A Short History of the Los Angeles River

The history of the Los Angeles River has run in cycles affected by the seasons, the topography, and the human settlement of the region. Never a deep-channeled river, the River flooded and meandered, changing course during these floods but never really cutting a deep, permanent course.

The periodic floods deposited rich soil and created marshes and small ponds. These ponds and marshes provided diverse habitat for wildlife and an ecologically rich alluvial plain for agriculture in the valley flats, which attracted the largest concentration of Indian settlements in California.

Early Californians
The Gabrielino Indians had over fifty settlements within the area and relied heavily on the river and its native plants for food, clothing, tools, and dwellings, even making their homes of willows and reeds. Acknowledging the river's natural rhythm of fierce flooding alternating with years of drought, the Gabrielino located their settlements on high ground. The largest settlement - Yangna, Jangna or Wenot (the name is debated) - was situated on the future site of the City of Los Angeles. The Gabrielinos lived in harmony with the river environment, with evidence of "prescribed burns" to encourage certain seed propagation.

Early European Settlers
The Spanish claimed California in 1542, but did not establish presidios in the new territory until 1768. In a search for sites for other presidios and missions between Monterey and San Diego, Captain Gaspar de Portolá led a land expedition that camped at the future site of Los Angeles.

Father Juan Crespí, a member of the expedition, described a wide river within "a very green lush valley". The river was given the name Neustra Señora de los Angeles de la Porciúncula (Our Lady of the Angels of Porciúncula) in honor of the celebrated feast day. Eventually the name of the river was shortened to Rio de Porciúncula (porciúncula means "little portion"). The diaries of Father Juan Crespí focused heavily on this area, and because of his writings El Pueblo de la Reina de Los Angeles was established twelve years later on the site to provide food for the other presidios and missions.

Shortly after the establishment of the pueblo, Col. Juan Bautista de Anza led a party of Spanish colonists to find an overland route from Mexico to the ocean. In 1774 he reached mission San Gabriel, east of the pueblo, thus connecting the California territory to Mexico. The colonists founded the Pueblo de Los Angeles near the confluence of the Los Angeles and Arroyo Seco Rivers.

The Pueblo de Los Angeles eventually produced more grains than any other pueblo. It had ample grazing land and hard working Native Californians, who also worked on the irrigation ditches called zanjas that provided water to the agricultural fields. These zanjas were the life of the pueblo, providing domestic water and water to the fields. As the pueblo grew, the zanja system grew, with the Zanja Madre running south from the river to the town plaza. The first vineyard in Southern California was along the Rio de Porciúncula, with wine and maize becoming the predominant crops of the small pueblo. The pueblo also raised cattle for leather, tallow, meat, and trade.

Los Angeles owes its existence to the river, for without water, settlement would not have occurred. The river fed the ditches that irrigated the orchards and vineyards, setting the stage for the Southern California Eden. Agricultural development of the region led to the clearing of the lush plain. The wetlands dried up as the water was diverted to irrigation channels. The willows, cottonwoods, and oaks were removed to provide farm and grazing land. The lush alluvial plain was transformed into an agricultural center with orchards, farms, and vineyards that charmed early travelers and visitors to the area.

In 1850 California became a state, and thousands of new settlers arrived because of the gold rush. This influx of people made land and development a large industry. Demand for water increased for agriculture as well as for drinking water. Eventually, the town grew to inhabit both sides of the river, and the river took the town's name, becoming the Los Angeles River. New methods of extracting water from the river, spurred by outcries for a sanitary water supply, ranged from drilling artesian wells and building water wheels to creating dams and reservoirs.

The Railroads and Growth

In 1876 the transcontinental railroad reached Los Angeles, bringing people in search of land, fortune, and paradise, and transporting valuable agricultural goods from California to wealthy easterners. In an effort to create freight traveling from east to west, the railroads needed to entice passengers. The gold rush, a great public relations effort, and cheap railroad tickets brought people from the east to settle in the promised land.

As land changed from farmland to residential, the zanja system of irrigation ditches was replaced by a more sophisticated water system and land became profitable. In a short time the majority of Los Angeles River water was being pumped or diverted and the river was reduced to a stream most of the year; the danger and force of the flooding river became a distant memory, and development encroached upon the floodplain with abandon.

The river has had a "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" personality, flowing gently for many years of low rainfall, raging wildly during occasional years of flooding. Because of the unpredictable nature of the Los Angeles River, as seen in rainfall data, there has been no average year. Settlements could be safe for many years, and then be washed away overnight. During the recorded history of Los Angeles, the pueblo and the city, the river changed course nine times, most notably during the floods of 1815, 1825, 1889 and 1914.

As Los Angeles grew and new cities sprang up along the river, urban development increased the flood risks. Building within the floodplain and removing the vegetation that had slowed the floodwaters contributed to the problem. With droughts belying the danger of the river, ill-advised developments continued even though they were inundated when heavy rainfall years occurred. Levees were built and rebuilt, and each new effort proved no better than the previous at preventing flooding. After the floods of 1914, a regional flood protection effort was demanded. Retention basins were built and deeper channels for the river were dug in certain areas, but the flood protection efforts couldn't keep up with urbanization. As development encroached upon the river plain, increased runoff from these new developments went straight into the river. It was only a matter of time before the river would again demonstrate its power.

Not only were there engineering solutions, there were other visions that attempted to maintain the character of the river and restore it to some of its former beauty. The Los Angeles Park Department, in 1910 and 1911, proposed greenways, parks and drives along the river. The City Beautiful movement also proposed modest river preservation. The only part of the Park Department greenway proposal that was implemented was the Arroyo Seco Parkway, but without any watercourse protection. Each proposal became a missed opportunity. The major hurdle was that the river flowed through several cities, and creating a unified effort was complicated since each city wanted to retain its powers over the waterway.

In 1930, Harland Bartholomew and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. developed another plan for river preservation and beautification. Their proposal was very expansive, taking streambeds and river courses and making them into public parks. This would have allowed flood protection measures to be greener and would have kept development at a safe distance from the flood-prone plain. But like prior proposals, it required a regional board of recreation, usurped the power of the ruling elite, and limited potential development profits. The timing of the report was also poor, as it was released only months after the stock market crash of 1929.

The Channelized River
After three days of rain, shortly after midnight on January 2, 1934, a massive flood tore down the San Gabriel Mountains through La Cañada, Montrose, and Glendale. The foothill communities were devastated. Following this catastrophe, bond issues for flood protection were introduced but failed. Federal relief funding was requested. Intervention of the federal government finally sealed the fate of the Los Angeles River, when Congress gave significant power to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the Flood Control Act of 1936. With federal funding in place, the Army Corps plan called for extensive concrete channeling of the river.

Two years after channelization began, after a week of rain, the most damaging flood in the history of Los Angeles County struck. The flood of 1938 left millions of dollars of destruction, wiped out much of the earlier flood protection, and killed 85 people. However, where channelization had been implemented the damage was not as severe and engineers were able to see which measures worked and which measures did not. Areas that had been constructed of reinforced concrete withstood the flood, and the Army Corps proposed increasing the amount of channelization. The new program was approved in which over 400 miles of the river and its tributaries were to be encased in concrete.

Complicating this effort was the fact that much of the river was privately owned. Landowners more interested in the potential for future development than flood protection forced acquisition of the right of way to be kept to a minimum. The paving of 52 miles of the Los Angeles River was begun mile by mile, with requests for funds for beautification or watershed management labeled as superfluous.

The headwaters of the Los Angeles River begin at the confluence of Bell and Calabasas Creeks in present day Canoga Park. Before channelization they mingled with the Tujunga and Verdugo Washes and natural springs to cover the San Fernando Valley with rich green wetlands, ponds and lakes.

Parts of the river actually flowed underground some of the year and filled a subterranean reservoir under the San Fernando Valley. This reservoir - or aquifer - is a natural storage basin covering 175 square miles. From the mid 1800's to the early 1900's this aquifer provided the settlement of Los Angeles with most of its fresh water. The high water table in the Sepulveda Basin, Glendale Narrows and Compton Creek made it impossible for the river bottom in these areas to be sealed in concrete, thus preserving at least a small portion of the river's natural bed.

The delta of the river moved through time, from Ballona Creek in the Santa Monica Bay, to San Pedro, to the present day location in Long Beach. The engineering of the Los Angeles River not only changed the course of the Los Angeles River, but also altered the courses of the Rio Hondo and San Gabriel River. To protect the Long Beach harbor from silting up, several dry dams were constructed to capture silt before it reached the harbor, and the river's outflow was diverted from San Pedro to Long Beach.

The River Today
As urbanization fills the hills and valley, less rainwater seeps into the earth. Concrete, roofs and asphalt create runoff, which is sent rapidly into storm drains and from there into the Los Angeles River. Over 60% of our watershed is now paved over. This paving of the watershed taxes the carrying capacity of the river, since most of this water would have been absorbed into the water table and not diverted to the river. It contributes to the flood-control problem and keeps our underground aquifers from being replenished with usable water supplies.

As more and more people become aware that there IS a Los Angeles River and that there is life in the river, changes are occurring. The River Project and many other organizations have been advocating for the river's restoration and working to protect the re-emergent river from destruction.

Visit our projects page to learn about planned and completed improvements to our watershed.