Editing Bishop, California (section)

===Water conflicts of the Owens Valley===
{{main|California water wars}}
As Los Angeles expanded during the late 19th century, it began outgrowing its water supply. [[Fred Eaton]], mayor of Los Angeles, promoted a plan to take water from Owens Valley, where Bishop lies, to Los Angeles via an [[aqueduct (water supply)|aqueduct]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Dennis|last=McDougal|title=Privileged Son: Otis Chandler And The Rise And Fall Of The L.A. Times Dynasty|publisher=Da Capo Press|date=April 25, 2001|page=35|isbn=978-0-306-81161-6}}</ref> Between 1905 and 1907, most of the land in the Owens Valley was purchased from farmers and ranchers at bargain prices by Eaton, ostensibly for a his own use.<ref name=Cadillac>{{cite book|last=Reisner|first=Mark|title=Cadillac Desert|edition=revised|publisher=Penguin USA|year=1993|isbn=978-0-14-017824-1|title-link=Cadillac Desert}}</ref>{{rp|66}} The real goal was to send Owens Valley water south to Los Angeles.<ref name = "SmithsonianMag">{{cite news | url = http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/california.html | title = California Scheming | newspaper = Smithsonian Magazine | first = Mark | last = Wheeler | date = October 2002 | access-date = October 8, 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120315135038/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/people-places/california.html | archive-date = March 15, 2012 | url-status = dead }}</ref> In 1907, Eaton traveled to [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] to meet with advisers of [[Theodore Roosevelt]] to convince them that the water of the [[Owens River]] would do more good flowing through faucets in Los Angeles than it would if used on Owens Valley fields and orchards.<ref name = "Eaton-PBS">{{cite web | title = Fred Eaton | work = PBS: New Perspectives on The West | url = https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/d_h/eaton.htm | access-date = October 8, 2011 | archive-date = October 10, 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111010224319/http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/d_h/eaton.htm | url-status = live }}</ref> Despite a political fight with Congressman [[Sylvester C. Smith|Sylvester Smith]], who represented the area around Bishop, Roosevelt decided in favor of the aqueduct.<ref name = "LADWPConstruction">{{cite web | publisher = Los Angeles Department of Water and Power | title = A Hundred or a Thousand Fold More Important | url = http://wsoweb.ladwp.com/Aqueduct/historyoflaa/hundred.htm | access-date = May 23, 2014 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090223171727/http://wsoweb.ladwp.com/Aqueduct/historyoflaa/hundred.htm | archive-date = February 23, 2009 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

The aqueduct was built from 1907 to 1913 under the supervision of [[William Mullholland]].<ref name = "ripple">{{cite book | title = The Ripple Effect: The Fate of Fresh Water in the Twenty-First Century | first = Alex | last = Prud'homme | year = 2011 | publisher = Simon and Schuster | isbn = 978-1-4165-3545-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/rippleeffectfate00prud_0 }}</ref>{{rp|151–153}} The aqueduct is {{convert|223|mi|km}} long, used no pumping stations; only gravity siphons.<ref name="ripple"/> By 1928, Los Angeles owned 90 percent of the land and subsequent water rights in Owens Valley effectively rendering all agriculture, economic and development interests in the region effectively dead. With the diversion of water to Los Angeles, the Owens Lake and lower Owens River dried up, forcing many valley residents to leave the area.<ref name="Owens Valley">{{cite book | first1 = Genny | last1 = Smith| last2 = Putnam | first2 = Jeff | last3 = James | first3 = Greg | last4 = DeDecker | first4 = Mary |  last5 = Heindel | first5 = Jo | title = Deepest Valley: Guide to Owens Valley, its Roadsides and Mountain Trails | year = 1995 | isbn = 978-0-931378-14-0 | publisher = Genny Smith Books}}</ref> For a number of years, Owens Valley residents expressed much animosity toward the city of Los Angeles;<ref name="Owens Valley"/><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Ernest Bulpitt collection of Inyo/Mono Water wars memorabilia.|url=https://oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;Institution=California%20State%20Library::California%20History%20Room;idT=AGE-4011|access-date=September 28, 2020|website=oac.cdlib.org|archive-date=April 18, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230418073717/https://oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;Institution=California%20State%20Library::California%20History%20Room;idT=AGE-4011|url-status=live}}</ref>  for example, in Dry Ditches, a book of poems published in 1934 by the Parcher family of Bishop. The Owens Valley–city of Los Angeles conflict was the inspiration of the 1974 film [[Chinatown (1974 film)|Chinatown]], starring [[Jack Nicholson]].<ref name=beast>{{cite news|url=http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/28/william-mulholland-gave-water-to-la-and-inspired-chinatown.html|title=William Mulholland Gave Water to LA and Inspired ''Chinatown''|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160915194827/http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/28/william-mulholland-gave-water-to-la-and-inspired-chinatown.html |archive-date=September 15, 2016|first=Jon|last=Wilkman|newspaper=[[The Daily Beast]]|date=February 28, 2016}}</ref>