The Mojave River: A source of water battles and innovation

Postcard view of the old automobile bridge at the upper narrows of the Mojave River, circa 1930. The Mojave River flows above ground year-round through the narrows. The railroad follows the Mojave River through much of the High Desert. (From the collection of Mark Landis)

By Mark Landis
San Bernardino County Sun

Even in drought-stricken Southern California, the Mojave River could easily be described as one of the most unspectacular waterways in the Southwest. However, the historic significance of this strange desert paradox is hard to understate.

Through much of its 120-mile course, the Mojave River appears to be an irrelevant ribbon of sand. But in spite of its innocuous appearance, the river has provided the life blood for a broad stretch of the Mojave Desert since ancient times. It has also generated some of the West’s most ingenious water projects, and hard-fought legal battles.

The river flows above ground near its mountain sources, and through a few areas like the Mojave Narrows, and Afton Canyon, where the bedrock forces the water to the surface.

Indians were able to survive in the desert along the river where it flows above ground year-round, and provides an oasis of shade and food sources.

Early explorers and settlers counted on the river’s sections of dependable above-ground flow to get them across long, barren stretches of desert. The Mojave Road, The Mormon Trail, and The Old Spanish Trail, were the primary Indian and migrant trails into Southern California. These crucial routes all followed sections of the Mojave River through some of the driest stretches of the desert.

The Mojave River begins in the northern slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains, and flows northward under a dry bed of sand for much of its course. The east and west forks of the river merge just upstream of the present-day Mojave River Dam, in southeast Hesperia.

The eastern fork is known as Deep Creek, and its watershed begins in the mountains around and to the east of Lake Arrowhead. The watershed for the West Fork of the Mojave River begins in the mountains above, and to the west of Silverwood Lake. The river ends in Soda and Silver Dry Lakes, near the community of Baker.

One of the earliest settlers on the Mojave River was Captain Aaron Lane, a rancher who operated a trading post on the river. In 1858, Lane acquired a prime piece of Mojave River land near the present-day Turner Ranch, in Victorville and started a successful farm and cattle ranch.

Word of the successful agriculture effort on the Mojave River spread quickly, and sections of the river with regular flow, blossomed into a lush ribbon of farms and ranches.

A long-awaited railroad from San Bernardino, through the Cajon Pass, to Barstow was completed in 1885. Fred Perris of the California Southern Railroad chose a route through the High Desert that closely followed the grade of the Mojave River.

With a new railroad and a water source, land agents quickly began to promote the high desert as a prime region for new settlements. Beginning in the late 1800s, the High Desert communities of Hesperia, Apple Valley, Victorville, Oro Grande, Barstow, and Daggett, sprang up along the banks of the Mojave River.

In 1887, Judge Robert M. Widney and a group of investors incorporated the Hesperia Land and Water Company. The company purchased 35,000 acres on the high desert mesa that would later become the town of Hesperia. The company also began filing claims on water from the east fork of the Mojave River (Deep Creek), to irrigate the new colony.

The key to the success of the Hesperia Colony was an irrigation project to bring water from Deep Creek. Touted as a “marvel of engineering skill,” the project known as the “Hesperia Ditch” included a water channel blasted through solid rock, a ditch, and piping, that brought the water to a reservoir near the present-day Lime Street Park.

Challenges to Widney’s water rights began even before a spade was turned to dig the Hesperia Ditch. Land owners downstream in Victor and Oro Grande voiced loud opposition to the taking of their water, but Widney continued, and completed the canal in 1888.

A new high desert colony named Minneola was laid out in 1893, about 7 miles east of Daggett. A subsurface dam was built to divert the underground flow of the Mojave River into the “Mineola Ditch,” and an 11-mile irrigation channel was constructed to bring water to the townsite. The big dreams soon went bust, and in spite of the canal, the desert metropolis never materialized.

The largest single water project on the Mojave River was conceived in 1889, by Adolph Koebig, a San Bernardino city engineer. Koebig proposed a project to dam the upper portion of Deep Creek, and divert the Mojave River water south, into the San Bernardino Valley for irrigation.

The huge irrigation project to create the Little Bear Reservoir (later renamed Lake Arrowhead) began construction despite harsh objections and legal challenges from the downstream Mojave River water users. By the time the dam was finally completed in 1922, the Mojave River water users had successfully used the courts to block diversion of the water to San Bernardino.

The Little Bear Reservoir project was re-purposed from an irrigation project, to a recreational lake, and the precious Deep Creek water continues to flow into the Mojave River today.

By the early 1960s, population growth in the High Desert communities began to seriously overdraft the Mojave River Basin. Plans were made to bring State Water Project water into the Mojave River Basin, but delivery didn’t begin until 1991.

The State Water Project now supplies water from Northern California to recharge stations located along the Mojave River that stretch from Hesperia to Daggett. The recharge water percolates into the soil, where it is stored in the groundwater basins, and then pumped out for use by local water agencies.

Today, just as in the pioneer days, innovative irrigation projects continue to make the Mojave River the lifeblood of the high desert communities.

County Pushing Daggett, Yermo & Newberry Springs CSD Mergers

Map of existing Daggett (green), Yermo (blue), and Newberry (purple) Community Service Districts. (SBC LAFCO/ESRI)

San Bernardino Sentinel

The San Bernardino County Local Formation Commission has recommended that the Daggett Community Services District consolidate with two other nearby community service districts. This week the Local Agency Formation Commission reviewed a draft plan, the centerpiece of which is that the Daggett Community Service District, the Yermo Community Services District and the Newberry Community Services District be merged to form one district.

Under that recommendation, the services for all three communities would be provided in common and consolidated.

The Local Agency Formation Commission staff has formulated a so-called “plan for service” that would make for consistent service levels, allow for the free distribution of resources between the entities and communities, streamline governance and management and reduce overall costs. A five-year projection shows the newly-formed district would remain fiscally solvent for at least half a decade, with no diminution of service levels in any of the three communities.

Daggett encompasses 26 square miles and is home to 487 residents. Newberry Springs covers 117 square miles and has 2,288 inhabitants. Yermo, at 74 square miles, boasts a population of 1,629. Despite the size differences between the three communities, they have similar population densities. Daggett averages 18.7 people per square mile. Newberry Springs has 19.6 residents per square mile. Yermo has a per square mile density of 22.

Within its confines, Daggett contains its own water company, which services an area beyond its borders, including several businesses and a few residences as well as Silver Valley High School, all located in Yermo.

The Yermo Water Company has long been troubled. Formerly owned by Donald Walker, the Yermo Water Company fell into severe disrepair early last decade, a situation which was exacerbated by Walker’s departure to Florida, making it difficult for his company’s customers to contact him.

As the absentee owner, Walker did not have a licensed operator available to operate the system. During the summer of 2006, the primary water tank serving the Yermo community’s water system developed a leak and customers were without water for a week in the small community near Barstow, where temperatures exceeded 100 degrees every day. The California Department of Health and the California Public Utilities Commission initiated an investigation into the matter in 2007.

A decision to pursue the appointment of a receiver was issued in May of 2009. A community-based prospective buyer surfaced and the receivership was suspended while it appeared that a sale of the system was possible. But after more than two years of negotiations, Walker refused to inform the prospective buyer how much he owed in back taxes and fines to the California Department of Health. As a result, the sale fell through. The receivership arrangement that took place in November 2012 was contested by Walker’s family but was denied by the Superior Court on March 6, 2013. Beginning in November 2012, the Yermo Community Services District took over operation of the company’s assets and in December 2013, arrangement for the Apple Valley Ranchos Water Company to purchase the Yermo Water Company in its entirety began. Preparations for that takeover are yet ongoing, as repairs to the water system are being carried out.

In its 2012-13 report, the San Bernardino County Grand Jury identified numerous shortcomings in the governance, accounting and financial management, and internal controls of the Newberry Springs Community Services District. The Local Agency Formation Commission detailed its staff to look into those issues and others pertaining to Yermo and Daggett. The upshot was a finding that it would behoove all three districts to merge and settle on management and leadership for the collective that is competent and efficient. At the very least, according to commission staff, the Daggett Community Service District and Yermo Community Services District should come together to form one entity. Economies of scale, not to mention other advantages, make it logical that the Newberry Community Services District be brought in on the merger, according to the Local Agency Formation Commission.

There have been similar consolidation imperatives and consolidations carried out involving those communities in the past. In the 1960s Daggett’s school district was forced into a shotgun marriage with the Barstow Unified School District. In 1978, the Daggett School District was able to reassert its independence, breaking away. But in that departure, Daggett had to forego assets and resources local residents felt rightfully belonged to Daggett and not Barstow.

Daggett and Yermo resisted the Local Agency Formation Commission’s push for them to merge five years ago.
While few of the residents in the Daggett, Newberry or Yermo communities look upon the pressure to merge favorably, they are subject to the authority of the Local Agency Formation Commission, which is putting each district through its paces in having to respond to the merger concept. The Local Agency Formation Commission will lay out the options outlined by its staff and present them to the three communities and their residents. On January 21, the Local Agency Formation Commission will consider those plans/options.

For a significant number of residents, there is concern that the dictates from the county seat in San Bernardino some 70 miles away will impose on them a management and operation plan that will run roughshod over local control and in some cases, at least, result in services, including emergency services, being based at locations that will be more remote and not conducive to quick response or sensitive response.

Edison demolishes Daggett solar tower

Light from 2,000 mirrors passing through four aim points (the observer sees only two) reflects off dust particles, water vapor and superheated air to produce the strange "points of light" phenomenon when Solar Two was in operation.

JESSICA CEJNAR Staff Writer
Victorville Daily Press

DAGGETT • A myriad of solar power projects are sprouting up all over the Mojave Desert, but on Tuesday one came tumbling down.

The central tower for the Solar One and Solar Two demonstration projects stood near Daggett for almost 30 years — a landmark that defined the desert landscape. The projects themselves paved the way for similar technology to be used on a larger scale and foretold the current solar power gold rush.

But for about 10 years it hasn’t produced any solar energy. It has been empty for about four years, according to Paul Phelan, manager for Edison’s Power Production Engineering Department. In June Southern California Edison and CST Environmental, a Brea-based demolition firm, began dismantling it. On Tuesday, Edison and CST personnel strapped explosives to two of the tower’s four legs and brought the structure to the ground.

“It’s always sad to see a facility like this torn down,” Phelan said. “Newer companies are building on the (project’s) research and development. From that standpoint it paved the way for newer technologies considered today.”

Edison dismantles Daggett solar project

The central tower used in the Solar Two project in Daggett in the 1990s awaits dismantling on Wednesday. (Staff Photo by Jessica Cejnar)

By JESSICA CEJNAR
Desert Dispatch

DAGGETT • Motorists traveling from Barstow to Needles may notice a change in scenery as they pass Daggett.

At a time when companies are developing solar energy sites all over the Mojave Desert, Southern California Edison and CST Environmental — a Brea-based demolition company — are busy dismantling one of the first projects to successfully store solar energy for use on cloudy days and at night.

Solar Two, built in Daggett in 1993, was a demonstration solar project that paved the way for other projects in Arizona and Spain to use the same technology on a larger scale, said Paul Phelan, manager of engineering in technical services for SCE’s Power Production Department.

But this year Phelan said SCE requested funds from the California Public Utilities Commission to decommission the project. The site wasn’t being used and break-ins were becoming a problem, Phelan said. Also, other parties, including SunRay Energy — a solar power company located in Malta — had expressed interest in possibly building another renewable energy facility near where Solar Two currently sits, Phelan said.

“Those are currently under evaluation by Edison’s Corporate Real Estate Department,” he said.

During its operation, Solar Two put 10 megawatts — enough to power about 6,500 houses — of electricity back into California’s power grid at the peak of summer, Phelan said. Almost 2,000 mirrors converged on a central tower where salt was heated until it became liquid. Phelan said the heated salt turned water into steam, which was used to run a turbine to generate power.

“They had two storage tanks that were insulated so they could store that salt in molten form until they needed it,” Phelan said. “They could run that again through the heating cylinder during dark hours or on cloudy days.”

The technology used in the Solar Two project didn’t exist except in peoples’ minds at that point, said Thomas Mancini, concentrating solar power program manager at Sandia National Laboratories, who worked with the project’s heliostat field. A consortium of 10 to 13 agencies, including Sandia Labs, SCE and the Department of Energy, were trying to demonstrate the project at a large enough level that the next step that could be taken would be to build commercial plants and operate them, Mancini said.

“What Solar Two did was provide experience levels with molten salt enabled projects in Spain, which is operating now,” he said, adding that Solar Two’s predecessor, Solar One, a water steam-driven plant operated at the Daggett site in the 1980s, was also the first project of its kind. “There are several power tower developers out there developing steam and molten salt. (They) build off the experience we had back in the ‘80s and ‘90s.”

SCE Spokesman Paul Klein, said the materials in the solar panels will be recycled. The glass will be disposed of as waste at a licensed landfill because the mirrored backing on the glass contains small amounts of lead, he said.

“Also, where possible, equipment — such as the turbine generator — will be sold as used equipment,” he said. “Remaining scrap metal will be sold for scrap value and recycled.”

County Files Action to Preserve Public's Access to Camp Rock Road

By David Zook
Submitted by Dan Wilson
Best Syndication News

SAN BERNARDINO CA - Nearly six years after San Bernardino County first sought to establish its authority over a critical High Desert road that crosses federal land, the Board of Supervisors Tuesday authorized a court order seeking to compel the federal government to process the County's application.

"We made a good faith effort under existing laws and regulations to establish that Camp Rock Road is a vital route across federal land and that it should be permanently under County control," said First District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, who represents the High Desert. "We regret having to take this action to force the government to comply with its own rules and honor our rights under the Administrative Procedures Act."

On April 29, 2003, the County filed an application with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for a recordable disclaimer granting the County's right of way on Camp Rock Road, which stretches about 42 miles between Lucerne Valley and Daggett. A recordable disclaimer is similar to a quitclaim deed, which would give the County a legal record of its ownership of the road.

The recordable disclaimer process was established to allow rights of way to be formally recognized and recorded. There was previously no regulatory provision for recording rights of way under federal rules.

The application was filed under Revised Statute 2477, part of an 1866 mining law that allowed rights of way over public lands as part of the effort to settle the West. R.S. 2477 was repealed in 1976 with the adoption of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, but existing rights of way were preserved. The County submitted substantial evidence that Camp Rock Road was a well-established and maintained route long before 1976.

"We are merely seeking to protect the interests of our economy and our citizens who rely on this route to travel across federal land," Supervisor Mitzelfelt said. "There is no reason for this application to have languished for nearly six years, and we look forward to working with the federal government to resolve this issue."

The County's request for a writ of mandamus will be heard in U.S. District Court, Central District, in Riverside.

County sues to ensure Camp Rock Road access

By ABBY SEWELL, staff writer
Desert Dispatch

San Bernardino County is suing the federal government in hopes of establishing its right of way on a road crossing federal land between Lucerne Valley and Daggett.

The county is seeking to officially establish its ownership of Camp Rock Road, a county-maintained road that covers about 42 miles between Lucerne Valley and Daggett and crosses federal land, according to press release from county First District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt’s office.

“The road supports numerous industries, such as ranching, mining, filming and recreation, and it’s a road a lot of people use to get back and forth between Lucerne and Johnson Valley and the greater Barstow area,” Mitzelfelt said Wednesday. “... Our position is that in order to maintain our roads and keep them open, we need to be able to show we have the right of way for a variety of reasons.”

In April 2003 the county filed an application with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management for a “recordable disclaimer,” which would establish its right of way on the road and give the county a legal record of its ownership. The application was never processed, and the county is now asking for a court order that would force the BLM to process it in a timely manner, Mitzelfelt said Wednesday.

“Either issue the disclaimer or don’t issue the disclaimer, and tell us why,” he said.

The county’s application showed that it has been maintaining the road since before 1976, allowing the county to claim right of way under an 1866 mining law, Mitzelfelt said. The law was repealed in 1976, but existing right of ways were allowed to stand, according to the county release.

Alan Stein, deputy district manager of resources for the BLM’s California Desert District, said the BLM had been waiting to see how court cases involving right of ways established under the old mining law played out in other states before taking up San Bernardino County’s application.

In the meantime, he said, the county continues to use and maintain the road, and in the BLM’s maps, the road shows up as being owned by the county.

“It’s not that we tried to close Camp Rock Road — we didn’t, and we didn’t try to change the use on Camp Rock Road,” Stein said. “It’s a legal issue, and the county is interested in, and has been interested in, maintaining access.”

The county filed its motion asking for a court order in the United States District Court in Riverside on Jan. 14 under the authority of board Chairman Gary Ovitt, and the board ratified the action at its regular meeting Tuesday, Mitzelfelt said.

Thieves steal artifacts from Mojave desert museum

Associated Press


Historic Auto club signs stolen from the Daggett Museum.



DAGGETT, Calif. - A break-in discovered Christmas Day has robbed the museum in this Mojave Desert town of its most prized possessions, including antique dolls and Native American artifacts on loan from local families.

The thieves methodically cleared out glass display cases in the Daggett Museum, said curator Beryl Bell, who discovered the burglary when she went to feed her goldfish over the holiday.

"It's really heartbreaking for a small museum," Bell said Wednesday.

The stolen Native American artifacts include a basket appraised at $3,500, a Navajo sash and two large clay Acoma pots that had never been appraised but are very valuable, said Leslie Lloyd, the president of the Daggett Historical Society, which runs the museum.

The thieves also took antique dolls, model trains and other toys, farming implements and examples of rocks from the area, Lloyd said.

The thieves ignored the computers and copy machine in the office of a local government agency that shares the low-slung modular building with the museum, but they stole $2 in coins from Lloyd's desk and a museum donation jar that contained about $10, she said.

Despite the theft of the change, Lloyd believes the burglars were experienced since they left no fingerprints and took steps to disable the alarm system - even though it wasn't operational at the time of the break-in.

"This appeared to be a very neat operation and it appeared they had a shopping list," she said.

The historical society has notified the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association, which plans to post news of the break-in on its Web site and will inform its 250 members by e-mail to look out for the stolen artifacts, said Alice Kaufman, the organization's executive director.

The historical society is offering a $500 reward to anyone who can provide information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the theft.

"What we're hoping is that if we raise enough fuss it will at least raise their tail feathers some," said Lloyd, 47, who has lived in the desert town of about 400 people all her life.

The museum, some six miles east of Barstow and about 125 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, plans to increase security to protect what remains of its collection and is only offering tours by appointment.