Los Angeles herald., 1907-06-02

| AS to the quality of the water which
we are to get, all that is necessary to
| convince anyone of it's purity is to
reside in the valley for few months
| and drink it every day. | spent about
| three months in Independence, and the
water there is the best l ever mad the
| pleasure of drinking.
independence lies six miles from the
base of the mountains, and the water
| from one of the mountain creeks is
allowed to flow into the pipes about
a half mile above the village. The
| fall gives sufficient pressure, and as
there are no ranches Uf camps between
! the town and the mountains the water
| cannot be contaminated. The water
all comes from the mountains, for there
| is only a couple inches of rainfall per
annum in the valley, which sinks into
the sand and gravel as fast as 1t falls
The mountain range to the west,
from which practically all the water
| comes, is the highest in the United
States, rising to a height of nearly
| two miles above the valley, with no
foothills on the side next to the owens
valley. 1t is therefore a natural phe-
nomenon when a moisture-laden cloud
gets over these mountains without pc
/ ing robbed of all it's moisture, either
as rain or snow.
1t is only within the past two or
three years that there has been an ice
manufacturing plant in the valley, and
previous to that time one of the resi-
dents of each village made good Nv
| ing by running pack train during the
| summer months to bring sacks OF
snow down from the mountains. All
the thirst emporiums in the valley kept
their drinks cool for the parched pros
pectors and miners in refrigerators
filled with tamped snow, and the pack
trains made regular trips every two or
three days to the snow banks in one
day, returning after nightfall with an
abundance of sacks of snow
The Owens river rises in Mono coun-
ty. but it then flows north into lnyo
county. and after tortuous course of
many miles it comes down through the
Long valley, which was the site chosen
for the United States irrigation dam,
and which has since passed into the
hands of the city's representative.
Same as Yosemite
From Long valley into Inyo county
the river passes through gorge 500
feet deep The western boundary or
Mono county, on the crest of the
Sierras, adjoins Mariposa county,
which contains the wonderful Yosem-
tie. Were the water which we are to
get the water which comes over the
Yosemite falls it would be heralded
Worldwide as the purest on earth;
vet the only difference is that one
flows down the western slope, while
the other down the eastern slope of the
same mountains. Their source is the
same mountains. 1t is impossible to
reach Mono county except by stage,
and my trip to Bridgeport, the county
seat, from Thorne, New, the nearest
railway station, was about seventy-hVe
miles. and was a steady climb up the
mountain. At Bodie, which was the
highest point reached by the stage
road. the altitude was about $500 feet,
and on the morning of the day l arrived
there, which was in December, the
mercury had registered % degrees be-
low zero.
One of the tributaries to the Owens
river in this county is Hot creek, of
volcanic origin, which during all the
long cold winters flows warm water.
The city of Cleveland, Ohio, has spent
MANY millions and sacrificed more than
a score of lives tunneling under Lake
Erie. trying to get pure water by tap
ming the bottom of the lake many
miles out from shore Yet the sewage
of many cities, and of Cleveland itself,
is poured into the same lake not many
miles from the so-called source of pure
water.
Los Angeles, instead. pierces the sky
and takes water from the highest alt1-
tudes in the United States. These
sources have scarcely known the feet
of the most adventurous men, and the
stream through it's whole course, by
reason of the land controlled by the
city, will receive the sewage of no