Manzanar, California - Knowledge (XXG)

1324: 42: 343: 389: 404:. It did not take long for Los Angeles water officials to realize that Owens River water was insufficient to supply the rapidly growing metropolis. In 1920, they began to purchase more of the water rights on the Owens Valley floor. As the decade went on, the City of Los Angeles bought out one Owens Valley farmer after another, and extended its reach northward into 425: 49: 417:

Los Angeles started to purchase ranches in the Owens Valley for the sole purpose of supplying water to the people in Los Angeles. People started to sell their land to the city, which put in wells to drain the water out of the ground; the trees began to die; and the land finally turned to vacant dirt. This ended the Land of the Big Red Apples"

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There was so much water during those early years, that when a horse pulled a buggy, the water frequently came up to the horse's knees," said Lucille DeBoer, who lived on a ranch at Manzanar. "When this happened, the children took off their shoes and socks to walk home. In the early 1900s the City of

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The Owens Valley received scant attention from European Americans until the early 1860s, as it was little more than a crossroads on the routes through the area. When gold and silver were discovered in the Sierra Nevada and the Inyo Mountains, the resulting sudden influx of miners, farmers, cattlemen

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The ranches remained, and Los Angeles offered the land and the buildings on them for lease. Many farmers who had sold out leased their farms back. Water from a new well was made available to some. Victor M. Christopher, who had been working for the Owens Valley Improvement Company, was hired by the

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settlers first arrived in the Owens Valley in the mid-19th century, they found a number of large Paiute villages in the Manzanar area. John Shepherd, one of the first of the new settlers, homesteaded 160 acres (65 ha) of land 3 miles (5 km) north of Georges Creek in 1864. With the help of

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Although some residents sold their land for prices that made them financially independent and relocated, a significant number chose to stay. In dry years, Los Angeles pumped ground water and drained all surface water, diverting all of it into its aqueduct and leaving Owens Valley ranchers without

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approximately 108 square miles (280 km)). After 1863, many returned to their permanent villages, established along creeks flowing down from the Sierra Nevada mountains. In the Manzanar area, the Owens Valley Paiute had established villages along Bairs, Georges, Shepherds, and Symmes creeks.

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Approximately one-third of the Native Americans in the Owens Valley were relocated to Fort Tejon. "The Army didn't take them on a direct route, either, said Owens Valley Paiute elder Irene Button. "They were forced to walk all the way around the eastern shore of Owens Lake" (covers an area of

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on 400 to 500 acres (160 to 200 ha) of bearing trees," even with its "limited water supply." Inyo County agricultural agent J.P. Hertel predicted that year the growers would "no doubt plant many more trees in the future and irrigate them by the development of large wells."

380:"Manzanar was a very happy place and a pleasant place to live during those years, with its peach, pear, and apple orchards, alfalfa fields, tree-lined country lanes, meadows and corn fields," said Martha Mills, who lived at Manzanar from 1916 to 1920. 377:, a town hall, and a general store. Also at that time, nearly 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) of apple, pear, and peach trees were under cultivation; along with crops of grapes, prunes, potatoes, corn and alfalfa; and large vegetable and flower gardens. 295: 317:

The articles of incorporation for a Manzanar Water Company were filed on September 15, 1910, with capital stock of $ 250,000. The incorporators, directors, and subscribers were G.A. Hanson, Isaac Baxter and C.E. Searls.

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Paiute to the north. The Owens Valley Paiute hunted and fished, collected pine nuts, and raised crops utilizing irrigation in the Manzanar area. They also traded brown-ware pottery for salt from the

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The 4,958-acre (2,006 ha) Manzanar tract of 68 parcels was obtained by the city for an "aggregate price" of $ 788,120 ($ 159 an acre). It was described as lying "between the north end of the

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In summer 1911, a "one and a half story building, 40x50" was erected at the corner of Francis and Independence avenues. The lower floor included a hall to be used "for public gatherings,

970:"Manzanar Historic Resource Study/Special History Study - Chapter Six: Site Selection for Manzanar War Relocation Center — Historical Background of Owens Valley and Manzanar Vicinity" 1845: 454:

By 1925, as a result of farmers and others moving away from Manzanar as Los Angeles purchased their properties, the "two-teacher school" was expected to have only seven pupils.

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water. Without water for irrigation, the holdout ranchers left their ranches and their communities; that included the town of Manzanar, which was abandoned by 1929.

408:, including Long Valley. By 1933, the city owned 85 percent of all town property and 95 percent of all ranch and farm land in the Owens Valley, including Manzanar. 1860: 171:

A post office operated at Manzanar from 1911 to 1914. Manzanar was a shipping point for the surrounding apple orchards before the diversion of water through the

310:, purchased Shepherd's ranch and subdivided it, along with other adjacent ranches. He founded the town of Manzanar in 1910, "on the main trunk line of the 1608: 633:. Western Archaeological and Conservation Center, National Park Service, US Department of the Interior. p. 151. Publications in Anthropology 67. 73: 311: 1305: 1558: 1255: 203: 730:. Western Archaeological and Conservation Center, National Park Service, US Department of the Interior, Denver Service Center. pp. 3–4. 1676: 1037: 1761: 1523: 1363: 41: 1696: 1488: 523: 339:

Ira L. Hatfield was the town's first postmaster, appointed in May 1911. The first post office was at Thebes, a town 1.5 miles away.

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By the beginning of August 1924, however, "the purchase of the Manzanar district for $ 780,000 was consummated by Los Angeles."

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Manzanar Community Hall, ca. 1912. In back is Hatfield's (later Bandhauer's) General Store, which housed the post office.

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The company built an irrigation system over an area of a thousand acres and planted about twenty thousand fruit trees.

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