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Yosemite Hetch Hetchy Water Supply Check Collection [187412]

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Paper Start Price:10.00 USD Estimated At:100.00 - 300.00 USD
Yosemite Hetch Hetchy Water Supply Check Collection [187412]
SOLD
15.00USDto c********l+ buyer's premium (3.75)
This item SOLD at 2024 Sep 22 @ 10:35UTC-7 : PDT/MST
FINAL AUCTION RECORD The Auctioneer’s podium notes serve as the final, legally binding record of the auction results, superseding any electronic bidding records. See Terms and Conditions
Check collection (19) from the City & County of San Francisco Hetch Hetchy Water Supply Company drawn on The First National Bank of Sonora in the 1920s. Also a check from the West Side Lumber Company of Tuolumne, California drawn on the Sonora branch of The Bank of America in 1940.
Between 1908 & 1913, Congress debated whether to make a water resource available or preserve a wilderness when the growing city of San Francisco, California proposed building a dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley to provide a steady water supply. John Muir passionately opposed the damming of Hetch Hetchy Valley because he found it as stunning as Yosemite Valley. Muir wrote to President Roosevelt pleading for him to scuttle the project. Roosevelt's successor, William Howard Taft suspended the Interior Department's approval. After years of debate, Taft's successor, Woodrow Wilson signed the bill authorizing the dam into law December 19, 1913. Muir felt a great loss: "it's hard to bear. The destruction of the charming groves & gardens, the finest in all California goes to my heart." Muir died the next year in 1914. The campaign to prevent Hetch Hetchy Valley from being dammed & flooded failed, but was not forgotten. After the dam was completed in 1923, waters flooded the valley, destroying Muir's environmental muse. The flooding of Hetch Hetchy valley is an enduring issue & there is currently a growing movement advocating for draining & restoring the iconic valley.

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