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Chapter 5: Creating Water Companies
Meanwhile, in 1910, two
businessmen, Edward
Fletcher and James
Murray, bought the San
Diego Flume Company
and formed the
Cuyamaca Water
Company. Fletcher
came to San Diego from
Massachusetts to seek
his fortune and he eventu-
ally became known as the
“water seeker” for leading
the push to develop water
systems in the north of the
county. He said, “Water
is king and the basis of all value in the county
is water.”
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At this ti
me, a water-related urban-rural shift
began to take place. Fletcher believed that
irrigated agriculture should hold firm against the
ever-more demanding clai
ms of cities. Under
his leadership, the Cuyamaca Water Company,
which began as a supplier to the city, was now
supplying the agricultural backcountry. On the
other hand, Spreckels'
Southern California
Mountain Water Company, which began as a
collection of small irrigation companies,
was mainly focused on providing water to
the city of San Diego. Fletcher and
Spreckels became rivals, with the city
caught in the middle.
WATER IN THE NORTH
The main dam in the northern part of the
county, Escondido Dam on Escondido
Creek, dated back to 1895. (It was later
rebuilt and renamed Wohlford.) Fletcher
controlled a dam site at the future Lake
Hodges and he helped convince the Santa
Fe Railroad to finance the construction of
Hodges Dam in 1918, as well as a distribu-
tion line to the coast. The railroad owned
land from Del
Mar to Carlsbad that became
more valuable as water became available
for colonies.
The Lake Hodges system was owned by
a new subsidiary of the railroad, the San
Dieguito Mutual
Water Company, which had
Fletcher as president. This company
organized the Santa Dieguito and Santa Fe
irrigation districts and sold water to them
under contract. The city of San Diego was
soon interested in buying some of the Lake
Hodges water, but the Santa Fe Railroad did
not want its subsidiary selling water to a city.
Instead, Fletcher acted as a middleman for
the water sales to the city.
Lake Hodges Dam with spill
way, 1927
The San Diego Historical
Society