| Description |
xxvi, 174 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 167-174). |
| Summary |
The thin ribbon of the Carmel River is just thirty-six miles long and no wider in most places than a child can throw a stone. It is the primary water supply for the ever-burgeoning presence of tourists, agriculture, and industry on California's Monterey Peninsula. It is also one of the top ten endangered rivers in North America. The river's story, which dramatically unfolds in this book, is an epic tale of exploitation, development, and often unwitting degradation reaching back to the first appearance of Europeans on the pristine peninsula. River in Ruin is a precise weaving of water history, local and larger, and a natural, social, and environmental narrative of the Carmel River. Ray A. March traces the river's misuse from 1879 and details how ever more successful promotions of Monterey demanded more and more water, leading to one dam after another. As a result the river was disastrously depleted, cluttered with concrete rubble, and inhospitable to the fish prized by visitors and residents alike. |
| Subject |
Water resources development -- California -- Carmel River Region -- History.
|
|
Water-supply -- California -- Carmel River Region -- History.
|
|
California, Northern -- Environmental conditions -- History.
|
| ISBN |
9780803238343 cloth |
|
0803238347 cloth |
|
