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21
Chapter 5: Creating Water Companies
Along the way, the flume supplied farmers
served by local
water districts. Ranchers built
connecting pipes to their own storage reser-
voirs and a gauge box measured how much
water they used.
4
The flume ran directly
through the Jennings’ farm. Jennings recalled:
It was a rickety-appearing wooden struc-
ture. Because it was entirely a gravity
flow, it was built on contours and it went
up every canyon and back down the
other side of the canyon except where
we had a real long canyon reach. At
those places, the builders had built a
skeleton trestle that carried the flume
across to the other side. The water was
al
ways deep enough in the flume and it
was running at a rate
so you could launch a
small raft in it and run it
downhill. All the kids in
the county that lived
along the flume spent a
great deal of their idle
ti
me either riding in the
flume or swi
mming in
the water.
5
While the children
delighted in its recreational
possibilities, the city of
San Diego rejoiced in receiving “pure mountain
water.” The city staged a celebration the day
the water arrived; nozzles on street corners
sprayed fountains 125 feet high.
6
The San Diego Flume Company sold water to
the city until its president, Joseph W. Sefton,
became locked in a feud with two prominent
businessmen, John D. Spreckels and E. S.
Babcock, who resolved to develop their own
water supply for the city.
7
They united several
small
water companies to create the Southern
California Mountain Water Company in 1894.
Spreckels was a millionaire sugar magnate
whose family dominated financial and political
life in San Diego. Now he was building the
largest irrigation project in the United States,
San Diego Flume Company, opening day, 1888
The San Diego Historical
Society
MILESTONES AS SAN DIEGO GROWS
1870
County population reached 4,234,
with 2,300 in city of San Diego.
1873
San Diego Water Company formed.
1877
Southern Pacific Railroad extension
connected to San Diego.
1880
County population reached 8,618,
with 2,637 in city of San Diego.
1885
Santa Fe Railroad extension completed.
1886
Van Dyke organized the San Diego
Flume Company.
1886
City of San Diego population hit 40,000
during a real estate boom.
1890
City of San Diego population dropped
to 16,159 after a real estate bust.
1894
Spreckels formed the Southern
California Mountain Water Company.
1900
County population rose to 35,090,
with 17,770 in the city of San Diego
1901
City of San Diego formed
the Consolidated Water Company.
1910
Fletcher bought the Flume Company to
form the Cuyamaca Water Company.
1915
City of San Diego population: 56,000.
1916 "Hatfield Flood" caused death and
destruction throughout the county.
1920
All
water in the county still developed
locally. City of San Diego population
numbered 74,683.
1923
Every major drainage area in the county
(except Santa Margarita) had at least
one reservoir.
1924
El
Capitan Dam approved.
(Not built until 1935.)