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156-696: The Syndicate operated from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, but was most active in California and headquartered in San Francisco. Its tenure ran from an uncertain origin in the mid 1870s to 1898 but was at its peak activity from 1880 to 1885. In California alone, at least 40 individuals were known to be involved, and very probably more actually were; a major uncertainty involves how many people were involved, and where. The group's modus operandi

312-408: A 10-mile (16 km) range of one square mile sections was allotted on each side of the 400-foot (120 m) right-of-way. If the railway ran predominantly north and south, a 10-mile (16 km) township of one square mile sections was allotted on each side of the 400-foot (120 m) right-of-way. The land was granted in alternating sections (one square mile), with each odd numbered section going to

468-683: A dam on Willow Creek, a tributary of the San Joaquin River, forming Bass Lake as part of the Crane Valley hydroelectric project. Water from Bass Lake was diverted to a powerhouse on the San Joaquin River beginning in 1917, and two more powerhouses were added in 1919, increasing the total generating capacity to about 28 MW. The Crane Valley project and San Joaquin Electric was purchased by San Joaquin Light and Power Company in 1909, which

624-477: A high of 22.8 °C (73.0 °F) on Oct 4, 2014. This range is less extreme than the temperatures below Vernalis where the range is from 2°Celsius (35.6 °F)on Dec 26, 1987 to 35.5 °C (95.9 °F) on August 9, 1990. The river typically ends above the Mendota Pool. Larger flows in the fall may make it possible for the river to extend further towards the ocean, but for the last several years, this

780-471: A large increase in the group's activities and power. Others approved contracts that had originally been rejected (after inspection by independent government examiners), without evidence or assurance that the surveys had been properly corrected or completed. Also, at least one such examiner in California was part of the syndicate, attempting to gain payment for some rejected surveys via bogus field "examinations" (which were themselves later rejected as fraudulent as

936-680: A large water transport project. In 1931 California's Department of Water Resources came up with the State Water Plan , which entailed the construction of dams and canals to transport water from the Sacramento River to the rapidly dwindling San Joaquin. The project was still in its planning stages when the Great Depression hit the United States, and California was unable to raise the funds necessary for building

1092-520: A low flow of 30 cu ft/s (0.85 m /s) was recorded on August 10, 1961. San Joaquin River monthly discharges at Vernalis In a geologic context, the San Joaquin River can be divided into two major segments. The upper 97 mi (156 km) above Friant Dam in the Sierra is characterized as a steep-gradient, rocky mountain stream. Over millions of years, the upper San Joaquin, as well as

1248-453: A name, a language, and a territory. Of the about 63 known Yokuts tribes, 33 lived along or around the San Joaquin River and its tributaries. The staple food for San Joaquin Valley inhabitants was the acorn , which when ground, could be made into various foods such as cakes. Grinding the acorns was a simple process where they crushed the nuts using rocks in natural granite depressions. Many of

1404-658: A pair of distributaries – the Old River and Middle River – split off from the main stem just above the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta , a huge inverted river delta formed by sediment deposits of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. About 40 mi (64 km) from the mouth, the river draws abreast to the western flank of Stockton , one of the basin's largest cities. From here to the mouth,

1560-539: A pair of canals still in use today. One of the most powerful early irrigation empires was the Kern County Land and Water Company, established in 1873 by land speculator James Ben Ali Haggin , which grew to supply over 400,000 acres (160,000 ha) through their canal system. Haggin soon ran into conflicts with other landowners over riparian water rights , as the larger districts, including his, had more financial reserves and engineering expertise, and were

1716-415: A railroad right-of-way to build rail systems, and millions of acres to raise the capital needed to build and maintain the future railways. Ten square miles of land on each side of the proposed rail track were granted for every one mile of completed railway. The PLSS was utilized for measurement. Every one-mile length of railway completed was akin to a section. If the railway ran predominantly east and west,

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1872-471: A result, commercial navigation began a decline starting in the late 19th century and was completely gone by 1911. With over 350,000 acres (140,000 ha) under irrigation along the river by 1900 – this figure has only grown hugely since then – the river and its tributaries became much narrower, siltier and shallower, with large consequences for the natural environment, for sustainability of water supplies in its valley, and also huge changes for water politics in

2028-784: A settlement at the confluence of the San Joaquin and the Stanislaus, called New Hope or San Joaquin City . The real influx came in 1848, when a gold strike on the American set off the California Gold Rush . Within one year, the population of the San Joaquin Valley increased by more than 80,000. The city of Stockton, on the lower San Joaquin, quickly grew from a sleepy backwater to a thriving trading center,

2184-428: A short distance downstream. The Middle Fork is considered the largest of the 3 forks. From the mountainous alpine headwaters , the San Joaquin flows generally south into the foothills of the Sierra, passing through four hydroelectric dams . It eventually emerges from the foothills at what was once the town of Millerton , the location of Friant Dam since 1942, which forms Millerton Lake . Below Friant Dam (RM267),

2340-629: A single Willamette Meridian serves both Oregon and Washington . County lines frequently follow the survey, so there are many rectangular counties in the Midwest and the West . The system is in use in some capacity in most of the country, but large portions use other systems. The territory under the jurisdiction of the Thirteen Colonies at the time of independence did not adopt the PLSS, with

2496-421: A smell of its own; it was a fresh and inviting smell. While something had to be done to control the flooding, it's a damn shame that they had to kill the river in the process." – Tony Imperatrice, Fresno resident, 1988 Even with the presence of Friant and numerous other flood control dams, large floods still caused significant damage along the San Joaquin River all the way through the late 1950s. The passage of

2652-479: A state or multiple states, is a multi-step process. First, two controlling survey lines are established: a baseline which runs east–west and a principal meridian which runs north–south. The locations of the two are determined by a previously chosen initial point , where they originate and thus intersect. Next, at a defined distance interval, commonly 24 or 30 miles (48 km) depending on the year and location, standard parallels of latitude are established parallel to

2808-570: A town of a generally rectangular shape, 4 to 6 miles (6.4 to 9.7 km) on a side. Within this boundary, a map or plat was maintained that showed all the individual lots or properties. There are some difficulties with this system: In the 1783 Treaty of Paris recognizing the United States, Britain also recognized American rights to the land south of the Great Lakes and west to the Mississippi River . The Continental Congress passed

2964-439: A township line (or baseline) with a range line (or principal meridian) constitutes a township corner , of a section line with any other type of line a section corner , and a point halfway between any two section corners a quarter corner . The federal government typically surveyed only to this quarter-section level, the subdivision of smaller parcels being carried out subsequently by private surveyors after original sale. Because

3120-716: A way of raising money for the nation. Before this could happen, the land needed to be surveyed. The Land Ordinance of 1785 marks the beginning of the Public Land Survey System. The Confederation Congress was deeply in debt following the Declaration of Independence . With little power to tax, the federal government decided to use the sale of the Western Territories to pay off war debt. The PLSS has been expanded and slightly modified by Letters of Instruction and Manuals of Instruction, issued by

3276-537: A year before, Benjamin Davis Wilson "drove a herd of cattle from his Riverside rancho through the San Joaquin Valley to Stockton and reported seeing not a single white man". After the Americans took over, emigrants began trickling in increased numbers, establishing the towns of Kingston City , Millerton , and Fresno City . The newcomers also included a group of Mormons led by Samuel Brannan who established

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3432-614: Is a rare occurrence. The water is largely held behind Friant Dam. The typical monthly flow of the San Joaquin River near the Sack Dam is 0. There have been seepage concerns below this part of the river, so current flows are restricted below the Sack Dam. The present annual flow of the San Joaquin River near Vernalis is about 5,110 cu ft/s (145 m /s), or 4.5 million acre-feet (5.6 million m ) per year. According to USGS stream gauge #11303500 at Vernalis , 78 miles (126 km) above Suisun Bay and 2.6 miles (4.2 km) below

3588-457: Is always used, in which the townships and sections are indexed based on (1) the township's position relative to the initial point, (2) the section's location within the designated township, and (3) the principal meridian reference. Township, range, and section are abbreviated as T, R, and S, respectively, and cardinal bearings from the initial point by N, S, E, and W; each principal meridian also has its established abbreviation. Thus, for example,

3744-404: Is clean enough for human use. The aquifer receives in excess of 1,600,000 acre⋅ft (2,000,000 dam ) of inflow per year, mostly from precipitation and irrigation water seepage. Concentration of chloride and other minerals generally increases from east to west across the basin. Archaeological finds near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley suggested that humans first arrived in

3900-782: Is located in the Ansel Adams Wilderness , in the south-central Sierra Nevada at the confluence of three major affluents: the Middle Fork, which rises from Thousand Island Lake at almost 10,000 ft (3,000 m) above sea level, meets the North Fork, which starts 1.8 mi (2.9 km) southeast of Mount Lyell , and the South Fork , which begins at Martha Lake in Kings Canyon National Park and flows through Florence Lake , joins

4056-405: Is now Yosemite National Park: " Township 7 South, Range 25 East and Township 8 South, Ranges 24 and 25 East, Mount Diablo Meridian: These townships are very rough, intersected by deep canyons and very steep, almost impassable mountains, in part covered with dense chaparral. Six weeks before the deputy claims to have commenced his surveys, all the people who live there in the summer are driven out by

4212-400: Is omitted that is found in the transcripts and data supplied from memory, or rather made up ; that disregarding clerical errors the transcripts are not in any sense copies of the original notes; that triangulations omitted in originals are audaciously given in detail in the transcripts, just as if they had really been made in the field, that the high speed, more than 6 miles per day, at which it

4368-499: Is pretended the work was executed, surpasses belief when we take into consideration the nature of the ground, and bear in mind that the surveying was done during the shortest days of the year; that the deputy gives descriptions of erroneous bearing trees where no such trees, either as regards size or species, are to be found; that in the face of all the embarrassing conditions, big canyons, high and steep mountains, deep snow, impenetrable chaparral, precipices impossible to ascend or descend,

4524-788: Is the surveying method developed and used in the United States to plat , or divide, real property for sale and settling. Also known as the Rectangular Survey System, it was created by the Land Ordinance of 1785 to survey land ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Paris in 1783, following the end of the American Revolution . Beginning with the Seven Ranges in present-day Ohio ,

4680-530: Is the longest river of Central California . The 366-mile (589 km) long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay , San Francisco Bay , and the Pacific Ocean . An important source of irrigation water as well as a wildlife corridor , the San Joaquin is among the most heavily dammed and diverted of California's rivers. People have inhabited

4836-552: Is the one at lowest elevation, i.e. in the direction that water drains. The "lower 40" is frequently the location of or the direction of a stream or a pond. The phrase "40 acres and a mule" was the compensation apocryphally promised by the Freedmen's Bureau following the American Civil War . Homesteading , a staple of American western culture , was dependent on the PLSS. In the original Homestead Act of 1862, during

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4992-604: The California Coast Ranges , more than 20,000 ft (6,100 m) of sediments were deposited at the foot of the Sierras by tidal activity, and the ancestral San Joaquin and its tributaries flowed west over this alluvial plain to the sea, dumping their own sediments onto the marine deposits. Compressional forces along the boundary of the North American and Pacific Plates between 2-4 MYA resulted in

5148-551: The Flood Control Act of 1944 included provisions for the construction of a levee system along part of the San Joaquin River, but valley farmers were not entirely satisfied. After years of lobbying, farmers convinced the state government to authorize a massive flood-control system of diversion channels and levees whose main component is the Eastside Bypass , so named because of its location east of and parallel to

5304-831: The Lincoln administration , each settler was allocated 160 acres (0.65 km ) of land, a quarter-section. Later amendments of the Homestead Act allocated more land, as much as 640 acres (2.6 km ), a section. This was a good revision to apply to land that was drier or more desolate than the earlier, more desirable lands that had already been settled. Many times, this land was more suited to ranching than to farming . San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River ( / ˌ s æ n hw ɑː ˈ k iː n / SAN whah- KEEN ; Spanish : Río San Joaquín [ˈri.o saŋ xoaˈkin] )

5460-542: The Port of Stockton – a distance of 41 mi (66 km) by river. In 1926, Stockton pooled its finances with the federal and state governments for a total of $ 8.2 million. Construction on the channel, which included widening and deepening the riverbed and cutting off meanders and oxbow lakes , began in earnest in 1928. These included major cuts at Hog Island, Venice Island and Mandeville Island , plus five smaller straightening projects. The navigation project shortened

5616-399: The 1785 act, section 16 of each township was set aside for school purposes and as such was often called the school section . Section 36 was also subsequently added as a school section in western states. The various states and counties ignored, altered or amended this provision in their own ways, but the general (intended) effect was a guarantee that local schools would have an income and that

5772-746: The 18th century, the population of the San Joaquin Valley was estimated at more than 69,000, representing one of the greatest concentrations of native people anywhere in North America. Before European colonization, the Yokuts occupied the entire San Joaquin Valley, from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta south to the Tehachapi Mountains , including the adjacent foothills of the Sierra Nevada to

5928-566: The BLM manual's 1973 publication date, and the reference to Clarke's Spheroid of 1866 in section 2-82, the coordinates listed are believed to be in the NAD27 datum. These public land surveyed had no initial point as an origin for both township and range. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 (signed by President Abraham Lincoln ) was the first major land grant specifically for the transcontinental railroad . This act provided surveyed, public lands for

6084-587: The California Surveyor General, which proposed to correct or finish the survey work on several contracts that had never been paid out because government examiners had declared the work bogus. This compromise was accepted by the government, but little of this supposedly "corrected" work is reported to have ever been accepted by the Surveyor General as valid. Public Land Survey System The Public Land Survey System ( PLSS )

6240-529: The Chowchilla River, Owens Creek and Bear Creek. Near the terminus, the bypass channel has a capacity of roughly 18,500 cu ft/s (520 m /s). The Eastside Bypass ends just upstream of the Merced River confluence, where the San Joaquin levee system is better designed. However, the levees on the bypass channel are generally more well-built than those on the San Joaquin mainstem and thus

6396-648: The Fresno Slough, when the Kings River is flooding. From Mendota, the San Joaquin swings northwest, passing through many different channels, some natural and some man-made. Northeast of Dos Palos , it is only joined by the Fresno and Chowchilla Rivers when they reach flood stage. Fifty miles (80 km) downstream, the Merced River empties into an otherwise dry San Joaquin (RM118). The majority of

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6552-883: The General Land Office and the Bureau of Land Management, and is still in use in most of the states west of Pennsylvania , south to Florida , Alabama , and Mississippi , west to the Pacific Ocean , and north into the Arctic in Alaska . The original colonies (including their derivatives Maine , Vermont , Tennessee , Kentucky and West Virginia ) continued the British system of metes and bounds . This system describes property lines based on local markers and bounds drawn by humans, often based on topography. A typical, yet simple, description under this system might read "From

6708-649: The Land Ordinance of 1785 and then the Northwest Ordinance in 1787 to control the survey, sale, and settling of the new lands. The original 13 colonies donated their western lands to the new union, for the purpose of giving land for new states. These include the lands that formed the Northwest Territory, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama , and Mississippi . The state that gave up the most was Virginia , whose original claim included most of

6864-541: The Miller and Lux Corporation. During that year, Huntington and Eastwood devised plans to utilize the water of the San Joaquin River and some of its headwaters tributaries in what would become one of the most extensive hydroelectric systems in the world, known as the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project . Construction of the system's facilities, which included Mammoth Pool and Redinger Dams on

7020-527: The Northwest Territory and Kentucky. Some of the western land was claimed by more than one state, especially in the northwest, where parts were claimed by Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut , all three of which had claimed lands all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The first surveys under the new rectangular system were in eastern Ohio in an area called the Seven Ranges. The Beginning Point of

7176-464: The PLSS grid structure. The results can be 90-degree intersections and very long stretches of straight roads. The land system is an important part of American history and culture. Among other things, the stock phrases "lower 40", "front 40", "back 40", and " 40 acres and a mule ", which are sometimes heard in American movies , reference the quarter-quarter section. The "lower 40" in a quarter-section

7332-702: The PLSS has been used as the primary survey method in the United States. Following the passage of the Northwest Ordinance in 1787, the Surveyor General of the Northwest Territory platted lands in the Northwest Territory . The Surveyor General was later merged with the United States General Land Office , which later became a part of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Today, the BLM controls

7488-454: The Report quote above. However the trials, in federal district court, did not even occur until 1892, and when they did all were found innocent on legal technicalities. However their actual guilt was clear to everyone familiar with the facts, and surveyors associated with Benson had difficulty getting work. Because of this, Benson proposed what came to be known as the "Benson Compromise" in 1895 to

7644-457: The San Joaquin River, and during the "June Rise", as boat operators called the San Joaquin's annual high water levels during snowmelt, large craft could make it as far upstream as Fresno. During the peak years of the gold rush, the river in the Stockton area was reportedly crowded with hundreds of abandoned oceangoing craft, whose crew had deserted for the gold fields. The multitude of idle ships

7800-493: The San Joaquin Valley for more than 8,000 years, and it was one of the major population centers of pre-Columbian California. Starting in the late 18th century, successive waves of explorers then settlers, mainly Spanish and American , emigrated to the San Joaquin basin. When Spain colonized the area, they sent soldiers from Mexico, who were usually of mixed native Mexican and Spanish birth, led by Spanish officers. Franciscan missionaries from Spain came with expeditions to evangelize

7956-463: The San Joaquin Valley, Tulare Basin, and other regions of California. The court battle that resulted would change water laws and rights in the San Joaquin River valley, and ended up promoting large-scale agribusiness over small farmers. Miller and Lux were not any newer to the San Joaquin Valley than had been Haggin, but were the driving influence on valley agribusiness until well into the early 20th century. The corporation had begun acquiring land in

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8112-404: The San Joaquin Valley, found itself increasingly landlocked because the San Joaquin River, its main connection to the sea, was rapidly silting up. The early 20th century saw proposals to maintain a minimum depth in the lower river by dredging , but these were interrupted by the onset of World War I . In 1925 the city put forth a $ 1.3 million bond for dredging the lower San Joaquin from its mouth to

8268-462: The San Joaquin Valley, most in the existing towns such as Stockton, Fresno and Bakersfield but some establishing new settlements. These included San Joaquin City, near the confluence of the San Joaquin with the Stanislaus, probably the largest of these post-gold-rush boomtowns. Established in 1851, the town maintained considerable size until 1880, when trade competition from nearby Stockton caused it to diminish. Another notable but much smaller settlement

8424-452: The San Joaquin and four additional reservoirs on its tributaries with a total storage capacity of 560,000 acre⋅ft (690,000 dam ), started in 1911. A total of eight dams and tunnels, the longest of which stretches 21,600 ft (6,600 m), and nine powerhouses with a total installed capacity of 1,014 MW were built in stages spanning the 20th century, with the last powerhouse coming on line in 1987. The consistent use and reuse of

8580-628: The San Joaquin flows west-southwest out into the San Joaquin Valley – the southern part of the Great Central Valley – passing north of Fresno . With most of its water diverted into aqueducts, the river frequently runs dry in a 150-mile section. This lack of riverwater begins in the 60 mi (97 km) between Friant Dam and Mendota , where it is only replenished by the Delta-Mendota Canal (RM 205) and

8736-432: The San Joaquin valley. After crossing the mountains, he came upon the shore of Buena Vista Lake at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, and gave the name Buena Vista ("beautiful view") to the pass and a nearby Native American village. However, Fages did not venture farther north, and thus did not further explore the main stem of the San Joaquin River. The San Joaquin River region remained largely unknown except for

8892-554: The San Joaquin – the Fresno, Chowchilla, Merced, Tuolumne, Mariposa Creek, Calaveras, Mokelumne, and others – flowed freely across alluvial flood plains to join the river. All of the major tributaries of the river originate in the Sierra Nevada; most of the streams that start in the Coast Range are intermittent, and contribute little to the flow of the San Joaquin. During the winter, spring, and early summer, storms and snowmelt swell

9048-446: The San Joaquin. Groundbreaking of the huge project was in 1959 and construction was finished in 1966. The bypass system starts with the Chowchilla Canal Bypass, which can divert up to 5,500 cu ft/s (160 m /s) off the San Joaquin, a few miles above Mendota. After intercepting the flow of the Fresno River, the system is known as the Eastside Bypass, which runs northwest, crossing numerous tributaries: Berenda and Ash Sloughs,

9204-529: The Sierra Nevada. They tried to summit the range by way of both the Kings River and the American River (a tributary of the Sacramento), but it was early spring and the snow was too deep. They crossed the mountains along the Stanislaus River canyon, becoming the first recorded whites to cross the Sierra Nevada on foot. It is still disputed over whether Smith's party discovered gold on the San Joaquin or one of its tributaries. Although some of his men confirmed it, Smith did not make any mention in his journal. In

9360-402: The Sierra and christened many place names that remain in use today. In 1807 and 1808, Moraga set out again to the San Joaquin Valley. It was during one of these expeditions that he gave the river its present name, after St. Joachim. He also gave names to many tributaries of the river, such as the Merced River ( El Río de Nuestra Señora de Merced , "River of our Lady of Mercy"). Relations between

9516-413: The Spanish and the Native Americans in the earlier expeditions to the valley were initially friendly, and the indigenous people began to grow accustomed to the Spanish that later came to the San Joaquin River region. As early as the 1807 Moraga expedition, it was reported that some natives were hostile and attempting to steal their horses. Indeed, when the natives began to rustle cattle and horses for food,

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9672-436: The Spanish retaliated by burning camps and villages. Such conflict created enormous cultural loss, and violence continually escalated between the two sides, with no apparent end in sight. California became part of Mexico in 1821. The new government secularized the Spanish missions and as a result the conversos in the missions were no longer protected by the missionaries from exploitation. The Mexican government began to tax

9828-421: The Syndicate's history remains fairly sparse, but reasonably complete descriptions come from two Annual Reports of the Commissioner of the General Land Office , in 1887 and 1888 1887 Report The 1887 Report, pp. 25–26, gives this summary of its schemes: " In April last the United States grand jury at San Francisco returned forty one indictments for perjury and conspiracy in connection with fraudulent surveys of

9984-499: The U.S. Public Land Survey is at a point on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border between East Liverpool, Ohio , and Ohioville, Pennsylvania , on private property. A National Historic Landmark marker commemorating the site lies on the side of a state highway, exactly 1,112 feet (339 m) to the north of the point. Ohio was surveyed in several major subdivisions, collectively described as the Ohio Lands , each with its own meridian and baseline . The early surveying, particularly in Ohio,

10140-399: The air was filled with the stench of their decaying bodies." During the time Mexico was in control of California, the San Joaquin River region was only sparsely populated, and used almost exclusively for cattle ranching . When California won independence from Mexico in 1846 , becoming part of the United States the following month, a flood of American settlers descended upon the valley. Just

10296-500: The alleged deputies, to whom upwards of $ 190,000 appears from official records to have been paid, have sworn that their names were used without their knowledge, that they never had a surveying contract, and never received the amounts shown as paid them, and one swears that he never did a day's work in his life at land surveying and knows nothing of the business." "Every expedient known to legal ingenuity has been resorted to by defendants and their confederates to avoid and defeat trials on

10452-699: The baseline. The meridian, baseline and standard parallels thus established form a lattice upon which all further surveying is then based. Subsequent work divides the land into survey townships of roughly 36 square miles (93 km ) or 6 miles (9.7 km) on each side. This is done by the establishment of township and range lines. Township lines run parallel to the baseline (east-west), while range lines run north–south; each are established at 6-mile intervals. Lastly, townships are subdivided into 36 sections of approximately 1 square mile (640 acres; 2.6 km ) and sections into four quarter-sections of 0.25 square miles (160 acres; 0.65 km ) each. The intersection of

10608-458: The channel of the San Joaquin runs dry in some places where the entire flow has been diverted to the bypass system. Although fairly large with a capacity of 520,500 acre⋅ft (642,000 dam ), Millerton Lake , the reservoir of Friant Dam, is small compared to other reservoirs in the San Joaquin basin, such as Don Pedro and Pine Flat . The Bureau of Reclamation in conjunction with the California Department of Water Resources has proposed

10764-424: The community schoolhouses would be centrally located for all children. An example of land allotments made specifically for higher education is Ohio's College Township . There were numerous incidents of fraudulent or bad surveying reported, arguably in nearly every state. The remote nature of the land being surveyed certainly enabled the opportunity for fraud to occur. The most notorious, large scale, and costly fraud

10920-436: The construction of a new dam on the San Joaquin, Temperance Flat Dam , a few miles upstream of Friant. The proposed $ 1.2-3.5 billion dam would stand 665 ft (203 m) high and create a reservoir of 1,260,000 acre⋅ft (1,550,000 dam ), well over twice the capacity of Millerton Lake. Proponents of the project cite numerous benefits: flood control, increased storage, hydroelectric potential, and capacity to provide

11076-406: The contracts, and the remainder were relatives, partners, associates, or employees of the head of the syndicate. There was paid to the order or purported order, of these thirty-four pretended deputy surveyors upwards of $ 1,000,000, all of which went into the treasury of the syndicate, the parties used as tools being paid stated salaries by the syndicate for the use of their names and services. Three of

11232-504: The dam in most years, except for releases serving farms in the immediate area downstream of Friant. A key point for irrigation water distribution on the San Joaquin, despite its small size, is Mendota Dam . Built in 1871 at the juncture of the San Joaquin River and Fresno Slough, it initially served to divert water into the Main Canal, an irrigation canal for the riverside bottomlands in the San Joaquin Valley. In 1951, Mendota became

11388-457: The deputy with his two parties of four men each, frequently with the impassable San Joaquin river between them, pretends to have subdivided T8SR24E at the rate of more than 6 miles per day, and then accomplishes the feat of recording all this work in one field book. The conclusion is that the deputy did not make the surveys of these townships according to his field notes and that the notes are in large part fictitious and fraudulent ." It

11544-568: The description "T1SR20E S13 MDM" reads as follows: Township 1 South, Range 20 East, Section 13, Mount Diablo Meridian. That is, the 13th section in the first township south of the baseline (in this case, the Mount Diablo Baseline) and the 20th township east of the principal meridian (the Mount Diablo Meridian). Since township and range lines are six miles apart, the "T1SR20E" part of the designation instantly places

11700-561: The dry months – some accounts suggest over 50 percent. The present conditions of the San Joaquin River at Friant Dam, the average discharge was 324 cu ft/s (9.2 m /s), or 0.234 million acre-feet per year. The highest average discharge between 1941 and 2015 was in 1983 when the discharge was 4,385 cu ft/s (124.2 m /s), with an average of those years of 879 cu ft/s (24.9 m /s). The water temperature range from 7°Celsius (44.5 °F) in February 2006 to

11856-587: The dry season, when no water is flowing in from the Kings River. The latter sends water into the Tulare Basin through the natural channel of the slough, which in essence conveys water in either direction depending on the time of year – north into the San Joaquin during the rainy season, south into the Tulare during the dry months. "It was a beautiful river that ran clear and cold. In those days it even had

12012-812: The early 1830s, a few fur trappers from the Pacific Northwest exploring southwards into the San Joaquin Valley saw an epidemic of smallpox and malaria brought unintentionally by the Europeans that had swept down the San Joaquin River corridor during the summer of 1833, killing between 50 and 75 percent of the entire native population in the valley. The outbreak continued year after year with diminishing acuteness until about 50,000–60,000 indigenous people were dead. Explorer Kit Carson noted in 1839 that "... cholera or some other fearful scourge broke out among them and raged with such fearful fatality that they were unable either to bury or burn their dead, and

12168-418: The early 20th century, Californian cities as far south as Los Angeles were looking to new sources for electricity because of their rapidly growing populations and industries. Two visionaries, railroad baron Henry E. Huntington and engineer John S. Eastwood established a fledgling power company in 1902 today known as Southern California Edison , and acquired water rights to the upper San Joaquin River from

12324-682: The east and parts of the Coast Range to the west. In contrast, the Miwok occupied land deeper within the Sierra Nevada stretching north from the Merced River to the Mokelumne or the American , a tributary of the Sacramento, and west to the Delta region. Most of the Miwok people in the watershed were part of the appropriately named Sierra Miwok group. The Yokuts were unique among California natives in that they were divided into true tribes. Each had

12480-448: The estimation of historic forest vegetation conditions before settlement and large scale human disturbance of the land. The data provided in these surveys provide a definitive estimate of original forest composition and structure, and the data have accordingly been used heavily. Along survey lines, monumentation was much less elaborate, consisting primarily of only the blazing and some simple scribing of trees directly on, or very close to,

12636-473: The exception of the area that became the Northwest Territory and some of the southern states . This territory comprises Georgia , Connecticut , Delaware , Kentucky , Maine , Maryland , Massachusetts , New Hampshire , New Jersey , New York , North Carolina , Pennsylvania , Rhode Island , South Carolina , Tennessee , Vermont , Virginia , and West Virginia . The old Cherokee lands in Georgia use

12792-443: The extent of the group's activities became known). Banks were also involved, providing the deposits and performance bonds required by the government, in exchange for a cut of the enormous profits generated. These banks later also paid for the syndicate's defense attorneys in trials brought by the government in its failed, ten-year effort to convict the syndicate members and recover funds paid for fraudulent work. Detailed information on

12948-463: The fact of its existence until 1806, when Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga led the first of several subsequent expeditions into the Central Valley, in order to find potential mission sites. Moraga started out from Mission San Juan Bautista , in present-day San Benito County , on September 21 of that year and traveled east into the San Joaquin Valley. The group skirted the western foothills of

13104-463: The first to build dams and diversions on a large scale. This resulted in the drying out of streams and rivers before they reached downstream users and sparked conflict over how much water could be allotted to whom. In Haggin's case, his company ran into problems with the Miller & Lux Corporation , run by Henry Miller and Charles Lux , who owned more than 1,000,000 acres (400,000 ha) throughout

13260-454: The ground. As with most PLSS specifications, those for corner monumentation also changed over time. In the 19th century, monuments were commonly a rock pile, a wooden post, or a combination of the two. Trees could be used if the corner happened to fall at the exact spot where one grew. In the 20th century, steel pipes with caps, supported by mounds of rock, became required (for example, see Fig. 4). Witnesses can be trees, rocks, or trenches dug in

13416-488: The ground; their exact locations relative to the corner, and the markings made on them, are also recorded in the surveyor's official fieldnotes . Witness trees at corners are more commonly referred to as bearing trees because the exact distance and bearing from the corner, to them, was required to be recorded (as well as the taxon and diameter). On each bearing tree, two blazes were typically required, one about chest height and easily visible, and one at ground level (in case

13572-404: The group's schemes possible. For example, in California two Surveyors General in the 1880s approved numerous fraudulent survey results and approved requests for government payment that were 200 to 700 percent of the originally estimated survey cost, which the government paid. Theodore Wagner was especially notorious in this regard, and his appointment as California Surveyor General coincided with

13728-422: The indictments found, but it is hoped and expected that at the next term of the court the trial and merited conviction of guilty parties to this stupendous scheme of fraud, perjury, and public robbery which has been developed, will be secured." 1888 Report The 1888 Report, pages 186-187, provides this example description of a fictitious survey of three survey townships in the high Sierra Nevada, southeast of what

13884-434: The lead chainman follow the correct bearing at all times, since no straightening of the chain was possible without backtracking around trees and re-measuring. It was also necessary to keep the chain level, since all surveying distances are based on the horizontal, not slope, distance. In steep terrain, this meant shortening the chain, raising one end of the chain relative to the other, or both. In areas where measuring by chain

14040-623: The location somewhere between zero and six miles south of the baseline, and 114 and 120 miles east of the principal meridian. Knowing how sections are numbered within townships, section 13 is identified as therefore occupying the one square mile located 2 to 3 miles south, and 119 to 120 miles east, of the Mount Diablo initial point (in central California). Note that the sections within a township are numbered in an unconventional, Boustrophedon pattern (Fig. 2), in which alternating rows are numbered in opposite directions, starting from section 1 in

14196-451: The loss of over 95 percent of the wetlands adjoining the San Joaquin River and Tulare Basin. Henry Miller exercised enormous political power in the state, and most San Joaquin Valley inhabitants either were avid supporters of him or despised him. When Miller died in 1916, his company owned 900,000 acres (360,000 ha) in the San Joaquin Valley alone with hundreds of miles of well-developed, maintained irrigation canals. As said by Tom Mott,

14352-404: The lower San Joaquin River, which has hurt fish populations. This is believed to be a result of the combination of the abrupt geometry change from the shallow river upstream of Stockton to the deep water channel, in addition to pollution from the harbor and city and poor tidal mixing. As early as the 1870s, state and federal agencies were already looking at the Central Valley as an area in need of

14508-463: The lower section of the San Joaquin was Rio de San Francisco , which was the name Father Juan Crespí gave to the river he could see entering the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta from the south. A member of the Pedro Fages party in 1772, Crespi's vantage point was the hilltops behind modern Antioch. Another early name was Rio San Juan Bautista , the origin of which is unknown. The river's source

14664-608: The millions of unemployed during the Depression. Construction of Friant Dam, the main dam on the San Joaquin River, began in 1937 and was completed in 1942. The dam serves for irrigation and flood control storage, but its main purpose is to divert water into the Madera Canal , which runs northwest along the San Joaquin Valley to the Chowchilla River, and the Friant-Kern Canal , which carries San Joaquin water all

14820-546: The missions excessively. From 1820, El Camino Viejo , a route between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay along the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, brought settlements from the United States into the valley. During Mexican rule, the mission lands in the San Joaquin Valley were subdivided to wealthy landowners ( rancheros ). The mission lands that were supposed to be given to the natives were also fraudulently taken over by American settlers. A famous leader of

14976-587: The mother of Jesus . The name Moraga chose was later applied to the entire river; it was in common use by 1810. In 1827, Jedediah Smith wrote in his journal that an unknown group of Native Americans called the river the Peticutry , a name which is listed as a variant in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Geographic Names Information System . In the Mono language , the river is called typici h huu' , which means "important or great river." An earlier name for

15132-615: The mouth of the Stanislaus River, the average discharge of the San Joaquin River between 1924 and 2011 was 4,525 cu ft/s (128.1 m /s), or 3.3 million acre-feet (4.0 million m ) per year. The highest recorded annual mean was 21,280 cu ft/s (603 m /s), 15.4 million acre-feet (19.0 million m ), in 1983, while the lowest was 575 cu ft/s (16.3 m /s), 416,000 acre-feet (513,000,000 m ), in 1977. The maximum peak flow occurred on December 9, 1950, at 79,000 cu ft/s (2,200 m /s), and

15288-533: The natives by teaching them about the Catholic faith. Once an inland sea , most of the San Joaquin Valley has a very uniform topography, and much of the lower river formed a huge flood basin. In the 20th century, many levees and dams were built on the San Joaquin and all of its major tributaries. These engineering works changed the fluctuating nature of the river forever and cut off the Tulare Basin from

15444-681: The natives was the Yokuts Estanislao , who led revolts against the Mexicans in the late 1820s until finally defeated in 1829 on the Stanislaus River , which bears his name today. The first American known to see the San Joaquin River was likely Jedediah Smith , a renowned mountain man , fur trapper and explorer. In 1826, Smith arrived in Mission San Gabriel Arcángel , California, when the region

15600-474: The northeast corner and ending with section 36 in the southeast corner, as per Figure 2. Therefore, section 13 is adjacent to the eastern range line of the designated township. Numbering in this pattern ensures that numerically sequential sections within the same township are physically adjacent and share colinear boundaries. Distances were always measured in chains and links, based on Edmund Gunter 's 66-foot measuring chain . The chain – an actual metal chain –

15756-440: The original corner monument location should the monument be destroyed. It was not uncommon for squatters or homesteaders to destroy corner monuments if they felt the patenting of the land would threaten their residence on it. For this reason, destruction of corner monuments, or their accompanying witness objects was, and still is, a federal offense. At corners, corner monuments are established to mark their exact location on

15912-403: The other (southeasterly-most) 25 sections are not. This method accommodates the curvature problem within a township and also allows for any errors made during the surveying—which were nearly unavoidable because of the physical difficulty of the work and the crude equipment used—without overly compromising the basic rectangular nature of the system as a whole. At the larger multiple township scale,

16068-466: The point on the north bank of Muddy Creek one mile above the junction of Muddy and Indian Creeks, north for 400 yards, then northwest to the large standing rock, west to the large oak tree, south to Muddy Creek, then down the center of the creek to the starting point." Particularly in New England , this system was supplemented by drawing town plats . The metes and bounds system was used to describe

16224-400: The prime meridian, are always established with reference to true, geodetic north. But it is a physical impossibility to meet this condition and still maintain a rectangular land grid, because such lines converge on the north pole. These adjustments are done at two different scales. At the small scale (within a township) it is done by starting the sectional surveys (township "subdivisions") in

16380-524: The public lands...The operations of this syndicate were not confined to California, but extended to the States of Nevada, Oregon and Colorado, and the Territories of Arizona, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Washington. Its purpose was to control all surveying contracts in these States and Territories under the deposit system, to manufacture settlers' applications for surveys, to file in the offices of

16536-429: The railroad company and each even numbered section kept by the government. This created a checkerboard pattern along proposed railways. This was supposed to guarantee that railroad access would increase the value of both the railroad-granted sections and the government-owned sections in the checkerboard. The system was devised by Senator Stephen A. Douglas , with political support from Senator Jefferson Davis . Under

16692-652: The region as early as 12,000 but no later than 5,000 years ago. The two major ethnic groups were the Miwok people, who inhabited the northern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region, and the Yokuts tribes, scattered around the more arid southern portion of the basin. During these pre-European times, the San Joaquin River flowed through rich grasslands and sprawling marshes, flooding every few years and transforming much of

16848-401: The rest of the San Joaquin watershed. Once a habitat for hundreds of thousands of spawning salmon and millions of migratory birds, today the river is subject to tremendous water supply, navigation, and regulation works by various federal agencies, which have dramatically reduced the flow of the river since the 20th century. The river was called many different names; at times different parts of

17004-520: The rest of the former square-mile sections have generally filled with residential development, as well as schools, religious facilities, and parks. One example of this is the Mile Road System of Detroit, Michigan . Occasionally, and more frequently in a metropolitan region's inner postwar suburbs than in outer areas, arterials are at approximately half-mile intervals. This strictly regimented urban (or suburban) structure has coincided with

17160-474: The river flows through quiet agricultural bottom lands, and as a result its meandering course manages to avoid most of the urban areas and cities in the San Joaquin Valley. About 11 mi (18 km) west of Modesto , the San Joaquin meets its largest tributary, the Tuolumne . Near Vernalis , it is joined by another major tributary, the Stanislaus River . The river passes between Manteca and Tracy , where

17316-653: The river is dredged as part of a navigation project, the Stockton Deep Water Ship Channel. Past the head of tide , amid the many islands of the delta, the San Joaquin is joined by two more tributaries: the Calaveras River and the larger Mokelumne . The river grows to almost 5,000 ft (1,500 m) wide before ending at its confluence with the Sacramento River, in Antioch , forming the head of Suisun Bay . The combined waters from

17472-543: The river length by 4 mi (6.4 km) and deepened it to 37 ft (11 m). Additional deepening work was carried out in 1968 and 1982. Today, the navigation channel, known as the Stockton Deep Water Ship Channel , can handle fully loaded vessels of up to 60,000 short tons (120,000,000 lb; 54,000,000 kg) and up to 900 ft (270 m) long. However, the navigation works have unexpectedly led to low dissolved oxygen levels in

17628-454: The river were known by different names. The southern Yokuts called the river, Tihshachu (Tih-shah-choo), meaning salmon-spearing place. The present name of the river dates to 1805–1808, when Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga was surveying east from Mission San José in order to find possible sites for a mission . Moraga named a tributary of the river (it is not known which one) for Saint Joachim , husband of Saint Anne and father of Mary,

17784-408: The river, in sharp contrast, is a meandering stream flowing over Cenozoic alluvial deposits (66 MYA-present), which together comprise the flat floor of the Central Valley. The tremendous volume of sediments that underlie the lower San Joaquin River ranges from 6 to 9.5 mi (9.7 to 15.3 km) deep, with distance to bedrock generally increasing in a northerly direction. Prior to the uplift of

17940-480: The river; in 1914 – before the development of major dams and irrigation diversions – the California Department of Engineering estimated the river's flow in full flood at 325,000 cu ft/s (9,200 m /s). In late summer and autumn, there is little water left over to replenish stream flow. Historically, groundwater seepage from Tulare Lake maintained a significant base flow in the river during

18096-503: The similarly strict practice of Euclidean zoning (named after the town of Euclid, Ohio , which won a 1926 Supreme Court case Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co. , which established the constitutionality of zoning). In Euclidean zoning, use of a property is dictated and regulated by zoning district, the boundaries of which are often based on locations of arterials. West of the Appalachians , road systems frequently follow

18252-652: The small local infrastructure led to the establishment of irrigation districts , which were formed to construct and maintain canals in certain areas of the valley. One of the first was the Robla Canal Company in the Merced River area, which went into operation in March 1876, but was soon surpassed by the Farmers Canal Company. The district built a diversion dam on the Merced, sending its water into

18408-420: The snows, all business is suspended, and the mountain country abandoned. A comparison of the original field notes, transcript notes, plats and report of the examiner, shows that at the season of the year (from December 1, 1884, to January 3, 1885) when the deputy pretends to have made the surveys, the deep snows made the survey at that time impossible; that in the original notes (which are now in this office) much

18564-451: The son of Miller and Lux' irrigation superintendent, "Miller realized you couldn't do anything with the land unless you had the water to go with it. Perhaps more than any other person, Miller had more of a lasting impact on the San Joaquin River than any other individual." By the early 20th century, so much water was being diverted off the San Joaquin River and its tributaries that the river was no longer suitable for navigational purposes. As

18720-487: The southeast corner and moving progressively toward the northwest corner. The algorithm used is to move northward to establish the six easternmost sections (and quarter-sections), then move west at one mile intervals, parallel to the eastern boundary of the township, repeating this process, until the western side of the township is reached. The result of this is that the northernmost and westernmost tiers of sections—11 in all—are thus allowed to deviate from one square mile, but

18876-501: The standard parallels developed at the establishment of the baseline, so that townships widths do not continually decrease as the grid proceeds north (and is in fact the primary reason for their establishment). Thus, corrections for curvature of the Earth exist at two separate spatial scales—a smaller scale within townships and a larger scale between multiple townships and within standard parallels. A specific and terse location descriptor

19032-490: The state. The San Joaquin and its tributaries seemed to give rise to just about every single possible argument over water, including such cases as "When is a river not a river?" referring to the difference between a slough and a marsh. It has been said that fights over the river have caused "some of the most bitter and longest running lawsuits ever to clog the courts. Arguably, it is the most litigated river in America." By

19188-531: The stopping-off point for miners headed to the gold fields in the foothills of the Sierra. Rough ways such as the Millerton Road which later became the Stockton - Los Angeles Road quickly extended the length of the valley, some following old cattle routes and Native American trails, and were served by mule teams and covered wagons. Riverboat navigation quickly became an important transportation link on

19344-421: The survey design is two-dimensional (rectangular), while the actual Earth is three-dimensional (approximately spherical and topographically), adjustments to land areas must be made periodically to prevent error propagation; not all sections can be one square mile nor can all townships be exactly 36 square miles. More specifically, all north–south running lines (all range lines and half of all section lines), as with

19500-413: The survey line. The purpose was to help retrace a surveyed line should that become necessary. It was also additional proof that the line had in fact been run correctly, especially in those cases where the blazed line tree's pertinent information (species, diameter and distance from previous corner) was recorded in the fieldnotes, as was often required. Records kept by the surveyors during the execution of

19656-535: The survey, sale, and settling of lands acquired by the United States. Originally proposed by Thomas Jefferson to create a nation of " yeoman farmers", the PLSS began shortly after the American Revolutionary War , when the federal government became responsible for large areas of land west of the original thirteen states . The government wished both to distribute land to Revolutionary War soldiers in reward for their services and to sell land as

19812-429: The surveying contracts existed in their names, having been induced by Benson to sign blank papers which were later turned into contracts and other legal documents without their knowledge. At other times, people with minimal or no surveying experience, and/or lacking proper qualifications as deputy surveyors, performed the work without the contracted surveyor ever being physically present, which was also patently illegal. In

19968-456: The surveyors-general fictitious field notes of surveys and alleged surveys, and to draw from the Treasury of the United States large sums of money on fraudulent surveying accounts." " The principal portion of the contracts were let in the names of thirty-four alleged deputy surveyors, of whom three were "dummies", two were intimately connected with the surveyor-general who approved the bulk of

20124-460: The surveys appear legitimate on paper. The scheme only worked as long as no ground-based inspections of the townships were conducted prior to survey approval, which however went on for at least five years. The group's downfall was only initiated when these were finally instituted in mid-1885, which then was very rapid. The surveys were officially contracted to individual deputy surveyors other than Benson himself, some of whom were not even aware that

20280-551: The surviving examples of acorn milling areas can still be found in the foothills, especially around the Kaweah River area. The first recorded non-indigenous person to see the San Joaquin River was Don Pedro Fages in 1772. Fages, accompanied by Father Juan Crespí, reached Mount Diablo near Suisun Bay on March 30 and there gazed upon the merging courses of the Sacramento, San Joaquin and Mokelumne Rivers. Another narrative does not mention Fages' name, but does say that Crespí

20436-449: The term section as a land designation, but it does not define the same area as the section used by the PLSS. Maine uses a variant of the system in unsettled parts of the state. Parts of Texas, western New York, northwest Pennsylvania, western Georgia, western Kentucky, western Tennessee, and northern Maine use state-developed survey systems similar to PLSS. Other major exceptions to PLSS are: The surveying of any regional area, such as

20592-418: The terminus of the Delta-Mendota Canal , a USBR project which conveys up to 4,600 cu ft/s (130 m /s) for 117 mi (188 km) from the mouth of the Sacramento River to the usually dry San Joaquin at that point. Water from Mendota is distributed in two directions: released into the San Joaquin for downstream diversions at the Sack Dam, another small diversion dam; and into Fresno Slough during

20748-498: The tree were illegally cut, the stump remaining). On the exposed wood of the blaze, surveyors were required to inscribe, with wood chisels, township, range and section information, on typically either two or four bearing trees, if they were within some reasonable distance of the corner (unspecified early on but later set at a maximum of 3 chains (178 feet, 60 meters) away). Bearing trees are of vital importance not just for these land boundary purposes but also for their use by ecologists in

20904-587: The two rivers then flow west through the Carquinez Strait and San Francisco Bay into the Pacific. The natural annual discharge of the San Joaquin before agricultural development is believed to have been between 6–7.9 million acre feet (7.4–9.7 million m ), equaling a flow of roughly 8,300 to 10,900 cu ft/s (240 to 310 m /s). Some early estimates even range as high as 14 million acre-feet (17.3 million m ), or more than 19,300 cu ft/s (550 m /s). The numerous tributaries of

21060-635: The uplift of the Coast Ranges, creating an enclosed basin today known as the Central Valley and resulted in the San Joaquin's present path to the sea. Because of its highly permeable nature, the San Joaquin River's valley is underlain by one of the largest aquifers in the Western United States . The aquifer underlying the San Joaquin River and Tulare Basin is estimated to hold nearly 686,000,000 acre⋅ft (846,000,000 dam ) of water, of which about half can be pumped economically or

21216-586: The upper reaches of most of its tributaries, have eroded enormous amounts of rock and sediment from the mountains. Most of the Sierras are underlain by granitic igneous and metamorphic rock dating back to the Mesozoic Era (250-66 MYA ); in addition many of the San Joaquin's tributaries flow across a foothills region of metamorphosed volcanic rock more famously known as the Mother Lode Gold Belt. The 268 mi (431 km) lower part of

21372-473: The valley in 1858, eventually holding sway over an enormous swath reaching from the Kern River in the south to the Chowchilla River in the north. Much of the land that Miller and Lux acquired was swamp and marsh, which was considered virtually worthless. However, with their huge capital, they could afford to drain thousands of acres of it, beginning an enormous environmental change that eventually resulted in

21528-487: The valley into lakes. At the southern end of the valley lay the vast Tulare Lake , formerly the largest freshwater lake in the western United States, which connected with the San Joaquin through a series of marshes and sloughs. The rich vegetation and wildlife surrounding these bodies of water made the San Joaquin Valley a favored home as well as a stopping-off place for other nomadic peoples. The native people, mostly hunter-gatherers , lived off this land of abundance; during

21684-531: The various facilities. As a result, the project was transferred to the federal government and switched hands several times between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) before finally being authorized in the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1937 as a USBR undertaking and part of the New Deal , a series of large-scale reforms and construction projects intended to provide jobs for

21840-544: The waters of the San Joaquin River, its South Fork, and the namesake of the project, Big Creek , over a vertical drop of 6,200 ft (1,900 m), have over the years inspired a nickname, "The Hardest Working Water in the World". Early 1900s hydroelectric development in the upper San Joaquin River basin was not limited to Southern California Edison. In 1910, the San Joaquin Electric Company built

21996-518: The way south into the Tulare Basin, terminating at the Kern River . Both are irrigation and municipal supply canals serving primarily agricultural interests. Water from the Friant Dam supplies almost 1,000,000 acres (400,000 ha) of farmland in Fresno , Kern , Madera , and Tulare counties. The diversion of water off the San Joaquin at Friant Dam leaves little more than a trickle below

22152-476: The work varied over time. Furthermore, how well individual surveying parties actually met the requirements or recommendations at the time, also varied. The following is a list of the more commonly required landscape and surveying items that were either required or requested be noted, over much of the nineteenth century. The following table indicates some distance and area conversions in the PLSS: Based on

22308-455: The worst cases, entire contracted areas, consisting of several adjacent survey townships (~36 square miles each), were fabricated by Benson or his associates at his San Francisco office, with little or no work on the ground at all, as exemplified in quotes from GLO annual reports given below. Benson's organization infiltrated into very high levels of the government, and syndicate members in governmental positions as well as members of congress made

22464-545: Was Las Juntas, near present-day Mendota . This was a haven for criminals and fugitives, and was frequented by the infamous bandits Joaquín Murrieta and Tiburcio Vásquez . It was in the mid-1860s that the San Joaquin River and its surrounds underwent a substantial change: the introduction of irrigated agriculture. As early as 1863, small irrigation canals were built in the Centerville area, southeast of Fresno, but were destroyed in subsequent floods. The vulnerability of

22620-422: Was added, bringing the total capacity to 193 MW. The San Joaquin was once navigable by steamboats as far upstream as Fresno, but agricultural diversions have greatly slowed and shallowed the river. In addition, this has caused the river to drop large amounts of silt that formerly washed out to sea in its bed, further reducing the depth. In the late 19th century, the city of Stockton, once an important seaport for

22776-1202: Was adopted without issue. "...the measurements of every plot of ground in the United States have been made in acres, feet, and inches, and are publicly recorded with the titles to the land according to the record system peculiar to this country." —Franklin Institute of Philadelphia (1876). Because of this, redefining property boundaries could create a large amount of legal issues and property owner confusion. Many local zoning laws are defined in feet/square feet. Conversion of units for surveyors are not simple, and complex decisions are frequently required (such as non-universal conversion factors, soft/hard conversions, number rounding). As roads have typically been laid out along section boundaries spaced one mile (1.6 km) apart, growing urban areas have adopted road grids with mile-long "blocks" as their primary street network. Such roads in urban areas are known as section line roads , usually designed primarily for automobile travel and limited in their use for non-motorized travel. In post- World War II suburbs, commercial development has largely occurred along and at intersections of arterials , while

22932-483: Was completely implausible survey results such as these, as well as the sworn testimony of disenchanted employees or associates, that led to the recognition of the widespread fraud of Benson's group. Beginning about 1886, contracts held by certain surveyors thought to be aligned with Benson were not paid by the government, leading to various lawsuits. In 1887, forty one federal indictments for conspiracy and perjury were brought against Benson and several others, as mentioned in

23088-468: Was in turn purchased by Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) in 1936. In 1920, Kerckhoff Dam was completed on the San Joaquin River about 10 mi (16 km) southwest of Big Creek as part of PG&E's Kerckhoff hydroelectric project. The dam initially operated with a capacity of 38 MW in the Kerckhoff No. 1 Powerhouse on Millerton Lake . In 1983, the 155 MW Kerckhoff No. 2 Powerhouse

23244-443: Was made up of 100 links, each being 7.92 inches (201 mm) long. Eighty chains constitute one U.S. survey mile (which differs from the international mile by a few millimeters). There were two chainmen, one at each end, who physically made the measurements, one of them typically also acting as "compassman" to establish the correct bearing at each chain placement. In forested areas, it was essential for rapid progress and accuracy that

23400-532: Was not possible, such as extremely steep terrain or water obstructions, distances were calculated by triangulation . Monumentation is the establishment of permanent on-the-ground objects that mark exact locations of surveyed points and lines. They are the legally binding markers used for setting property lines and as such are the culminating work of any survey. They consist of both corner monuments as well as nearby accessory objects that "witness" to them. Witness objects allow subsequent surveyors and landowners to find

23556-431: Was performed with more speed than care, with the result that many of the oldest townships and sections vary considerably from their prescribed shape and area. Proceeding westward, accuracy became more of a consideration than rapid sale, and the system was simplified by establishing one major north–south line ( principal meridian ) and one east–west (base) line that control descriptions for an entire state or more. For example,

23712-519: Was perpetrated by the Benson Syndicate , operating primarily in California in the 1880s. The PLSS is considered one of the major points of contention in the adoption of the metric system in the United States . The PLSS has used the Gunter's chain as a basic measurement. In Canada, however, where the land survey is based on the same units of measure as the U.S. land survey, the metric system

23868-418: Was such a blockade that at several occasions they were burned just to clear a way for riverboat traffic. Although the gold rush attracted tens of thousands of newcomers to the San Joaquin River area, deposits of the precious mineral petered out within a few years, especially on the upper reaches of the San Joaquin and its tributaries which were only suitable for placer mining . Many of these people settled in

24024-535: Was the one who reached Suisun Bay in 1772. During this visit, Crespí called the San Joaquin River "El Rio de San Francisco", a name that was not used widely due to the river's remoteness but persisted until the early 19th century. In the autumn of 1772 Fages set out from Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa in pursuit of deserters from the Spanish army, and traveled east then north over the Tehachapi Mountains through Tejón Pass , which today carries Interstate 5 into

24180-566: Was to generate false demand for public land surveys from supposedly interested "settlers" (see Public Land Survey System ) using fictitious applications for surveys of specified townships. Two successive California Surveyors General, who were part of the ring, then awarded surveying contracts to Benson associates for the surveys. These were then fraudulently executed, ranging in quality from skeletal surveys based on minimal data, to outright fabrications of all data and maps. The required survey output--official notes and plat maps--were then forged to make

24336-579: Was under control of the Mexican government. As this was in violation of a law which prevented foreigners from entering California, and he could have been arrested for spying, he traveled north into the San Joaquin Valley, searching for populations of beaver . Smith noted the fertility and natural beauty of the area, and the apparent peace of the Native Americans living in the villages he passed. His expedition then turned east in an attempt to cross

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