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its effect on their environment and livelihoods. Farmers and ranchers protested that the water needed for their crops and herds was being diverted. Landholders across the valley complained that they had been swindled out of their property’s true value. At the height of the dispute, parts of the aqueduct system were sabotaged and even dynamited. In 1974, Roman Polanski’s film noir classic, Chinatown, presented a riveting, but highly fictionalized, version of the political intrigue that brought water to Los Angeles and made Southern California urbanization possible. By 1923, the influx of population to Los Angeles had exceeded even the most optimistic estimates. Foreseeing the need for yet another water supply source, Mulholland, then 68 years of age, personally initiated the Department of Water and Power’s six-year survey of 50,000 square miles of desert that resulted in the route ultimately selected for the Colorado River Aqueduct that now serves more than 130 communities in six Southern California counties. William Mulholland had boundless confidence in the destiny of Los Angeles and its neighboring communities, but in 1928 his career took a tragic turn. On March 12th, the St. Francis Dam, one of several dams built to increase storage of Owens River water, collapsed, sending 12 billion gallons of water into the Santa Clara Valley, north of Los Angeles. The flood claimed more than 400 lives. The Coroner’s Jury investigating the failure found that the collapse was primarily caused by the ancient landslide material on which the eastern abutment of the dam was built. Mulholland was cleared of any charges, since the instability of the rock formations could never have been detected by geologists of the 1920s. Nevertheless, Mulholland took responsibility, saying: “If there is an error of human judgment, I am the human.” Several months later he retired. His final years were lived in the shadow of the disaster. William Mulholland remains a legendary and controversial figure in Southern California history. For the key role he played in the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, he has been called both a visionary and a villain. But no one can dispute the fact that the Irish immigrant’s engineering triumph was pivotal in enabling the small Pueblo of Los Angeles to become one of America’s IA largest and most important cities.
Mulholland Tributes William Mulholland was a self-educated man, but in 1914 the University of California at Berkeley bestowed on him an honorary doctorate degree. The inscription on the diploma read,“Percussit saxa et duxit flumina ad terram sitientum” (He broke the rocks and brought the river to the thirsty land).
Mulholland Drive & Highway
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ulholland Drive & Highway is a scenic road that runs 50 miles along the crest of the Santa Monica Mountains from the Hollywood Hills to the Pacific Ocean at the border of Los Angeles and Ventura Counties. Built during the 1920’s “to take Angelenos from the city to the ocean,” it was dedicated in 1928 to honor William Mulholland, the man who enabled Los Angeles to become a major American city by securing a water source for the future. Multimillion-dollar homes lie all along its sinuous length. Breathtaking views of the San Fernando Valley can be seen from vantage points along its route. Mulholland Drive & Highway is one of the most famous roads in Los Angeles, equaled only by Sunset and Hollywood Boulevards, and a “must-do” drive for anyone wishing to grasp the immensity of the metropolis William Mulholland helped build.
The William Mulholland Memorial Fountain
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illiam Mulholland, the Irish immigrant who worked as a ditch tender and lived in a one-room shack when he first arrived in Los Angeles, died in 1935. On August 1, 1940 a memorial fountain was dedicated in his honor, just steps from the shack where he began his pursuit of self-education to become an engineer. The memorial’s simplistic design typifies the honest, straightforward character of the beloved man whom everyone simply called “Chief.” Gently cascading jets of water at varying heights are illuminated at night in a full color spectrum. A five-ton pink granite boulder symbolizing Mulholland’s rugged character stands at the memorial approach. It was brought down from the hills where Mulholland saw it while the Los Angeles Aqueduct was under construction and commented on its color. A memorial plaque on the boulder reads: “To William Mulholland (1855-1935): A Penniless Irish Immigrant Boy who Rose by the Force of his Industry, Intelligence, Integrity and Intrepidity to be a Sturdy American Citizen, a Self-Educated Engineering Genius, a Whole-Hearted Humanitarian, the Father of this City’s Water System, and the Builder of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. This Memorial is Gratefully Dedicated to those who are the Recipients of His Unselfish Bounty and the Beneficiaries of His Prophetic Vision.” The Mulholland Fountain is located at the intersection of Riverside Drive and Los Feliz Blvd. In 1976 it was declared a Historic-Cultural Monument in the City of Los Angeles.
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