Explosion in water wars

May 21, 1924: Los Angeles authorities were up in arms after an explosion ripped through a spillway of the Los Angeles aqueduct, three miles north of Lone Pine, in the first of what appeared to be attempts at disrupting the water supply from Owens Valley to the city. Officials immediately suspected Owens Valley residents, The Times reported. “Particular strength was given the theory that the dynamiting may have been done by ranchers of the Owens Valley in view of the bitter feeling throughout the valley over the acquisition of water rights in the district by the city,” the newspaper said. “So bitter has this feeling been that only last year armed warfare was threatened by irate ranchers of the district.”