The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across CaliforniaA vivid, searching journey into California's capture of water and soil—the epic story of a people's defiance of nature and the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought Mark Arax is from a family of Central Valley farmers, a writer with deep ties to the land who has watched the battles over water intensify even as California lurches from drought to flood and back again. In The Dreamt Land, he travels the state to explore the one-of-a-kind distribution system, built in the 1940s, '50s and '60s, that is straining to keep up with California's relentless growth. The Dreamt Land weaves reportage, history and memoir to confront the "Golden State" myth in riveting fashion. No other chronicler of the West has so deeply delved into the empires of agriculture that drink so much of the water. The nation's biggest farmers—the nut king, grape king and citrus queen—tell their story here for the first time. Arax, the native son, is persistent and tough as he treks from desert to delta, mountain to valley. What he finds is hard earned, awe-inspiring, tragic and revelatory. In the end, his compassion for the land becomes an elegy to the dream that created California and now threatens to undo it. |
Contents
| 5 | |
| 13 | |
| 15 | |
Agrarian Revolt | 37 |
Singed | 57 |
Sinking | 68 |
Upon Dry Land | 95 |
Part Two Fathers of Extraction 17691901 | 121 |
Fruiting the Plain | 219 |
Steal Us a River | 239 |
Moving the Rain | 268 |
Kingdom of Wonderful | 299 |
The Candy Man | 342 |
Citrus Hills | 362 |
Raisinland | 394 |
The Whale | 413 |
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acre-feet agriculture almonds Angeles aqueduct aquifer Armenian built California canal cattle Central Valley Project citrus cotton crops delta delta smelt desert dirt ditches dollars drought earth farm farmers farmland farmworkers father feet fields fish five flood flow Frémont Fresno Fresno County fruit Giffen going gold grab grapes ground groundwater grow growers half harvest hundred Indians irrigation districts J. G. Boswell Jack Kern County Kings knew land levee live looking Lost Hills Lynda Mexican miles Miller million acre-feet mountain named never nuts oranges orchards Pandol percent pistachios planted pomegranate pumps rain raisin ranch Reclamation Resnick riparian road Sacramento River salmon San Francisco San Joaquin River San Joaquin Valley says sell snowmelt soil Sutter tell thousand acres told took town trees Tulare Tulare Lake turned vines vineyard water bank west side western Kern Westlands wheat Wonderful