The Great American Land Grab Part Seven (in case you missed
them, Parts 1-6 are available at the Archives) Nevertheless, the
intended transformation of the West did not occur. Great dams
were built, rivaling the pyramids of Egypt in their
wondrousness; reservoirs were formed, and aqueducts constructed.
By 1970 the Bureau of Reclamation spent almost $10 billion and
irrigated nearly seven million acres. Yet land monopoly is more
firmly entrenched in the West than ever; federal water has
flowed and continues to flow in great quantity to the huge,
absentee-owned corporate estates that should, under the law,
have been broken up and sold to small resident farmers. In the
words of former Senator Wayne Morse, the wholesale, continuing
violations of the 1902 Act constitute "a water steal reminiscent
of the scandals" of Teapot Dome and the "great land frauds."
Nearly a century ago the San Francisco Chronicle warned: "The
land . . . taken by two or three men is sufficient to afford
homes and independence to hundreds of