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Poway’s past tied to water

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The story of Poway has long been the story of water. Sometimes, as with the flood years of 1916 (“Rainmaker Hatfield”), 1926, 1980, and 1997-98 there has been too much of the stuff.

More frequently, the problem has been too little water.

Starting with Philip Crosthwaite, the first European settler, in 1859, increasing numbers of homesteaders moved to Poway, taking advantage of valleys lined with fertile soil, stream beds and a mild climate to establish farms and ranches.

In the 1890s, the Poway Progress newspaper carried frequent reports about how the recent rains, or lack of same, had affected farmers and their orchards, field crops and animals. Some excerpts:

June 28, 1894 — “Mr. Belcher has concluded that Poway is not the Paradise that measure up to hi ideals, and the present dry season has decided him on making a change.”

February 29, 1896 — “The past week has been dry, warm and summer like, and there is much anxiety as to crop outcomes.”

March 7, 1896 — “Nearly two and one half inches of rain have fallen this week up to Thursday morning and indications for more. This insures pretty certainly good hay crops.”

Most early farmers and ranchers dry-farmed their crops, relying solely on rain for irrigation. Shallow dug wells with hand pumps would provide water for household use but little for irrigation of crops and few methods other than horse-drawn water tanks to deliver water to thirsty plants.

Gradually, improved pumping by windmills, and later electric pumps, could provide more water from deeper wells, enabling more effective irrigation techniques and the introduction of thirstier crops such as citrus, and then avocados.

Still, Poway in the middle of the last century was being throttled by a lack of water. Prolonged drought meant a dwindling water supply for the town’s few hundred residents and the agricultural crops upon which many of them depended. More and deeper wells were increasingly inadequate for the still-rural town’s needs.

In the fall of 1952, the Poway Chamber of Commerce formed a committee, chaired by David R. Shepardson, to investigate the possibilities of securing a reliable source of water for Poway.

They contacted the San Diego County Water Authority about annexation and commissioned an engineer study of building a dam on the Los Peñasquitos Creek (now called Poway Creek as it passes through the city).

While the dam was never built, it did get help get the area annexed to SDCWA. The formation of Poway Municipal Water District was proposed and an election was set for January of 1953. The vote in favor of forming the district was 210 in favor and 32 opposed. Five members of the district board, elected without opposition, were Shepardson, David H. (Homer) Williams, Robert E. Tobiasson, Harry W. Frame and Harry W. Tassell.

In February 1954, PMWD was annexed by SDCWA and the Metropolitan Water District, meaning there would be access to municipal water. Total annexation cost was just over $100,000, the majority to be paid, without interest, over 30 years.

Plans and specifications were prepared for a water system and a bond election was held in April for the issuance of $600,000 in bonds — greater than the assessed value of all properties in Poway at that time. It was a leap of faith. The vote was 188 to 11.

With the system installed in an amazingly short eight months, PMWD, and thus Poway, was able to tap into the San Diego Aqueduct, which first came to San Diego County in 1947 and travels diagonally through the city from StoneRidge County Club to Garden Road.

In the fall of 1954, pretty much the entire population of Poway turned out for a “Water Holiday” barbecue in a eucalyptus grove northeast of what is now the intersection of Pomerado and Twin Peaks roads — and still stands — the first of Poway’s massive water storage tanks.

With the new source of water, Poway could grow and change in many ways. Avocado and citrus orchards were planted and horses and cattle were raised. At first the growth was slow. Individual families bought pieces of the old farms to build their homes. That changed in 1958, when new tract home developments, including Poway Valley Homes, along Pomerado Road, began to spring up throughout southern Poway. Within a year the population had doubled. Then it doubled again and again. By 1963 the population had mushroomed from fewer than 500 to more than 7,000.

That, of course, was just the beginning of the Poway we know today.

Shepardson is vice-president of the Poway Historical Society.

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