Name/Title
Bishop Ranchers Take Control of L.A. Acqueduct Nov. 16-20, 1924Entry/Object ID
2012.20.7Description
Photo postcard titled, "Bishop Ranchers Take Control of L.A. Acqueduct [Aqueduct] Nov. 16-20, 1924." It was taken by photographer Detrick of Bishop. It shows a crowd of Owens Valley ranchers and townspeople taking control of the Alabama Gates gatehouse/spillway. There is one man pouring water into a bucket and several women kneeling down possibly preparing food. Other people are gazing out to the east watching the full flow of the aqueduct pouring down the spillway.
Information from the Water Seekers, by Nadeau, page 70:
"On the morning of November 16, 1924, between sixty and a hundred men, led by Mark Watterson and Karl Keough left Bishop in a cavalcade of automobiles and paraded southward through Independence with drawn shades. A mile north of the spot previously dynamited they pulled up at the Alabama Gates, one of the main points provided for turning floodwaters out of the aqueduct. Without delay they climbed up the hill, took possession of the control house, and turned the wheels that opened the gates beneath. A flood of some 290 second-feet of water churned down the spillway, splashed across the highway and made its way over the valley floor to the dry bed of the Owens River. Not a drop continued down the great cement trough of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. The gatekeeper came running to protest, but he was simply ignored."Made/Created
Date made
November 14, 1924 - November 20, 1924