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27 W. Legal Hist. 139 (2014)
Colorado River Water in Southern California: Evolution of the Allocation Framework, 1922-2015

handle is hein.journals/wlehist27 and id is 157 raw text is: COLORADO RIVER WATER IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA: EVOLUTION OF THE ALLOCATION FRAMEWORK, 1922-2015' JASON A. ROBISON There was no paucity of vision in secretary of the interior Ray Lyman Wilbur's statement on July 7, 1930, announcing the commencement of construction on Boulder (now Hoover) Dam. Erection of the colossus would, in the words of the secretary, signify nothing less than our national conquest over the Great American Desert.2 By means of the dam, the nation would build a great natural resource . .. make new geography, and start a new era in the southwestern part of the United States.3 The secretary's message was bold and prophetic, as emphatic in its description of the pivotal role 1I am very grateful to Western Legal History for sponsoring the Western Histo- ry Association conference panel from which this article extends. Many thanks also to my colleagues on that panel: Donald Pisani, Peter Reich, and Tanis Thorne. Funding for this article was generously provided from the George Hopper and Carl M. Williams Faculty Research Funds. Any errors or omissions are solely my own. This article is dedicated to Rachel St. John, the western historian who initially fostered my interests as a legal scholar in the Colorado River Basin, the Law of the River, and the opus of Norris Hundley, Jr. Ray Lyman Wilbur and Northcutt Ely, The Hoover Dam Power and Water Contracts and Related Data with Introductory Notes (Washington, DC, 1933), 439. For an excellent account of Hoover Dam's construction, see Michael Hiltzik, Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century (New York, 2010). Wilbur and Ely, The Hoover Dam Power and Water Contracts, 439. Jason A. Robison is an assistant professor in the University of Wyoming College of Law. He holds a Doctor of Juridical Sci- ence and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School, a J.D. from the University of Oregon School of Law, and a B.S. in environmen- tal studies from the University of Utah.

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