CALIFORNIA CENTRAL VALLEY WATER BASIN, IRRIGATION 1930s EDUCATIONAL FILM 50174

“Golden Valley” is a mid-1930s black-and-white Wilding Picture Production made in cooperation with the United States Department of the Interior, Pacific Constructors Incorporated, the Columbia Construction Company, and the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. The film shows the California Central Valley water system, beginning with the high mountains including Mount Shasta, and terminating in agricultural lands in the south of the state.

Using aerial photography from the Goodyear airship Resolute, the picture opens with mountainous views from around California including Mount Shasta. Near mark 04:00 the film visits the Central Valley, an area outlined by the Cascade, Sierra Nevada, and Tehachapi mountain ranges on the east, and the California Coast Ranges and San Francisco Bay on the west. But drought is taking its toll on some parts, as we see images of dilapidated and abandoned farmhouses and parched earth (mark 04:23). At mark 05:25 we see San Francisco and the Pacific Ocean, and are soon reminded that civilizations depend on water to survive, and that water sometimes falls and flows in all the wrong places. At mark 06:25 we watch as men near Sacramento survey the land “to find a way to preserve a fertile garden empire” in preparation for a dam construction. (That would become Shasta Dam which began construction in 1938 and was opened in 1945). The picture details what was involved in building the dam and making sure supplies could reach the area — eventually creating a lengthy conveyor belt that took material from Redding across the Sacramento River to the site. We are shown many aerial views of the conveyor belt as it crosses highways, railroad tracks, and county roads. Mile after mile the film captures scenes from the conveyor belt — a distance of 10 miles. “A giant transportation job at a fraction of the old cost,” says the narrator at mark 16:28. Scenes from the dam’s construction continue to fill the screen as it slowly rises from the ground and the narrator explains the many planned uses until the film comes to a conclusion.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com