The Raker Act...

The act that brought water to San Francisco

This is the Raker Bill, which eventually became the Raker Act, granting the city of San Francisco the right to dam the Hetch Hetchy Valley as a reservoir, and the unfulfilled right of municipalized electricity for the city. This was the last of several Senate hearings held on this contentious issue between 1909 and 1913. The hearing took place on September 24, 1913.

San Francisco had petitioned the Department of the Interior for rights to Hetch Hetchy water as early as 1902, but the Schmitz administration, upon its election, did not pursue the issue. Instead, grafters pushed a project by the Bay Cities Water Co. that would bring water from Lake Tahoe to San Francisco.  

With the indictment of the Ruef-Schmitz gang, the Hetch Hetchy proposal was revived by the reform Board of Supervisors and Mayor William Robeson Taylor after the Great Earthquake and Fire. Read more...

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Support the SAVE HETCH HETCHY MOVEMENT! Save Hetch Hetchy = Save the O'Shaughnessy Dam = Save Camp Mather!

For more information about Camp Mather:
Camp Mather reservation desk / San Francisco Recreation + Parks / 501 Stanyan, San Francisco 94117 / 415-831-2715
Camp Mather Office / phone 209-379-2284 / fax 209-379-9326 / 35250 Mather Road, Groveland, California 95321