Perhaps you thought the last landmark was Dullsville. But I think you’ll find the Mission Wells and Settling Basin more interesting. In the late 1700s Padre Fermín Francisco de Lasuén sought a location to build Mission San Fernando Rey de España. The discovery of natural swamplands in Sylmar helped push the decision. The mission was built nearby on San Fernando Mission Boulevard.
Today the site of the Mission Wells and Settling Basin is owned by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The remaining landmarked well is fenced off. It’s visible through a chain-link fence. The Mission Wells provide water to Los Angeles residents. For security reasons there is no public access to the Mission Wells.
Two hundred years ago water flowed to the surface naturally. There were no wells then. The San Fernando Mission was located nearby because of this water supply. Mission Wells is called that because modern wells have been added.
The settling basin allowed dirt to settle before the water flowed into the aqueduct. Today security is a serious problem. The water supply is considered a terrorist target.
The growth of Los Angeles is intricately linked to the delivery of water. Los Angeles is a semi-arid desert region with very little native water. Founded in 1781 Los Angeles grew into the second largest city in the United States. The Spanish pueblo first relied on the Los Angeles River for its water supply. The river water was channeled through a distribution system of crude dams water wheels and ditches.
In 1902 the city formally took ownership of the first Los Angeles municipal water works system. The population of Los Angeles leaped from 5728 in 1870 to 102479 by 1900. The city faced a serious water shortage. The new municipal Water Department began enlarging the Los Angeles River system.
William Mulholland conceived a plan to build an aqueduct system. It would transport water from the Eastern Sierra mountains to Los Angeles. Gravity would keep the water flowing. In 1905 citizens voted a bond issue to purchase Owens Valley lands and water rights. Two years later voters approved another bond issue for construction of a 233-mile long aqueduct.
Mulholland’s dream was realized when water from the Eastern Sierra Nevada came gushing down the cascades into the Los Angeles Basin. The first aqueduct water was presented to the people of Los Angeles on November 5 1913. Without the aqueduct Los Angeles could never have grown beyond 500000 people.
As the Los Angeles population grew the Department built a second aqueduct from the Owens Valley. It was completed in 1970. With that precious resource flowing by gravity to Los Angeles the city grew. It went from a town of 100000 population to more than 3 million during the 20th century.
William Mulholland gave 50 years of meritorious service to the citizens of Los Angeles. He was born in Belfast Ireland on September 11 1855. He left home to see the world. He sailed the seas and worked on the Great Lakes. He read Nordhoff’s “History of California”. It fired him with an ambition to see the wonderland. He chose to walk the 47 mile distance from Colon to Balboa to save money.
Mulholland rode into Los Angeles on horseback in 1877. Los Angeles was a place after his own heart. The Los Angeles River was a beautiful limpid little stream with willows on its banks. Mulholland was the first American engineer to utilize hydraulic sluicing to build a dam. That dam was built at Silver Lake Reservoir in 1906. He is best known for building the Los Angeles Owens River Aqueduct. The arrival of Eastern Sierra water changed L.A.’s future forever. The Mission Wells and Settling Basin stand as a testament to the ingenuity and foresight that shaped Los Angeles.