Today we take our control of water for granted. Modern civilization couldn't exist without it. But there is still only a finite amount of water to go around. In many parts of the world, scarcity has led to a bitter struggle for control over the available supply.

 

And that's true, in even the wealthiest countries. Today Los Angeles is a city with every luxury and convenience. Yet not so long ago at the turn of the last century, Los Angeles was struggling. LA's problem was its location, hemmed there on three sides by desert and on the fourth by ocean. So it led to the most basic requirement for city life - a reliable water supply. So it came up with a plan to get the water it so needed.

 

250 miles to the north of the growing city, nestled next to the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range was a place called Owens Valley. It was a fertile place where people were settling and building farms. At the heart of it was plentiful water, a wide river feeding a huge lake.

 

This valley must have seemed as the answer to Los Angeles' prayers. There was enough water here to easily supply over one million people. There was only one problem. It didn't belong to them. It belonged to the farmers of Owens Valley. We'd have to be taking by stealth.

 

It wasn't long before men appeared in the valley, masquerading as investors. They offered to buy off farmland at seeming irresistible prices, just to get the water rights that went with it. It wasn't technically illegal but it was certainly shady. And it worked. In 1913 after 6 years of construction, an aqueduct was opened, and that is it.

 

In a way this aqueduct was a triumph, certainly, as far as Los Angeles was concerned. It allowed millions of people, 200 miles there now, to live in a growing and vibrant city. But that's not how people here thought. The Owens Valley farmers didn't give up without a struggle.