ASCE - American Society of Civil Engineers

History and Heritage Committee

From ASCE LA’s 50th Anniversary pamphlet (1964):

First Owens River – LA Aqueduct
Opening Ceremony at Cascade
Nov. 15, 1913

“It is fitting that the people of Southern California pay respect to the genius of the past on this half-centennial of the Los Angeles Section, American Society of Civil Engineers. It is more than fitting, it is mandatory, that civil engineers of Southern California respond to the occasion with imaginative examination of the future, and with renewed dedication to the service of the community in meeting the human needs that the future will bring.”
~LMK Boelter/Bonham Campell

A scanned copy of the 50th Anniversary pamphlet is posted on the 2013 Centennial Workshop

Aqueduct Siphon

First Owens River - LA Aqueduct Steel Pipe

First Owens River Aqueduct
52 Mule Team Hauling Pipe

Mill Creek - Interior Early 1900’s

Colorado Boulevard Bridge


The LA Section will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2013!

Events leading to the founding of the Section, designated historic civil engineering landmarks, a timeline of significant events, and the people who were a part of the Section’s history are being documented on this site.

You can contribute historical information by clicking on the following link.

History and Heritage Archives

Some things you will find there:

Section Records Archive 1913-1999
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s letter to ASCE regarding the 2005 Annual Conference in Los Angeles
50th Anniversary Commemoration, 1963-64

Nomination of Local Historic Civil Engineering Landmark

Landmark Name The Irrigation System of the Anaheim Union Water Company

Nominated By Carl Nelson, P.E. and Fred Meier, P.E.

Nomination Endorsed By History and Heritage Committee, Los Angeles Section, ASCE

Location Orange County, California

Owner
Anaheim Union Water Company
C/O Tri-City Park Authority
Community Services Department
City of Placentia
401 East Chapman Avenue
Placentia, CA 92870

  1. Organized in: 1857

    The Anaheim Water Company, predecessor of the Anaheim Union Water Company, was incorporated
    in 1859 in the County of Los Angeles. It was the first duly organized irrigation company in the State of California.  The company was formed to own and operate diversion ditches carrying water from the Santa Ana River to irrigate 2,000 acres of the Los Angeles Vineyard Society (original Anaheim Colony, founded in 1857). After a series of water rights issues and legal settlements, on January 9, 1884 the Anaheim Union Water Company was incorporated for the purpose of consolidating the Anaheim Water Company with several other ditch companies, to finance improvements to the original irrigation system for which construction had commenced in 1857.

  2. Key Civil Engineers associated with the Project:
    George Hansen, Wm. Ham Hall, H. Clay Kellog, Paul Bailey, W. W. Hoy, M. N. Thompson

    Other Professionals:
    John Tuffree, Leo J. Sheridan, A. W. Rutan, D. R. Gardner, Roger Howell

  3. Historic significance of this landmark

    Prior to the arrival of railroad transportation, prior to the existence of any highways, shortly after California’s Statehood, and before the founding of the University of California, a group of German immigrants in the San Francisco area began a search for land in Southern California suitable for viticulture, one of the more valuable industries following the “Gold Rush” of 1849-50.

    In the semi-arid climate of Southern California the normal rainfall across the coastal plain averages only 12-13 inches per year, falling exclusively during the winter months. Infrequent large flood years are often followed by years of below average rainfall. Total drought occurs annually through the spring, summer and fall. Prior to the mid-19th Century, too little moisture was available for agriculture other than grazing of cattle or sheep, winter hay and grains. A few dry farming crops such as lima and blackeye beans could be raised during the summer.

    The Santa Ana River originates in the mountains of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, and early settlers of Anaheim found a reliable perennial flow of the river emerging from the narrow Santa Ana Canyon. Led by Surveyor George Hanson, the Anaheim colonists in 1857 constructed ditches diverting water some 5 miles westerly to the Anaheim Colony for irrigation of profitable crops and formed the Anaheim Water Company. From 1857 until 1884, competing interests for rights to surface flow of the river resulted in extensive litigation which was settled only after a judicial suggestion for a binding agreement between the principal litigants, Anaheim Union Water Company (controlling diversions to the north of the river) and Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company (for diversions to the south of the river).

    In 1884 the Anaheim Union Water Company (AUWCO) was formed by a consolidation of four prior ditch companies, including the Anaheim Water Co., the North Anaheim Canal Company, the Cajon Irrigation Co. and the Farmers Ditch Co. Diversion works for the AUWCO Irrigation System were located at “Bed Rock Crossing” of Santa Ana Canyon, near the easterly Orange County line. One-half the river flow was diverted northerly from that location while the remaining half was diverted southerly by SAVI from a location about 1 mile downstream.

    The Anaheim Union Canal, an improvement of the original system of hand-dug earthen ditches, was begun in 1875 by the Cajon Ditch Company. The completed canal ran approximately 10 miles westerly from Santa Ana Canyon, along the contour of the foothills, to “Tuffree Reservoir” which was completed in 1879.  To reduce infiltration losses the system of canals and ditches was eventually lined with concrete. AUWCO was a pioneer in the use of portland cement concrete for unreinforced concrete pipe and the lining of ditches. By 1905, according to W. C. Mendenhall of the United States Geological Survey, the AUWCO Irrigation System reached a length of approximately 100 miles of canals, ditches and pipelines.

    Under the direction of prominent local engineer Mr. H. Clay Kellogg, “Yorba Dam” was constructed in 1907 adjacent the main canal. During the era of manual labor/horse and buggy transportation, state of the art dam construction involved equestrian teams and scrapers to import fill, hydraulic “puddling” and tamping by herds of sheep for compaction . The dam is 46 feet high with approximately 1,000 acre-feet storage, and with connections to lower irrigation ditches. AUWCO’s longtime Manager Mr. Leo J. Sheridan, in a written history after his retirement in 1953, reported that the company at its historic peak served irrigation water to approximately 8500 acres within a district of 14,949 acres.

    Rapid urban development during the 1950s and 60’s requiring municipal water and sewer services superceded agricultural land uses, reducing demand for untreated irrigation water, and the company was dissolved in 1970. Yorba Dam was decommissioned as an irrigation reservoir and is now owned and operated as a flood detention basin by the Orange county Flood Control District. Tuffree Reservoir, which is below the level of jurisdiction for the State Division of Dam Safety, has been preserved as an aesthetic water feature within Tri-City Park in the City of Placentia.

    The land areas formerly irrigated by AUWCO are now within portions of the incorporated cities of Anaheim, Fullerton, Placentia and Yorba Linda. The rights of way of the former mainline canal are now utilized for riding, hiking and bicycling trails. A portion of the concrete-lined canal has been preserved by the Yorba Linda Historical Society alongside a pomegranate-lined public walkway, formerly the driveway of the Susanna Bixby/Bryant Ranch.

    The Orange County Water District became the successor in interest to the AUWCO’s rights in the Santa Ana River and the surface flow is now conveyed to off-river spreading grounds for groundwater replenishment rather than for irrigation.

  4. Comparable or similar projects:

    • The Santa Ana Valley Irrigation Company (SAVI)

      A Local Historical Civil Engineering Landmark. SAVI was created by consolidation of prior organizations that diverted water to lands along the southerly side of Santa Ana Canyon. Surface waters were augmented by ground water pumping. At its zenith SAVI irrigated about 18,000 acres of land. Similar to AUWCO, SAVI was dissolved around 1970 after the demand for municipal water supplies serving urban development superceded that of irrigation water.

    • The Gage Canal

      Built between 1884 and 1888 this important engineering feat is named for Matthew Gage who guided its twenty mile length from the Santa Ana River near present-day Loma Linda to Arlington Heights in Riverside County upriver from Santa Ana Canyon. Originally conceived for irrigation of his own holdings, the canal put Gage in the position of selling water and made possible Riverside’s 1890s boom in agricultural and residential development.

    • Edison Power Plant No. 1

      The Edison company’s flume along the contour of the San Bernardino mountains for delivery of Santa Ana River water to Plant No. 1 (another Historic Civil Engineering Landmark) was constructed around 25 years after completion of the Anaheim Union Canal.

  5. Unique features which set this proposed landmark apart from other civil engineering projects:

    The principal legacy of the AUWCO Irrigation System lies in nurturing Orange County’s agricultural economy, and it’s primary crop for which the county was named upon the 1889 separation from Los Angeles County.

    The AUWCO irrigation system was the first of its kind in Southern California. Prior to acquisition of the Anaheim Colony lands, the seller Don Juan Pacifica Ontiveros, told the purchasers that the land was “not fit pasturage for goats”, but with water it could be developed for viticultural purposes. According to the Los Angeles Star newspaper dated September 19, 1857, the “project (Anaheim Colony) was called the most important ever contemplated in Southern California.” At the time there were only two other “American” (other than the Spanish Missions) settlements in Southern California.

    By 1861, with irrigation water diverted from the Santa Ana River, Anaheim was predicted to be, after Los Angeles, the most thriving town south of Monterey. The weekly Alta of California described Anaheim as “an evergreen garden...the orange and date flourish in the Santa Ana Valley alongside wheat and the grape.”

    In 1893, Fullerton became the home of the Fruit Exchange which later turned into “Sunkist”, one of the most prominent names in the national marketing of Oranges. AUWCO’s Irrigation System and Sunkist together contributed strongly to Orange County’s booming agricultural economy well into the mid-twentieth century. Even today, Anaheim stands as the most prosperous of Orange County cities.

  6. Contribution which this project has made toward the development of:


    • The Civil Engineering Profession;

      • The first irrigation company chartered by the State of California.
      • Stream flow diversion and distribution for irrigation of semi-arid land
      • Grading of canals for preservation of head and gravity distribution
      • Practical application of timber construction for flumes conveying irritation water over intervening drainage courses.
      • Demonstrated use of hydraulic fill in constructing dams for irrigation storage prior to modern earthmoving equipment.
      • Early use of portland cement concrete for the lining of irrigation ditches and in constructing pre-cast unreinforced concrete pipe.

    • The Nation or a large region

      • Perseverance in adjudicating rights to the flow of surface waters.
      • Leadership in the application of engineering knowledge to improving the conservation, diversion and distribution of surface waters for production of semi-tropical horticultural crops
      • Economic development of semi-arid lands.

  7. List of Published references concerning this nomination

    • Hall, Wm. Hamilton, Report on Irrigation and Irrigation Development, California State Engineer, 1888

    • Lenain, A. The Saga of Water into Southern California. Typescript. 1983

    • Lippincott, J.B. Report of Water Conservation and Flood Control on the Santa Ana River. Orange County, California. 1925

    • Mendenhall, William, Underground Waters of Southern California, United States Geological Survey Paper, 1905

    • Middlebrook, John-Robin, History of Orange County.  2005

    • Orange County Historic Society, Orange County , Arcadia Publishing, San Francisco, CA. 2005

    • Paule, Dorothea Jean, The German Settlement at Anaheim, Thesis (M.A.) University of Southern California, 1952

    • Robinson, Cecil V. A History of Irrigation in Orange County. Works Progress Administration. Orange County Project WPA #3105. Santa Ana, CA, 1936

    • Scott, M.B. Development of Water Facilities in the Santa Ana River Basin,
      California, 1810-1968. U. S. Geologic Survey Open File Report # 77-398. Menlo
      Park, CA: U. S. Geologic Survey, 1976

    • Sheridan, Leo B., History of Irrigation and Irrigation Development in Lower Santa Ana River Watershed, Typescript circa 1953. Unpublished by request of Anaheim Union Board of Directors according to December 19, 1969 letter of transmittal from attorney Milford W. Dahl

    • Talbert, T. My Sixty Years in California. Huntington Beach, CA: Ben Franklin, 1982

    • Toups, John B.  Report to Orange County Water District on Feasibility of acquiring Land, Facilities & Water Rights of Anaheim Union Water Company,
      October 1967

    • Wyman, T., Jr. Prado Dam: Santa Ana River and Adjacent Coastal Basins: Flood
      Control. Los Angeles: War Department, U.S. Engineers Office, July 1939

  8. Additional Documentation forwarded herewith in Support of this nomination.

    • Official Map of Orange County, California compiled by S.H. Finley in
      1907, retraced and copyrighted by J.L. McBride in 1915, adopted by the Orange County board of Supervisors in 1946, revised various dates to June 1967

    • Figure 36 from M.B. Scott mapping historic ditches consolidated into
      Anaheim Union Water Company in 1884

    • Map of Orange County by S.H. Finley, circa 1896, showing AUWCO Irr. Canal

    • Map of Santa Ana River Irrigation Systems of Early American Period, 1857-1889
      Copied from records of Orange County Title Company for 1936 WPA Orange County History Project # 3150

    • Historic photos; various sources including Internet Search, Published References and personal collection of Carl R. Nelson


      • Diversion Gates of AUWCO in Santa Ana Canyon circa 1890
      • Cajon Irrigation Company Flume # 8
      • Completion celebration, Flume # 8 in 1878. Family names include;
        Kuchel (U.S. Senator from Anaheim/Fullerton circa 1960s)
      • Tuffree Reservoir outlet structure circa 1879
      • Tuffree Reservoir view circa 1920s
      • Earthen Canal circa 1893
      • Canal lining crew in 1895
      • Concrete Pipe construction yard before 1908
      • Yorba Reservoir completed in 1907

    • Diversion Gates as viewed by Nelson in 1965 & 1969
    • AUWCO Canal as preserved by Yorba Linda Historic Society
    • Tuffree Reservoir as preserved in Tri-City Park, Placentia, CA


News Item:

Caltech selects new president

PASADENA- Jean-Lou Chameau, the provost and vice president for academic affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, has been named the new president of the California Institute of Technology. He will take office on or before September 1.

Chameau received his secondary and undergraduate education in France and his graduate education in civil engineering from Stanford University. In 1980 he joined the civil engineering faculty at Purdue University, where he subsequently became full professor and head of the geotechnical engineering program. In 1991, he became the director of the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech.

In 1994-95, he was the president of Golder Associates, Inc., an international geotechnical consulting company. He currently serves on the boards of directors for MTS Systems Corporation, Prime Engineering, and l’Ecole Polytechnique, and is a trustee and treasurer of the Georgia Tech Research Corporation. He is also serving as president of Georgia Tech Lorraine, the European platform of Georgia Tech.

Chameau’s technical interests include sustainable technology; environmental geotechnology; soil dynamics; earthquake engineering; and liquefaction of soils. He was the recipient of a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, the ASCE A. Casagrande Award, and the Rodney Chipp Memorial Award from the Society of Women Engineers.

Chameau is the eighth person to lead “modern-day” Caltech, his predecessors being James A. B. Scherer, Robert A. Millikan, Lee A. DuBridge, Harold Brown, Marvin L. Goldberger, Thomas E. Everhart, and David Baltimore, who is stepping down from the presidency after nearly nine years in the post. Baltimore will remain at the Institute, where he intends to focus on his scientific work and teaching.

(See biography of Franklin Thomas, founder of civil engineering program at Caltech)

Oral histories of earthquake engineering pioneers, Henry J. Degenkolb and George Housner

Wanted to Borrow!

As nearly complete as possible set of the newsletter, “The Engineer of Southern California”, published by A.X. Schilling of Alhambra in the 1960’s. If you have, or know of anyone who might have a set, please send an email to the with contact information.


A timeless observation:

Henry Petroski, Chairman of the ASCE National History and Heritage Committee, in his 1996 comments in one of his numerous books, “Invention by Design”, regarding the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993, wrote;

“Terrorism is a very difficult thing to design against, in part because a particular size bomb blast must be chosen as a design blast, and no matter how large the most credible blast might be, an even larger one might become feasible after a structure is built.”

About Henry Petroski


A timeless quotation:

“If you aim to be a missionary, you have to expect to be eaten by the cannibals.”
~ Prof. Harry Bolton Seed, UC Berkeley

Oral History of William W. Moore, Co-Founder, Dames & Moore
Trent R. Dames and William W. Moore ASCE Fellowship


Timeless wisdom:

The engineering profession is a channel by which science can greatly improve our way of life, providing it assumes the initiative of leadership rather than the passive role of the hired consultant. - Jack E. McKee
Camp, Dresser & McKee; Professor of Environmental and Health Engineering, Caltech, 1949-1979


Some Interesting Links:

Los Angeles Regional Planning History Group
LARPHG Mission Statement
“To see that major plans, oral histories and related documents in the fields of planning, development and engineering pertinent to the Los Angeles region are preserved; that this history is recalled; and that its lessons are used to instruct those who are creating our future. “

Huntington Fund for the Heritage of Civil Engineering

The Huntington Library’s Civil Engineering Database

ASCE National History and Heritage Website

History and Heritage Proceedings Bookshelf

Southern California History Sources

U.S. Interstate Highway System 50th Anniversary web site

Seattle Power and Water Supply Collection

NOTICE: This site is subject to update at any time, day or night, without warning, so check back often for new material.