Brandon Schleicher
GEOG361
Dr. Joseph Hupy
December 9, 2010
Book Review
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
Cadillac Desert, written by Marc Reisner, is a nonfiction, historical account of the diminishing water supply of western United States. The book provides a beautiful portrait combining western growth with the relentless pursuit of the most vital component of life: water. Throughout the 'story' Reisner shows a substantial amount of knowledge with regards to the state and federal politics behind water use. After finishing his book, the reader will indefinitely walk away with a new gratitude toward a resource that is generally taken for granted.
The book begins by providing a brief description of western settlement in the United States. Often people have the misconception that the West was settled solely as the result of gold being discovered. The truth however is this was only one component of our history. As Reisner points out westward expansion is largely credited to the expeditions of John Wesley Powell. Powell's discoveries placed the East in awe due to the large geologic diversity as well as the sheer size of the region. Even though his descriptions of the West were less than pleasant, eastern bureaucrats were convinced it could be tamed. Government incentives offering vast amounts of land were enough to begin the rapid movement west.
Following rapid migration West, those brave enough to make the journey soon realized west of the 100th meridian the landscape was a baron wasteland unable to sustain their families. Their two choices were to either return east or continue west to California. Those who continued west and reached California's fertile valleys were able to establish large family farms. After word got back east the population of California began to grow rapidly so rapidly it began to run out of water. This began the relentless search for water and battles over who had the rights to what water. “...in the dry climate of southern California, money meant water.” (72)
Although Cadillac Desert emphasizes the political realm of water in the West, I was primarily focused on how the difficulties of the environment hindered living. In 1886 a blizzard swept through much of the West. As a result thousands of pioneers were unable to harvest food or timber. The blizzard was so cold that the regions cattle population dropped between 35 percent and 75 percent, “enough cows died to feed the nation for a couple of years” (106). Only two years later an even more disastrous event occurred in the West.
The early belief that rain follows the plow made settlers very vulnerable to the hazard of drought. As they moved west they were blessed with a remarkably wet period; however, after the great white winter they experienced yet another calamity. “In July of 1888, at Bennett, Colorado, the temperature rose to 118, a record that has never since been equaled in the state.” (106) The combination of a catastrophic blizzard followed by a severe drought displaced 600,000 families (107). These disasters brought about an era of dam construction. The question Reisner asks is whether it was for the better or for the worse.
The construction of dams introduced yet another hazard to the West. Although rare the risk of a dam failing especially during construction was always present. In 1928 the Saint Frances dam failed killing around 450 (99). In 1889 heavy rainfall in the East caused a dam on the Conemaugh River to fail sending 16 million gallons of water downstream ultimately killing 2200. The Conemaugh River dam was the end of the privatization of dam construction, whether or not that is a good thing is very controversial (108). The catastrophy resulting from the Teton dam failure was a hazard in epic proportion. 12,000 people had to be evacuated after the dam, three hundred feet high and seventeen hundred feet long, collapsed. The town of Wilford was completely demolished. The result was the death of eleven people with damages amounting to $2 billion. The collapse was all caught on tape by a fellow Schleicher. (400-407)
In my opinion politicians of the time, as well as today for that matter, were too concerned with their own self interests. For example the battle between the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineer. The motives of both the Bureau and Corps were not of how to mitigate the western water shortage as much as how to exploit and defeat one another for political funding and power. This is evident throughout the history of water projects particularly the creation of dams. Dams were not being created to provide flood-control, drought relief, or water for irrigation, and city consumption; instead, they were being created to generate revenue. Cash register dams were erected by both the Bureau and the Corps to pay off debts that compounded from early irrigation practices of the West. It seemed as if bureaucrats used the Wests diminishing water supply to pursue their own self interests. Consequently this practice led to few beneficiaries other than large monopolies whom were in good relations with politicians. When dams were constructed on a stream to create large reservoirs and generate hydroelectricity, both people within the flood zone and those down stream were severely affected. In one such case the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation was completely split in two and flooded, forcing the Mandan, Arikara, and Hidatsa tribes to relocate to lands unsuitable to their agricultural societies. A grudge held by Colonel Pick of the Corps even made it illegal for the native tribes to harvest any of the timber or use any of the water in the reservoir. (187-190)
Not only did these massive water projects have detrimental affects on the local and downstream populations they also completely disrupted many wildlife habitats. Trout, salmon, and waterfowl migrations were disrupted to the extent of complete irradication. Invasive species coming from rerouted channels also threatened native wildlife. Areas relying solely on the fishing industry were forced to take on new methods of sustenance. A spokesman for the Bureau of Reclamation went as far to say they were enhancing the fish and wildlife habitat by creating reservoirs; however, they neglected to realize that the reservoirs were far to deep for waterfowl. Having your way of life demolished overnight became a new disaster, a human induced environmental disaster.
After reading Cadillac Desert you will have a much better understanding of the politics involved in water usage. The book itself tends to be somewhat overwhelming with various dates, political figures, and large numbers. After a short amount of time you learn to almost jump over names and numbers as they are, with a few exceptions, unimportant. Reisner's writing style at times can make you feel like you are reading a novel, which in my opinion helped keep me interested. He provides numerous personal accounts of the events he is covering in the chapter which gives it a nice amount of dialog. The only criticism I had with how the book was written is in Reisner's seemingly random mumbo jumbo of words. For example “Sesquipedalian tergiversation was the strong suit of Harrison Gray Otis...” What on earth does that mean? That being my only criticism, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in water politics or political scandals. In the sense of being a environmental hazard book however, it fell a little short mainly due to the authors more political direction.
