Beautiful certificate from the Pasadena Lake Vineyard Land & Water Company printed in 1890. This historic document was printed by the Farey & Company and has an ornate border around it with the company's name in fancy print. This item has the signatures of the Company's President, and Secretary, and is over 121 years old.
Certificate Vignette DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY GEORGE OTIS SMITH, DIRECTOR WATER-SUPPLY PAPERS - 1909 PASADENA LAKE VINEYARD LAND AND WATER COMPANY. ORGANIZATION AND TERRITORY. The Pasadena Lake Vineyard Land and Water Company was incorporated in January, 1884, with a capital stock of $250,000, divided into 5,000 shares, the par value being $50 per share. This company, spoken of generally as the "east side company," delivers irrigating and domestic water to Pasadena east of Fair Oaks avenue, and to lands outside of the city limits, eastward from Pasadena toward Lamanda. The greater part of the territory supplied lies within the boundaries of the original 2,500-acre Lake Vineyard tract, of the San Pasqual rancho. Consumers located within the limits of this tract can purchase water from the company without owning stock, but outside residents, in order to obtain water, either for domestic use or irrigation, must become shareholders. The area under irrigation in the Lake Vineyard tract is said by Wra. Ham. Hall to have reached 2,000 acres in 1884, but with the expansion of the city of Pasadena a large part of the orchards and vineyards which formerly covered this area have been divided into town lots, and streets have been cut through to afford them frontage. As a result the area of irrigated lands has steadily diminished until at the present time it is estimated that the company supplies, within and without the original tract, a total of not more than 200 acres with irrigating water. By far the greater part of the revenues of the company is derived from the sale of domestic water within the city limits of Pasadena. WATER SUPPLY. The water supply of the Pasadena Lake Vineyard Land and Water Company is derived from wells and tunnels near Devils Gate, on the east side of Arroyo Seco, anil from wells on the mesa near the reservoir at the head of the Lake Vineyard tract. The works and water rights at Devils Gate are owned jointly by the Pasadena Lake Vineyard Company and the Pasadena Land and Water Company in the proportion of seven-tenths to the former and three-tenths to the latter company. The Copelin and Banbury wells and pumping plants (No. 432, Pasadena quadrangle) are independent properties of the Pasadena Lake Vineyard Company. HISTORY OF WATER RIGHTS. In 1874 the Lake Vineyard Land and Water Association was incorporated and acquired 2,500 acres of the San Pasqual rancho, adjoining the San Gabriel Orange Grove Association's tract on the east, with a part interest in the springs immediately above and below Devils Gate. It was the object of the company to divide the tract into small lots, sell these, and grant to each purchaser an interest in the water, proportional to the amount of land purchased. The company's share of water was made appurtenant to the 2,500-acre tract, and a concrete-lined ditch 13,000 feet long was constructed to deliver water from the springs to a reservoir on the mesa at the head of the company's lands. Distributing pipe was laid from the reservoir, and lands under the system were sold, one share or a fivehundredth interest in the water being conveyed with each 5 acres of land, with the right to the use of the company's canal and pipe lines for delivery. In 1883, after having disposed of 1,500 acres of the 2,500-acre tract, the company sold an undivided tenth interest in its waters, and an undivided three-tenths interest in its water-bearing lands to the San Gabriel Orange Grove Association, and the remaining interests not disposed of to a syndicate of twelve residents of Pasadena. The original interests having thus become scattered with no strong central organization in control, no effective administration was possible, the canals and pipe lines were neglected, and the entire system deteriorated. Accordingly, the Pasadena Lake Vineyard Land and Water Company was organized in 1884 by a large majority of the purchasers of land and water rights from the old association for the purpose of repairing the system and acquiring and developing a greater quantity of water. These granted to the new corporation their interests, and received therefor shares of the corporation stock, 10 shares being issued for each of the old 5-acre water rights. A few of the holders of the water rights purchased from the old association declined to join the new organization and did not convey their interests. The new company repaired the system and developed the springs, greatly increasing their flow. To enable this work to be carried out, assessments on stock amounting to $8.37 per share were levied. A definite water rate to stockholders was also fixed, the figure being made liigh enough to cover the cost of operation and of repairs. In 1885 suit was brought by the Lake Vineyard Land and Water Company to determine the ownership of water rights as between the old Lake Vineyard Association and the Orange Grove Association. This suit was subsequently compromised and the Pasadena Land and Water Company, which had succeeded to the rights of the Orange Grove Association, was given title to three-tenths of all the water of the Devils Gate springs, the Lake Vineyard Company retaining title to seven-tenths. After the organization of the Lake Vineyard Land and Water Company, some of the holders of the original water rights who had remained outside of the corporation attempted to establish a pro rata interest in the water developed by the company by paying their share of the expense of operation. George W. Beck, one of those who had succeeded to 1J1S5- of the original water rights, as appertaining to 2 acres, refused to pay the rate charged him for water by the company and applied for a permanent injunction to restrain the directors from discontinuing service in supplying him with his share of water. A decision was rendered by the State supreme court in December, 1889, defeating the plaintiff. In 1894 the parent organization, the Lake Vineyard Land and Water Association, was disincorporated. DEVILS GATE JOINT WORK. In 1887 the Pasadena Land and Water Company and the Pasadena Lake Vineyard Company joined in laying a 22-inch lapped and riveted steel conduit, to replace the old open ditch, from the Devils Gate springs to a point of division on the mesa at the main reservoir. About 1891 the two companies, finding the flow from the springs inadequate for their needs, began the construction of works to develop and bring to the surface the waters of the underflow of Arroyo Seco and the east-side mesa. About 1891, 2,008 feet of tunnel were constructed through the rocky point on the east side of Devils Gate into the east-side mesa and under the gravel beds of the arroyo. Beginning at the lower end of the gorge and passing northward into the point of rocks for about 100 feet, the tunnel was divided into two branches, the right-hand branch taking a northeast course into the mesa a distance of 600 feet, and the left-hand branch a northwest course for a few hundred feet to a second fork. From this second dividing point another branch was continued westward and under the stream bed at the upper end of Devils Gate, while the main work was extended nearly due north about 1,000 feet under the bed of the arroyo close to the east-side mesa. In 1895 the main tunnel was extended from its northern extremity eastward into the mesa a distance of 2,529 feet. la 1902 two wells were sunk (Nos. 434 and 434a, Pasadena quadrangle) and a further extension of the tunnel of 337 feet was made to these wells. The tunnel tapped the wells at a depth of 175 feet from the surface. These wells flow and are pumped by compressed air into the tunnel. They have a depth of 375 and 575 feet, respectively. A third well has been sunk recently and is being connected with the tunnel. In 1897 a submerged dam was built across the narrows at the upper end of Devils Gate, immediately below the west branch of the tunnel (PI. II, B, p. 52). The underflow of the arroyo is held by this dam, while the tunnel taps the gravels and leads the water into the pipe system below. At the extremity of this branch on the west side of the stream channel an opening is provided for the admission of the storm waters. In 1897 a solid masonry dam was laid in the bed rock a short distance within the mouth of the tunnel, and a valve was constructed by which the tunnel can be sealed entirely or the flow partially cut off at will. As a result of closing the tunnel in winter the water plane in the wells above rises about 20 feet. That the general water plane in the area surrounding the wells is raised is evident also from the fact that an increased flow comes fronrthe wells for weeks after the opening of the tunnel. In 1903 a 100-horsepower compressed-air plant was installed at the mouth of the tunnel below Devils Gate. Compressed air is piped from this plant to the wells described above, and by its use water is raised to the tunnel level, whence it flows by gravity past the plant into the main conduit below. The gravity flow from the tunnels and wells varies with the seasons. The tunnels are partially sealed during the winter months, so that no measurements of the total flow are available. During the summer the pumping plant is in operation for a variable period, whose length depends on the previous winter's rainfall and the amount of gravity water available. During the summer of 1906 it was not found necessary to start the pumps at all, because of the copious rainfall of the two preceding seasons. Engineers who have studied the local situation thoroughly express the belief that if pumping operations were suspended for a considerable period of time the gravity flow would reach 100 miner's inches. Records of measurements taken in 1904 of gravity and pumped water discharged from the tunnel and tunnel wells show on August 1, after the pumping plant had been shut down three hours, a gravity flow of 55.05 miner's inches; on the same day, after the plant had been shut down seven hours, a flow of 53.25 miner's inches; and on August 4, after a nine-hour shut down, a flow of 53.25 miner's inches. The officers of the company call attention to the facts that during the seven years preceding 1904 the rainfall had been low, and that periods of three to nine hours after closing the pumps may not be sufficient to allow the maximum flow to bo reached. OTHER WORKS IN ARROYO SECO. In addition to the main work, three minor tunnels have been constructed and a pumping plant installed in the arroyo along the pipe line within half a mile of the mouth of the main tunnel. About 1889 a shaft (well No. 433, Pasadena quadrangle) was sunk close to the east bank of the arroyo, a few hundred feet below the mouth of the main tunnel, and a short tunnel was driven westward under the bed of the arroyo a distance of 288 feet. A pumping plant was placed over the shaft and equipped with a 12-horsepower gas engine and No. 4 centrifugal pump. This plant has a capacity of 25 inches for twelve hours. In 1894 a tunnel 575 feet long was driven eastward into the mesa at Wilson's Spring and another 665 feet in length at Richardson Springs. These works are located along the bank of the arroyo about half a mile below the main plant. August 1, 1904, the Wilson tunnel was flowing 3.79 miner's inches, and August 4, 1904, the Richardson tunnel was flowing 8.35 miner's inches. INDEPENDENT PROPERTY. Besides the Arroyo Seco properties, which are held in joint ownership with the Pasadena Land and Water Company, the Lake Vineyard Company has two independent wells and pumping plants (No. 432, Pasadena quadrangle). These are known as the Copelin and Banbury wells and are located on the mesa a short distance above the main reservoir. The Banbury well is not in active use at the present time, but in April, 1905, a 200-horsepower Corliss engine and a centrifugal pump were installed on the Copelin well, raising the normal output of the plant to nearly 200 inches. DISTRIBUTION. Water for irrigating purposes is delivered on orders filed at the office of the company and filled in succession. Water is distributed in heads varying in volume from 5 to 25 weir inches ("Pasadena module") and charged for at the rate of 1 cent per hour-inch. It is estimated that the company supplies about 200 acres with irrigating water. Domestic water is metered and a charge of $1 is made for 600 cubic feet and 5 cents per hundred for each additional 100 feet. The company has 1,958 meters in use. VALUE OF PROPERTIES. October 15, 1904, T. D. Allin, city engineer, and Lippincott & Parker, consulting engineers, submitted a report to the city of Pasadena on the properties of the Pasadena Land and Water Company and the Pasadena Lake Vineyard Land and Water Company. In this report the works of each company are described in detail and a careful estimate is made of their present value. The following valuation is summarized from this report: Summary of values of the property of the Pasadena Lake Vineyard Land and Water Company least-side system) exclusive of real estate, water, and water rights. This is the estimated value of the property exclusive of the Devils Gate developments, property outside of the city of Pasadena, and real estate. The engineers, in endeavoring to arrive at the value of the Devils Gate waters, concluded that the works there would deliver to the systems 100 inches of gravity water or 200 inches of pumped water, and under the conditions which existed in Pasadena at that t ime the gravity waters were valued at $2,000 and the pumped waters at $1,000 per miner's inch; so that whether the waters procured by the Devils Gate developments are regarded as the lesser amount at the higher valuation or the greater amount at the lower valuation is immaterial. The total value by either method of reckoning is $200,000. In this calculation the value of the works by which the 47505--Ikb 219--08 9 water is developed is included in the estimate. Since seven-tenths of the Devils Gate developments belong to the Pasadena Lake Vineyard Land and Water Company, its interest in the total amounts to $140,000. The city engineer, T. D. Allin, has estimated the value of that portion of the company's plant outside of the city of Pasadena at $18,531.95, and a special commission appraised the real estate at $34,816.97. The total valuation of the east-side company's property, therefore, may be summarized as follows: Value of property of Pasadena Lake Vineyard Land and Water Company. Plant in Pasadena (exclusive of Devils Gate interests) pipe system, reservoirs, going business, etc $242,601.76 Seven-tenths interest in Devils Gate developments 140, 000.00 Real estate 34,816.97 Portion of plant outside of Pasadena 18,531.95 435, 950. 68 PASADENA LAND AND WATER COMPANY. ORGANIZATION AND TERRITORY. The Pasadena Land and Water Company was incorporated in March, 1882, with a capital stock of $50,000, divided into 200 shares with a par value of $250 each. In December, 1885, the capital stock was increased to $75,000 and the number of shares to 3,000, the par value of each share being reduced to $25. This company, usually spoken of as the "west-side company," to distinguish it from the Pasadena Lake Vineyard Land and Water Company, known as the "east-side company," serves an area of about 1,500 acres, lying in a strip less than a mile wide and about 4 miles long on the east bank of Arroyo Seco. Two-thirds of this area is at present in the city of Pasadena, anfl one-third in the separate municipality of South Pasadena. Only about 100 of the original 1,500 acres are now under irrigation, the remainder being occupied by homes and users of domestic water. WATER SUPPLY. The water supply of the west-side company is derived from the Devils Gate developments, owned and controlled jointly by the eastside and west-side companies, title to three-tenths of the works and of the water developed being in the latter, from the Sheep Corral Springs developments, which belong exclusively to the west-side company, and from the Bradford street well, the Culver well, and the Glenarm street well. The capacity of the Devils Gate developments is estimated at 200 inches of pumped water, and the west-side interest of three-tenths of this amounts to 60 inches. The Sheep Corral developments have yielded 90 inches or more in the past, but, as this is regarded in excess of the permanent supply, the capacity of the works is placed at 50 inches. The Bradford street well yields 8 inches during the summer months, the Culver well yields about the equivalent of 10 inches constant flow, and the capacity of the Glenarm street battery of wells with present water levels is given as 90 inches. The total available permanent supply for the west-side company with its present installation, therefore, amounts to about 218 miner's inches. HISTORY OF WATER RIGHTS. In 1873 an association was formed at Indianapolis, Ind.,under the title of the Indiana Colony, for the purpose of settlement in southern California. The association's representatives acquired 4,000 acres of land in two tracts, one of 1,500 acres along Arroyo Seco, and the other of 2,500 acres in the Altadena and Mesa de Las Flores neighborhoods. Title to all the waters at Sheep Corral Springs anil to an interest in the waters about the Devils Gate was purchased with these lands. Only about twelve of the original Indiana colonists emigrated to California, but the uncalled-for shares were taken in Los Angeles and the general plan was carried through. The subscribers, of whom there were about thirty, then organized and incorporated the San Gabriel Orange Grove Association, with 100 shares, each share entitling the holder to a 15-acre subdivision of the lower 1,500-acre tract. The water rights and the 2,500-acre tract were not subdivided, but were held for the benefit of the association as a whole, and afterwards the latter tract was sold and the proceeds invested in improvements in the water system, etc. A series of disputes between the east-side and west-side parties at interest as to the ownership of the waters in the springs about Devils Gate began in the seventies and was not finally settled until a compromise was effected in 1885. The first of these suits was decided in 1879 adversely to the interests of the Orange Grove Association. In July, 1883, the association bought from the east-side organization for $10,000 an' undivided one-tenth interest in its waters and an undivided three-tenths interest in its unsold water-bearing lands and main conduit. By the terms of the compromise of 1885, these purchased interests were accepted as equivalent to a three-tenths interest in all the waters of all the upper springs, title to the remaining seven-tenths remaining in the east-side company. This adjustment has served as the basis for the distribution of all costs of improvements and maintenance, and for the division of all Devils Gate waters since it was effected. The Sheep Corral waters and water rights have never been in dispute, but have been acknowledged as the property of the west-side company since the predecessors in interest of the Indiana Colony first purchased the San Pasqual rancho in 1858. The Bradford street well, situated on a lower bench just west of Arroyo Seco, was dug and a pumping plant installed over it in 1903; the Culver well, on the east side of the arroyo, was purchased from F. J. Culver in 1904 for $8,000, and the Glenarm street wells, onefourth mile northeast of the Raymond Hotel, were bored and equipped in the summer of 1904. DEVILS GATE .lOINT WORKS. A brief account of these works, constructed and owned jointly by the Pasadena Land and Water Company and the Pasadena Lake Vineyard Land and Water Company, is given on pages 126-128. INDEPENDENT PROPERTY. The oldest of the water sources owned exclusively by the Pasadena Land and Water Company is the Sheep Corral Springs and development works. Before the sinking of wells and driving of tunnels in their immediate vicinity and the completion of more distant developments which have nevertheless affected their supply, these springs yielded from 50 to 130 miner's inches during the dry months of summer, and their average flow was given by Wm. Ham. Hall" as 90 miner's inches. As the demand for water on the Pasadena mesa increased, work was undertaken at the springs, with the purpose of increasing the supply available from them. In 1890 a tunnel was begun just above the gorge at Sheep Corral Springs, at a depth of 29 feet, and during the three succeeding years it was extended northward until it reached a length of 1,345 feet, its construction having cost $14,500. At the same time (1890) a small gasoline engine was installed for the purpose of lifting the water developed in the tunnel into a receiving tank, whence it was pumped with other waters from the springs to a reservoir on the edge of the mesa 100 feet above the arroyo level. The plants for this greater lift were installed in 1882 and in 1892, and consist of two Wellington compound duplex pumps, each with a capacity of 100 miner's inches. In 1895, in order to recover whatever underflow might be escaping through the gravels of the gorge below the springs, a submerged dam was constructed across this gorge and extended from bed rock to 4 feet above the original surface of the gravels in the arroyo. The dam, which is of concrete-masonry construction, has a maximum depth of 28 feet, and a width of 4 feet and contains 336 cubic yards of material. Its. cost was $5,200. Finally, in 1904 a well was sunk in the tunnel and water is now pumped from 40 feet below its floor. The Bradford street well was dug in 1903. It is located in Pasadena, just west of Arroyo Seco and something more than 1 mile south of Sheep Corral Springs. From the bottom of the well, which is 70 feet deep, a drift extends eastward for 170 feet. The well is operated by electric power, and the water, about 8 miner's inches, is pumped directly into the South Pasadena main, which runs near by. The Culver well, on the east side of the arroyo, about 600 feet north of the Bradford street well, was sunk in 1899 and 1900 by F. J. Culver, and was purchased by the Pasadena Land and Water Company in 1904 for $8,000. The well is 54 feet deep, and a tunnel extends northeastward 122 feet from its bottom. Water from this well is pumped into the South Pasadena main directly by electric power. The yield is approximately 40 inches for the six hours per day during which it is pumped. Neither the Bradford street nor the Culver well is used except during the dry periods of mid and late summer. The latest addition to the Pasadena Land and Water Company plants is the Glenarm street group of three 12-inch wells, bored and equipped with a pumping plant in 1904. These wells are located about one-fourth mile northeast of the Raymond Hotel. They vary in depth from 215 to 256 feet, and their total cost was $1,840. An air lift has been installed to pump the water from the wells, and a centrifugal pump then raises it over the Orange Grove avenue ridge into the South Pasadena main. From tliis main the water will flow by gravity to the Sheep Corral plant, and may then be pumped into the Pasadena system. The cost of this pumping plant is given as $7,023, and its capacity as 90 inches. The wells easily yield this amount, and inasmuch as their situation is most favorable, both as to permanence of supply and accessibility of water, it is probable that they will continue to furnish the full amount for a long period. DISTRIBUTION. Although the San Gabriel Orange Grove Association, to whose rights and property the Pasadena Land and Water Company has succeeded, was essentially an irrigation company, the present corporation, through the growth of the cities of Pasadena and South Pasadena, has become in reality a municipal water company. Only about 100 of the 1,500 acres in the original tract are now under irrigation. Within the city limits of Pasadena practically all services are under meter, the company having about 1,200 instruments in use. The minimum charge for water where meters are installed is $1.25 per month.. This sum entitles the user to 800 cubic feet. For all water in excess of that amount a charge of 6 cents per 100 cubic feet is made. In South Pasadena and at those few points in Pasadena where meters are not installed, flat rates of 50 cents to $2 per month are charged. The irrigating rate is 1J cents per hour per "surface inch," probably equivalent to a little more than 2J cents per hour per California miner's inch. History from StockResearch.pro (Professional Old Stock Certificate Research Service) and WWI Liberty Bonds Buyer.