Chicago Daily News Photos 1902-1933

November 8, 2008 4:26 PM

Man walks on water from the archives of the Chicago Daily News.

During the Progressive Era conservation and environmental concerns became increasingly important thanks to pictures like the one above. It's important to note that in many ways conservation in this context meant conservation for use, not protection from development. A good example of the debate over this definition of conservation was the still-ongoing controversy over the Hetch Hetchy Valley reservoir. The Hetch Hetchy Valley struggle was John Muir's last battle for conservation in the way we now understand it. (previously)

The provision of the 1910 Picket Act which confirmed the right of government to sell or utilize public lands based on the determined utility of that land was a key factor in the Teapot Dome scandal. And incidentally, Bubbly Creek, the photo in the first link, is still contaminated.

posted by winna (19 comments total)

That's a relief. I thought it was another Obama thread.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 4:53 PM on November 8, 2008 [4 favorites]

sort of previously
posted by phunniemee at 4:54 PM on November 8, 2008

Walking on water is all well and good, but I always thought the water-into-wine bit was much more impressive.

At any rate, the fellow pictured would appear to be walking on mud.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:59 PM on November 8, 2008

Odd. Obama's agenda seems to have been removed from change.gov.
Anyways, one big thing that I had noticed was missing was anything at all about environmental protection; it only talked about switching to alternative forms of energy. Which really isn't environmentalism at all.
posted by Citizen Premier at 5:09 PM on November 8, 2008

Ok, it's still on Barackobama.com (pdf), and it's a little more comprehensive than I thought. He does mention cleaner water standards, wetlands protection, and fighting invasive species.

And, even as an environmentalist, I may have to admit that fighting global warming may be more important than saving individual species.
posted by Citizen Premier at 5:18 PM on November 8, 2008

According to the wikipedia article, Bubbly Creek was until recently given over almost entirely to blood worms. It would be kind of fascinating to study the alien ecosystems that develop as a result of mankind's pollution.
posted by Citizen Premier at 5:21 PM on November 8, 2008

It's actually crusted sewage on the surface of the water. It does look like a mud bank in that picture, though. I was reading America Reformed: Progressives and Progressivisms and the larger version in the book is clearer. If anyone is interested in a overview of the Progressive Era I'd recommend the book.

It didn't pull up the link to that post when I previewed the thread! On looking at the links, it's the exact same page with a different URL. Oh dear. Sorry, everyone. In apology here is a kid fetching some beer, which they called 'rushing the growler'.
posted by winna at 5:22 PM on November 8, 2008

jesus really doesn't wear enough hats...that one looks really good on him, right?
posted by sexyrobot at 5:28 PM on November 8, 2008

~ In apology here is a kid fetching some beer, which they called 'rushing the growler'.

A special container to take to the brewer for him to fill with beer, so that you may take it home and drink it.

All this technology we have, but we loose the little things. Like a jug of fresh beer.
posted by paisley henosis at 5:35 PM on November 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

While researching clean water supplies in the bay area, I found it fascinating that the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct water supplies one of the cleanest water in California from Yosemite park goes straight into the wealthiest areas of the San Francisco Bay Area, skipping over large population centers. (map on bottom)

Cities supplied include Palo Alto, Cupertino, and the city of San Francisco. Notably absent is San Jose, which a key component of the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct water system passes under but does not supply. On its face it's ridiculous enough that the largest city in the area is passed over to get water from local dirtier sources (semiconductor plants used to be in the area), but if you're not from the Bay Area, realize that it passes huge earthquake fault lines to deliver water to San Francisco.

What piqued my curiosity was that I had family that lived in Milpitas, which part the residential areas received water from Hetch Hetchy (likely because there was no alternate route for the Aqueduct) and after they moved to San Jose, the water tasted noticeably worse, so they now get their bottles of water from drinking water stores in Milpitas.

I suspect that someone had fun lobbying for clean water in the bay area to be piped through three major earthquake fault lines.
posted by amuseDetachment at 5:46 PM on November 8, 2008

Water policy in California is fascinating. Donald Worster calls it the 'hydraulic society' in Rivers of Empire, which I'd recommend to anyone who burns to know more about it. The fight between LA and the Owens Valley is another great example of how power directly translates into access to water there.
posted by winna at 6:00 PM on November 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

Oh apparently I was wrong about Cupertino (could've sword it was Hetch). To see how much a clusterfuck the water system is in the south bay area, here's a listing of who gets water from where. It's a big enough difference that if one was considering moving there, I'd put it second to school districts (although I suspect it's highly correlated).
posted by amuseDetachment at 6:10 PM on November 8, 2008

paisley henosis : "A special container to take to the brewer for him to fill with beer, so that you may take it home and drink it.

All this technology we have, but we loose the little things. Like a jug of fresh beer."

Oh we still have them. You just need to go to a brewery, not a store. They sell these just down the block from where I work. It's micro-brewery. Quite yummy.

I didn't realize the term growler was so old.
posted by cjorgensen at 6:25 PM on November 8, 2008 [1 favorite]

~ Oh we still have them. You just need to go to a brewery, not a store. They sell these just down the block from where I work. It's micro-brewery. Quite yummy.

Get out! My mind is blown.

I clearly need to live near a brewery, and be a part of this proud American tradition.
posted by paisley henosis at 6:30 PM on November 8, 2008

Beer To Go?

"Get a 1/2 Gallon Growler"

Very bottom on the page.

I go here a couple times a year, and my favorite thing they do is have a beer carrier with like a dozen circles in it, with information about each beer they serve on a card or placemat, they then put beers in the little carrier. Each beer is maybe 4 oz.

Lighter to darkest. I think you;re supposed to drink your way around, but I like to sample from each. Good stuff.
posted by cjorgensen at 7:22 PM on November 8, 2008

Apparently the brewery near where I grew up has them too!

This is great.
posted by paisley henosis at 7:44 PM on November 8, 2008

I suspect that someone had fun lobbying for clean water in the bay area to be piped through three major earthquake fault lines.

You're telling me there's a place the Bay Area can get water that wouldn't have to be routed through fault zones? Anyway ....

Cities supplied include Palo Alto, Cupertino, and the city of San Francisco. Notably absent is San Jose, which a key component of the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct water system passes under but does not supply.

You're wrong.

The San Jose Municipal Water System purchases a blend of Hetch Hetchy water and treated water from San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) .... The Hetch Hetchy Watershed provides most of the total SFPUC water supply

Although apparently the Reservoir itself only accounts for some 3 percent of San Jose's water.

The Hetch Hetchy Reservoir was built and is still owned by the City of San Francisco. It isn't some sort of State of California project that snubbed San Jose. Lobbying at the federal level did not initially include San Jose.

And anyway, in 1920 San Jose was a rather small city (less than 70K). I suspect that before its industrialization for World War II the need simply wasn't foreseen.
posted by dhartung at 8:56 PM on November 8, 2008

Very little of San Jose's water comes from Hetch Hetchy (Alviso is mostly office parks).

Don't tell me that Los Altos Hills areas near Stanford/Sand Hill can't find a local water supply from 80 years ago to this day. My argument is that wealthy areas tend to get their water from the Hetch, which is undeniable, even areas that weren't well populated when the plans were laid out. You make a point that this was eighty years ago, and that shouldn't put this issue to rest, it should bring more questions like, "Why the hell did they need to transport water that far when there were local reservoirs?" There were a lot of local-ish reservoirs and it's obvious which neighborhoods the water is going. I'm saying that they're using all these resources to bring water from far away and keeping it to more wealthy neighborhoods today.

Note: I take this as a bigger deal than "oh those jerks in Menlo Park/Atherton/Los Altos Hills can get fresh water from Yosemite and are wasting our tax dollars," as I've talked to a doctor in the south bay who suspects there might be a link between the water supply and one of the highest cancer rates in the nation and has significant equality issues. I'm not saying that this is an overt conspiracy, perhaps this water is more expensive when resold, but it's a bay area issue nonetheless that the average person may not know about is all.
posted by amuseDetachment at 9:39 PM on November 8, 2008

Forget it, Jake, it's Chi-Town.
posted by Abiezer at 3:52 AM on November 9, 2008 [1 favorite]