Imperial Valley press., 1921-08-02

account of the more rapid slope OF the
river bed farther down stream.
Another factor determining the To-
cation may have been the fact that
quarries where the padres found the
limestone which they burned for lime
to be used in the mortar, We're situat-
ed a short distance east OF the dam
site. About two miles east ,on the
road to Santee, may still be seen the
remains of the padres lime kilns.
The exact date of the building of
San Diego's first water system is not,
apparently, on record. References to
the dam in mission records show,
however, that it was completed by
1919. Hubert Howe Bancroft. the
historian, visited Mission Valley in
1874 and wrote that at that time the
aqueduct was still in good condition.
As the mission of San Diego de
Alcala was deserted by priests and
acolytes in 1885, when the missions
were secularized, the aqueduct had
been in disuse for nearly 40 years
when Bancroft saw it.
An interesting sidelight on the
aqueduct during the 1916 flood season
is furnished by w. C. Earle, city con-
sulting engineer. Mr.. Earle curveyed
the gorge shortly after the flood and
determined that in some places the
flood water line was 16 feet above the
level of the aqueduct. Prvious to the
flood, according to Mr.. Earle, the
water probably never passed above the
aqueduct masonry.
Mr.. Earle's observations on the
effect of the flood on the old water
system would indicate that the 1916
flood wasi the worst which flowed
down the valley in more than 100
years.
The ruins of the work done by the
pioneer priests of those early days
form a beautiful and impressive me-
mento of the mission regime in south
ern California.
Sycamores, slender green willows
and the small cottonwood trees of the
river bottom form a background for
the ruined masonry. The tiny sum-
mer stream Of water flowing through
the' open flood gate murmurs and
gurgles drowsilv through the tumble
of rocks below the dam. then meanders
down the stream bed to be lost in the
sands Of the river bottom in sum-
mer.
A breeze from the sea finds its way
up the valley, even on the wa1nest
of summer days, and rusltse aiaong
the leaves of the trees. where the birds
chirp lazily and hop from branch to
branch in the dappled shadows. The
whirrin gof cicadas drones out into
the hot summer air from every quarter
necessarily.
The sturdy ruins are deeply i'm
pressive. The patient hands that
shaped the rough masonry and
smoothed the mortar over the tiles in
the aqueduct have been so long stilled.
1t was such a very long time ago that
men labored there in the hot sunshine
the cicadas whirred all about them
on the sunny mesa and the birds twit-
tered in the leaves overhead, just as
today-and it was so long ago that
the last of these workmen laid aside
his tools at sunset and lay down to
rest.
Yet the work remains. The careful
workmanship still endures. and will
endure.
Though the vast gorge may some
time wall in giant reservoir, and
though the waters of the reservoir
may forever hide from sight that stall
wart wall which the padres built, still
their work will endure, outliving the
memory, perhaps, of the modern en-
gineers who may build a greater dam
and flood the old site with water for
San DIEGO