Ingram Thurston: Water and land, then and now in Los Banos
A community is made up of so many things, some intangible.
Its present is made by its past. Over the next few columns I hope to address some of the most important issues, times, and residents of our community. Sort of a Los Banos 101.
The time is 1973 and the writer, Stephen Birmingham, published a book called “The Right Places (For the Right People).”
Reading about such places as the rich coast of Florida, the snowy heights of Sun Valley, and the elegant history of Manhattan, I was surprised to find a chapter on the Central Valley.
It talked about our weather: “ Moist air from the Pacific is turned back by the coastal range of mountains, and on the eastern side, the towering Sierras collect westward moving weather in the form of rain or snow. Thus the Valley remains hot and dry throughout most of the year, and it ‘never rains’ from April to October.”
The chapter tells of how, from the earliest days of California settlements in the Central Valley, they had to struggle with our challenging weather and that during the long summers, rivers shrank or dried up altogether and the valley became a desert.
The most important issue then was water. Sound familiar?
Here it gets very interesting. The book reminds us that one of the first to recognize the valley’s potential in a large way was our local hero, Los Banos’ own, Henry Miller.
Seeing the Valley’s potential, Miller began to design levees and intricate irrigation systems to help with the need for water.
Our Miller wisely understood that these improvements gave him the potential to make money that would flow like, well, water.
Miller began buying land, dirt cheap. One of Miller’s famous quotes was,” I can ride horseback from Mexico to the Oregon border and never be required to sleep on land I don’t own.”
Clever Miller was also responsible for the law of riparian rights. These provided that anyone owning land along a river can use the river. This basically gave Miller complete control over the Valley’s water. And for Miller that meant gold, in the bank.
We honor Henry Miller with his statue at the end of Main Street. Miller has helped to fill our history with amazing tales, while making himself, and his heirs, very wealthy.
Water and land. That is where the future laid then and still does now. Strong feelings about those gifts of nature can fuel bitterness and resentment. Decades ago the valley residents were angry about a plan to lift water out of their delta and carry the liquid gold to Southern California.
One resident wrote in graffiti his sentiments: ”Please flush after using the toilet, Los Angeles needs this water.”
I guess he figured it was better for water to go down the drain than down the state.”
C. K. McClatchy, one of the owners of McClatchy Enterprises, former owner of our own Enterprise said, “Just stand at the rim of our reservoir, see what has happened to our valley. You’ll see what I mean. Why I find this valley, this plain, flat and conservative valley, as it is, is one of the most thrilling places to be alive in that I know.”
A basic principle in our valley is the cheaper the water, the higher the value of the land. It is ironic that when our community was founded it was called “Los Banos,” the baths, in reference to the spring that feeds our natural wetlands.
Our original inhabitants, the Yokuts people, would never have imagined the world we live in now. Demand was so bad back in the 1930s that the Central Valley Project to provide additional water was formed, leading eventually to the decision that we needed a proper water storage system, and so, plans for the San Luis Reservoir began back in 1955.
It took until 1961 for the huge effort to be completed. President John F. Kennedy, speaking at the ground breaking ceremony famously said:”It is a pleasure for me to come out here and help blow up this valley….for the cause of progress.”
This groundbreaking, which started when Kennedy pushed the magic plunger, marked not only environmental changes to come to the area, but for the first time, federal and state authorities worked together on a project of such magnitude.
The Reservoir, finally finished in 1967, brought a huge new group of residents, often referred to as ‘the dam people’. An army of people came to Los Banos to build the dam and many stayed on. It was to be the first boom in population, before people moved over here by the droves for more reasonably priced housing.
Water really has long been a great concern in our valley, long before the series of devastating droughts that have ravaged our land and caused so many deadly fires.
Our valley’s heart continues to be agriculture as the food basket to the world, and the need for more water for growing crops and supplying our ever growing population keeps expanding. One need only drive Pacheco Pass and look at both sides of the partially filled reservoir to see evidence of the great issue:
W A T E R, can’t live without it, we need more, no doubt about it! The Valley drew strong, dedicated, hard working people to help make it what it is today. But then, that is another story...