California Water Wars - We Who Are About to Die Salute You | 4

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2020

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After years of letting their water be used by the city of Los Angeles, the farmers and ranchers of the Owens River Valley decided to fight back. What would come to be known as California’s Civil War would mark the 1920s with a series of attacks and reprisals between the valley and the city two hundred miles south.

With Los Angeles sending agents north to buy more land and secure yet more water rights, valley residents decided to take matters into their own hands. After several attacks damaged portions of the aqueduct, causing water to stream uselessly down into the valley, the city realized it had a desperate problem on their hands.

But all was not well with the citizens of the valley, as a long-running family feud threatens to tear apart the Owens Valley community from within.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:09.0	Imagine a cold, clear evening in early spring, 1923.
0:22.3	You ventured to the home of George Warnerson.
0:25.1	He's been having a little trouble with his car, a brand new Stanley Steamer.
0:29.5	Once you've diagnosed a few tricky automobiles in the past, you offer to help.
0:34.7	Care for some refreshment?
0:35.7	Or will pass five o'clock?
0:39.2	You wriggle your way out from underneath the hood as he hands you a glass.
0:42.7	Mindy kind of you, George.
0:44.3	So any guesses?
0:46.0	My guesses are all worn out.
0:47.6	I'm just loosened this valve to the boiler then, tightened up again, not telling much
0:52.1	of a difference either way.
0:54.4	What you don't want to say, though, is that you think George might have a lemon on his
0:57.8	hands.
0:58.8	Well, isn't that just fine, news?
1:01.0	You like George?
1:02.0	His family, the Warnerson's, or what passes for old money in Owens Valley.
1:06.3	He may have been here longer than you, but unlike some of the others up here, he doesn't
1:09.9	care where you came from, or what you did before you arrived.
1:13.6	He's a nice guy.
	...

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