Utah’s Connection to O’Shaughnessy Dam

When someone mentions the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park most people think of natural beauty, John Muir, and the Sierra Club. Far from their minds is Ogden, Utah and the local company, Utah Construction Company. When UCC was incorporated in 1900, the company began working on building railroads including the first major contract with building the Feather River route for the Western Pacific Railroad. By the time of the bid for grading the nine mile road from Hog Ranch into the Hetch Hetchy Valley, the company had a strong reputation for getting the work done on time. The company originally hired seventy-five men and two 12-horse mule teams to bring equipment into the valley. By the end of the contract, UCC had employed hundreds of men and completed the dam for just under $6 million.

So just why did San Francisco need to have a dam constructed in Yosemite?

San Francisco did not have a large supply of freshwater to begin with, due to being situated on a peninsula – surrounded on three sides by undrinkable sea water. Scattered wells and springs were enough, initially, for the sparsely populated region, until the Gold Rush necessitated the delivery of water into the city. This delivery of water continued through the nineteenth century; various companies and concerns popped up to supply the growing town with drinkable water, sourced from the surrounding area outside the city. The infrastructure for water delivery began in a quite primitive way: barrels of water slung across the back of a donkey, buckets full sold at exorbitant prices.

O’Shaughnessy Dam, 1934. Courtesy of San Francisco Public Library.