The Start of the Great Water Wars

historicphoto128: <div style="text-align: left;">115. Kern River.5<br> </div>

The Great Calloway Canal was built to divert water from the Kern River and send it northwest of Bakersfield to land that fell under the ownership of Haggin and Carr among others. Once the canal was completed and water was diverted, the Miller and Lux holdings, located approximately 20 miles west of Bakersfield, began drying up. There simply was not enough water in the Kern River once the headgate to the Calloway Canal was opened.

In fact, what once were “clear and rushing” streams turned into “good for almost nothing” stagnate marshlands. This was devastating to the Miller and Lux empire. After all, they used the river water for irrigation, and it also served as a watering hole for the vast number of livestock they owned.

The diversion of the Kern River’s water created an additional “fifty miles of added desert.” It has been said farmers can live with a lot of things, but when someone takes the water you depend on “the matter becomes one for court action.”


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