Water and Power: The Conflict over Los Angeles' Water Supply in the Owens Valley

At the beginning of the 20th century, the banker and businessmen of los angeles determined to reach out 250 miles to the northeast and seize the waters of the Owens Valley, then emerging as one of the most promising agricultural regions in California. That action laid the basis for the modern metropolis of Los Angeles and set off the most enduring and influential water was in American history. WATER and POWER is the definitive account of this conflict, from its earliest origins to the modern day destruction of Mono Lake. It is a story of ambition and violence, of faith and betrayal, of money and politics. But above all, it is a story of California and how it became what it is today.Water is the key to the history of Ca. in this century.