928.
40. Editorial, Sonora Banner, June 1, 1928.
41. Keith Trexler, "The Tioga Road," pamphlet (Yosemite Association, 1961), 23. Trexler states that the Park Service built the roads with monies received from San Francisco as "rental" for the Hetch Hetchy area. Although the city did indeed make annual use payments to the park, it did so to fulfill the terms of the Raker Act.
42. "Second Supplement Agreement by the City and County of San Francisco, California under the Raker Act," as agreed on December 8, 1930, typescript in Central Files, City of San Francisco (Hetch Hetchy), 901-IO,YNPA.
43. Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, 4th ed. (New Haven:Yale University Press, 2001), 162.The first edition appeared in 1967, although Nash completed the dissertation version in 1964. His book arrived at a time when Americans were aware of, and many were enamored with, wilderness. It is my opinion that Nash's chapter on Hetch Hetchy was "thesis driven" in the sense that he transposed nature-related words into wilderness-which was not necessarily the intent of his primary sources.
44. Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, 161-81; Clements, "Politics and the Parks," 214; Runte, National Parks, 78; Smith, Pacific Visions, 172; William Cronon, "The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature," in William Cronon, ed., Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature (New York: W W Norton, 1995), 72.
45. Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind, 4th ed., i.
46. Larry M. Dilsaver, ed., America's National Park System: The Critical Documents (Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, 1994), 277-86.
47. For an extended discussion of the meaning of wilderness, see J. Baird Callicott, Michael P. Nelson, eds. The Great New Wilderness Debate (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1998). I have been influenced by the views of historian Paul Hirt, particularly his comments in the session "The Challenge of Wilderness in the Changing American West," Western History Association Conference, San Diego, CA., October 4-7,2001.
48. Marguerite S. Shaffer, See America First: Tourism and National Identity, 1880-1940 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institute Press, 2001), 11; Marion Randall Parsons, "The Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne and the Merced," Sierra Club Bulletin 6 (January 1908), 6, 238; Lucy Washburn, "The Grand Circuit of the Yosemite National Park," Sierra Club Bulletin 7 (January 1910), 149-52.
49. Joseph L. Sax, Mountains without Handrails: Reflections on the National Parks (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1980), 14.
So. "Articles of Incorporation,"printed in Jones,John Muir and the Sierra Club, appendix B, 173. In 1951 the club's membership changed the purpose to "explore, enjoy, and preserve the Sierra Nevada and other scenic resources of the United States." See Cohen, History of the Sierra Club, 89-100, for a discussion of the change, which reflects a more contemporary view
51. Jones,John Muir and the Sierra Club, 135. Jones quotes a large part of the Colby Brief in his book (135-45), but I have chosen to use a photocopy found in SCMP 71/295 C, Carton 38, folder 13, BL.Thus the national park quote may be found in Colby Brief, 7.
52. Colby Brief, 7-8.
53. Runte, National Parks, 19-20; William Owen, "The Matterhorn of America," Frank Leslie's Weekly, May 19, 1892; Allen Chamberlain, "Scenery as a National Asset," Outlook 95 (May 28, 1910), 162-64, 169.
54. Runte, National Parks, 89, suggests that the Colby Brief may have been a necessary compromise.
55. Chamberlain, "Scenery as a National Asset," 162-64.
56. Muir, Our National Parks, 3-4.
57. Quoted in Fox, John Muir and His Legacy, 59.
58. Roderick Nash, The Rights of Nature: A History of Environmental Ethics (Madison: University ofWisconsin Press, 1989), 40-41.
59. Muir, The Mountains of California, 278-91. Muir was a master of "recycling" his writings. To my knowledge the first time this passionate "call to arms" appeared was in the Sierra Club Bulletin 6 (January 1908), 211-20; also see Albanese, Nature Religion in America, Ioi-5.
60. See Marc Reisner, Cadillac Desert: The Ameri
can West and Its Disappearing Water (New York: Viking, 1986), for a less-than-positive appraisal of the Bureau of Reclamation.
61. Harvey, A Symbol ofWilderness, 168.
62. Ibid., 57.
63. Ibid., 238-39.
64. David Brower, For Earth's Sake: The Life and Times of David Brower (Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Books, 1990), 343-44.
65. Stewart Udall, The Quiet Crisis (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963), 122.
66. See Byron E. Pearson, Still the Wild River Runs: Congress, the Sierra Club, and the Fight to Save Grand Canyon (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2002). Pearson gives Brower and the club credit but states that regional politics played an important role in the defeat of the proposal.
67. Monroe, A Poets Life, 221.
10. RESTORATION
i. Congressional Record, 63rd Cong., 2nd sess., vol. 51 (December 5, 1913), 311.
2. "Interview with David Brower," May 27, 2000, at Hetch HetchyValley, by Ron Good, Chair of the Board of Directors, Restore Hetch Hetchy, p. 14, in Restore Hetch Hetchy Archives (abbreviated hereafter as RHHA).
3. Wallace Stegner, "Myths of the Western Dam," Saturday Review, October 23, 1965,29-31-
4. A combination of environmental protest and regional political infighting defeated both the Marble Canyon and Bridge Canyon dam proposals. See Pearson, Still the Wild River Runs.
5. Christopher Swan, Chet Roaman, YV88 (San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1977).
6. San Jose Mercury News, August 11, 1987; San Francisco Examiner, August 6, 1987, clippings in Vertical File Folder-Water, folder "Draining," San Francisco History Room, San Francisco Public Library.
7. San Jose Mercury News, August 11, 1987. James Watt seemed an anathema to en- viromnentalists, but it was his propensity to make inappropriate decisions or comments that forced his resignation. When in September 1983 he publicly announced that on his staff "I have a black, a woman, two Jews, and a cripple," he sealed his fate.
His replacement, William P. Clark, had been Governor Reagan's chief of staff. A lawyer and later judge, Clark compiled a lackluster record as interior secretary.
8. San Francisco Chronicle, August 7, 1987.
9. Ibid.
io. Sacramento Bee, December 2, 1987.
ii. Ron Stork, Friends of the River, to Bill Kahrl, Sacramento Bee, December 4, 1987; Chuck Washburn, Sierra Club, to Editor, Sacramento Bee, n.d., RHHA.
12. Charles Washburn, "No Hetch Hetchy orAuburn Dam," Sacramento Bee, September 20, 1987.
13. Commonwealth Magazine, January 29, 1988, 66.
14. Michael Fischer, "Notes on Conversation with Secretary Hodel at the Dead- horseAirport,"August 12, 1987, in RHHA.
15. "Prepared Remarks of Secretary of the Interior Don Hodel to the FREEPAC," February 3, 1988, in RHHA; Brower, For Earth's Sake, 388.
16. San Jose Mercury News, September 9, 1987.
17. Los Angeles Times, September 9, 1987.
18. Reno Gazette-Journal, September 14, 1987; San Jose Mercury News, September 9, 1987-
19. "Visit to Hetch Hetchy Dam," memo to the Files by Michael McCloskey, Executive Director of the Sierra Club, September 9, 1987, RHHA.
20. "Meeting with Interior Secretary Hodel," memorandum by Mike McCloskey for the Hetch Hetchy Task Force, September 3, 1987, RHHA.
21. Ibid.
22. Memorandum from David Brower to Board of Directors, Sierra Club, September 24, r987, in RHHA.
23. Included with Sierra Club comments in National Park Service, Hetch Hetchy: A Survey of Water & Power Replacement Concepts (February 1988), appendix.
24. Mayor Dianne Feinstein to Honorable Donald Paul Hodel, Secretary of the Interior, August r9, r987, RHHA.
25. Ibid.; "Meeting with Interior Secretary Hodel," September 3, 1987.
26. National Park Service, Hetch Hetchy: A Survey, x-xi, xiii-xxiii.
27. Ibid., 10, 22.
28. Bureau of Reclamation, Assessment '87: . . . A New Direction for the Bureau of Reclamation" (1987).
29. National Park Service, Hetch Hetchy:A Survey, Appendix: Comments Received.
30. California State Legislature, Assembly Office of Research, Restoring Hetch Hetchy (1988), 26.
31. Ibid., 27, 40.
32. Ibid., 40-4i.
33. George Perkins Marsh, Man and Nature (1864; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1965), 35.
34. Frederick Turner, "The Invented Landscape," in A. Dwight Baldwin, Judith De Luce, Carl Pletsch, eds., Beyond Preservation: Restoring and Inventing Landscapes (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994), 35.
35. Ibid., 36-37.
36. NewYork Times, October 15, 2002,A22.
37. Ken Brower, Yosemite:AnAmericanTreasure (Washington, D.C.: Special Publication Division, National Geographic Society, 1997).
38. John McPhee, "Encounters with the Archdruid," The NewYorker, April 3, 1971
39. Ibid., 48.
40. Based on Adam Burke, "River of Dreams:The 3o-Year Struggle to Resurrect Washington's Elwha River and One of Its Spectacular Salmon Runs," High Country News, 33 (September 24, 2001).
41. McPhee, "Farewell to the Nineteenth Century," The New Yorker, 75 (September 27, 1999), 47.
42. Burke,"River of Dreams," ii.
43. See Daniel McCool, "As Dams Fall, a Chance for Redemption," High Country News 36 (June 21, 2004), 12-13, 19.
44. McPhee,"Farewell to the Nineteenth Century" So.
45. Most of the story and facts come from the author's telephone interview with Ron Good, September 27, 2003. For information on Gerold Metal, see Tim Palmer, Stanislaus: The Struggle for a River (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1982), 60-68.
46. Information from fact sheet, October 20, 2002, http://wwwsfwater.org. San Francisco Public Utilities District.
47. San Francisco Chronicle, November 6, 2002.
48. Mayor Dianne Feinstein to Jennifer Fosgate, August 21, 1987; Senator Dianne Feinstein to Ron Good, February 26, 2003, in RHHA.
49. Yosemite National Park, Yosemite Guide, vol. 30 (spring 2001). National Park Service.
So. Neu, York Times, October 15, 2002, October 19, 2002; San Jose Mercury News, August 18, 2002.
Si. Los Angeles Times, March 22, 2003.
52. For instance, see Sarah E. Null, "Re-assembling Hetch Hetchy: Water Supply Implications of Removing O'Shauglmessy Dam" (MA thesis, Department of Geography University of California, Davis, 2003).
53. Modesto Bee,January 14, 2004.
54. Information from the Aspen Institute, http://Nvcvw.aspeninstitute.org/ Program. Accessed on April 9, 2003.
55. Los Angeles Times, February 5, 2004.
56. National Park Service, Hetch Hetchy:A Survey," preface, iv.
AFTERWORD
i. Wallace Stegner, The Sound of Mountain Water (NewYork: Doubleday, 1969), 42.
2. Muir, The Mountains of California 11, 249.
3. William Frederic Bade, "Hetch Hetchy Valley and the Tuolumne Canyon," Independent, May 4, iyo8, 1079-84, passim.
4. For some of these ideas I am beholden to Kendrick A. Clements, "Politics and the Park: San Francisco's Fight for Hetch Hetchy, 1908-1913," Pacific Historical Review 48 (May 1979), 214-15.
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INDEX
Note: Italicized page numbers refer to illustrations
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
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