Book Summary of Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water by Marc Reisner

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Marc Reisner, (New York: Viking, 1986), 564 pp.

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water is a history and an examination of the importance of water to the Western United States. The author addresses water use issues from the earliest settlement of the West by Europeans to the contemporary problem of increasing salinity in the Colorado River Basin.

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water will be of interest to those who desire a comprehensive understanding of the historical and contemporary water use issues in the Western United States. The work begins with an introduction which serves as an overview of the book. Chapter two examines the history of European exploration of the West, beginning with the sixteenth century Spanish exploration. The author discusses the Louisiana purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition. He discusses, in some depth, the Powell Geographic Expedition of 1869 in the concluding portion of the chapter. The next topic is the Gold Rush in California in the 1850s which precedes a discussion of the influence of William Mulholland and his contemporary entrepreneurs in Los Angeles. This discussion addresses the use of Owens Valley water by private and municipal interests in Los Angeles which precipitated the building of an aqueduct; unparalleled in its length and the inhospitable nature of the terrain the water traveled through to reach Los Angeles.

The next chapter addresses the Reclamation Act of 1902. This is followed by a focus on the Colorado River and an examination of the dam projects of the late 1940s and 50s. Reisner addresses the conflict between the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation over the development of projects along Western rivers. A very readable portrait of Floyd Dominy and his influence on both the Bureau of Reclamation and, indirectly, the Corps of Engineers is the sole topic of chapter seven. Chapter eight is an examination of Western dam projects in the 1960s and the precipitant litigation and contains a brief consideration of David Brower's opposition to many, if not all, of these projects.

Chapter nine is a careful examination of the water reforms that the Carter administration pursued and the attendant opposition those reforms aroused in both politicians and Southern and Western constituencies. Water projects in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah are the focus of chapter eleven. The penultimate chapter begins with an examination of the depletion of the Ogallala aquifer and ends with the assertion, by multiple hydrologists, that dam projects are simply an avoidance of the inevitable. The final chapter begins with a lengthy quote from Floyd Dominy and is concluded with an examination of the formation and influence of the North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA).

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water is a lengthy and detailed account of water as a political, economic and cultural issue in the Western United States. A bonus for the well-informed reader are the numerous photographs of: the personalities who influenced water policy in the West, and the locations and projects they developed or opposed.