Alan M Paterson

The Great Canal Alan M Paterson

A history of the development of the Central California Irrigation District. Canals are common in many parts of the American West; they have become such an unremarkable part of the everyday scene that they usually pass unnoticed. That is no doubt true for the seemingly nondescript earthen canal on the western outskirts of Los Banos crossed every day by thousands of travelers on State Highway 152. But this is no ordinary canal, it was the first big canal in California, built across the treeless, unpopulated plains west of the San Joaquin River by a small army of men and horses in the hot summer of 1871. It was the creation of San Francisco investors, speculators really, who founded the San Joaquin & Kings River Canal & Irrigation Company with sweeping visions of the state's future. A few eventful years later they lost control to far more practical capitalists who were building another kind of empire, an integrated land and livestock company that became one of the state's biggest businesses. Henry Miller and the firm of Miller & Lux expanded the canal and tied it into their other reclamation enterprises to create one the largest and longest surviving privately-owned irrigation systems in California. In time the canal became the foundation for a prosperous community spanning parts of three counties, and in 1951 the Central California Irrigation District was formed to take over the old canal system and give the residents of that community control of their most essential resource. As it nears a century-and-a-half of operation the story of this first big canal is one that is well worth telling.