Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-11-18
RANCHERS CLING To
SOURCE: Of WATER
FOR Los ANGELES
City Authorities Start Legal
Action to Reopen
AcqueduCt

BISHOP, Cal, Nov. 17.-(By the
Associated Press) - Los Angeles
auueduct waste gates near Lone
Pine were captured yesterday by
small army of Owens Valley men
who brushed aside city employees on
guard and diverted Los Angeles
chief source of water supply into the
Owens river.
Saying they were determined TO
keep the water of the aqueduct
flowing through the spillway until
Los Angeles settles its long-standin2
water feud with valley ranchers in
a manner acceptable to them, the
raiders defied aqueduct authorities
and the Inyo county sheriff to drive
them out. The raid today had set
tied into an organized occupation,
backed by the efforts of several hun
dred men and women.
Sixty men left on guard at the
waste gates last night will be re-
lieved by others late today, Harry
GIasscock, editor Of the owens Val
ley Herald and spokesman for the
reachers, told the Associated Press,
and for as long as necessary the
guard will be maintained by reliev-
ing with fresh men every "a houcs.
Should 60 men not be enough, the
force would be increased, he said.
Yesterday a hundred men held the
gates.
Food for the aqueduct guard,
Glasscock said, will be prepared by
women in Bishop and sent to the
waste gates, so miles away, by motor
truck. Two trucks of food and sup
plies were sent last night.
Los Angeles water supply is as
sllred for ninety days by water inn
pounded at several sites along the
aqueduct south OF here. Inyo com
ty authorities refrained from action
pending the outcome of an appeal
for state troops sent to Governor
Friend w. Ri harrison by Sheriff
Collins, who urged immediate use of
troops as the only possible way of
dispensing the raiders without blood
shed.
The ranchers maintain that the
aqueduct has robbed their farms OF
water necessary for irrigation.
Motion pictures Of yesterdays raid,
IN which from sixty to a hundred
men participated. were taken by q
Hollywood film company, which hap
pened to be on location near
Lone Pine, aid were to be thrown on
the screen for the information of
Los Angeles citizens today or tomor-
row.
No effort had been made by city
employees to eject the raiders up to
an early hour today, and Inyo coun-
ty authorities were refraining from
any further action pending the out
come of the appeal for state troops.
LEGAL ACTION is STARTED
BY CITY OF LOS ANGELES
LOS ANGELES, Nov. 17.-How to
restore without bloodshed the flow
of water through Los Angeles, %
mile aqueduct diverted into Owens
river yesterday by raiders who
swooped upon the waste gates near
Lone Pine, 200 miles north OF here,
despite protests by city employees
and Inyo county officials, was the
problem that faced Los Angeles au-
thorities today.
No attempt at forcible election of
the raiders will be made by the city
pending Governor Richardson's re-
ply to an appeal for state troops,
Los Angeles officials said, but sew
enty-five civil complaints were pre-
pared for filing in superior court
asking injunctions to dispossess the
raiders.
Except for two, all the complaints
are directed against Joe Doe" The
two named are NJ. Q. Watterson.
banker OF Bishop, and w. r. Nc
Carthy, irrigation engineer.
AS to the raiders ultimatum, Will
liam Mulholland, builder of the
aqueduct and chief engineer of the
city water department, declared it
would be ignored.
Enough water is escaping through
the waste gates, engineers estimated,
to cause the city a loss of $4,000
daily, but sufficient storage is still
on hand in reservoirs to supply ordi.
nary demands for ninety days.
The Alabama waste gates where
the diversion took place are north
of the old town of Lone Pine. a sta
ton on the old Overland stage route
to California on the Mormon trail,
in the Alabama hills, about ten miles
above the north end of Owens lake,
and We're named after the hills.
The Alabama gates are about %
miles from the intake of the auue-
duct system on the Owens river on
The main diversion canal which car
RED the water supply to Hiawee
reservoir, the first large reservoir
on the system and sixty miles from
the intake. The aqueduct consists
of six storage reservoirs and 215