The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism
Identification
- Public canonical key
- doi:10.2307/4486326
- Authors
- Donald J. Pisani
- Reported year
- 2006
- Reported language
- en
- Source type
- article
- First detected
- 2026-11-09T19:14:29.802077+00:00
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- 2026-11-09T19:14:29.802077+00:00
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Institutions reported by the source
University of Oklahoma
Documentary abstract — original language
In 1913, Congress approved the Raker Act, which permitted San Francisco to dam the Tuolumne River in the Hetch Hetchy Valley of Yosemite National Park, two hundred miles east of the city, and use the river for water and power. In doing so, Congress “decommissioned” part of the park. Before and after 1913, the political battle between friends and foes of the project was not, as many environmental historians have claimed, a well-defined struggle between “wilderness preservationists” and “utilitarian conservationists” or between the “rights of nature” and the “rights of man.” Instead, this is a complicated story filled with irony, paradox, and inconsistency. In the late nineteenth century, the Spring Valley Water Company exercised an unpopular monopoly over San Francisco's water supply and distribution system. City officials first expressed an interest in damming the Hetch Hetchy Valley in 1901, but the Interior Department did not approve their application. The earthquake and fire of 1906 devastated four square miles of San Francisco but won it many new friends, including the conservationist Gifford Pinchot and Secretary of the Interior James R. Garfield. Inadequate water mains contributed to the severity and duration of the fire and increased hostility toward the water company.
Identifiers
- OPENALEX
- W2333865471
- DOI
- 10.2307/4486326
Documentary context
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- Scholarship
- Source-reported types
- article
- Natural entities mentioned
- River
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Sources
OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2
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Cite this reference
Donald J. Pisani. The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism. 2006. https://doi.org/10.2307/4486326
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- APA
- Donald J. Pisani. (2006). The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism. https://doi.org/10.2307/4486326
- Chicago
- Donald J. Pisani. The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism. 2006. https://doi.org/10.2307/4486326
- ISO 690
- Donald J. Pisani. The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism. 2006. https://doi.org/10.2307/4486326
UDTR Global Rights of Nature Legal Library. The Battle over Hetch Hetchy: America's Most Controversial Dam and the Birth of Modern Environmentalism. Documentary record: https://www.declarationuniverselledesdroitsdelarbre.org/global-rights-of-nature-radar/reference/r-e26d1e80c7ad6eee48c532a25d680c6e/ · Last HTTP verification: not performed
Field provenance and record version
Version 493ebbc3794377ca · udtr-reference-1.1.2
- Title
- OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:14:29.802077+00:00
- Authors
- OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:14:29.802077+00:00
- Year
- OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:14:29.802077+00:00
- Identifiers
- OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:14:29.802077+00:00
- Source URL
- OpenAlex · source · 2026-11-09T19:14:29.802077+00:00
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c5aa9aef748f5d9b · 2026-11-09T19:14:29.802077+00:00
d2e7c1a4ac875567 · 2026-11-09T19:14:29.802077+00:00
854fd980fe93db61 · 2026-11-09T19:14:29.802077+00:00
493ebbc3794377ca · 2026-11-09T19:14:29.802077+00:00
Research dossiers and documentary relations
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Discovery source · https://doi.org/10.2307/4486326
Discovery source · https://openalex.org/W2333865471
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