48 pages • 1 hour read
Marc ReisnerCadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1986A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Introduction-Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Introduction Summary: “A Semidesert with a Desert Heart”
Marc Reisner reflects on a late-night flight in 1980 over Utah heading back to California. The author describes the emptiness below him, without towns, lights, or any sign of people. This emptiness changes as the plane flies over the Wasatch Range. Passengers can see lights below from several cities in northern Utah (e.g., Provo, Orem, Draper, and Salt Lake City), where most of the state’s residents reside. The Mormons, led by Brigham Young, first settled “this thin avenue of civilization” (2). Reisner notes that “without realizing it, they were laying the foundation of the most ambitious desert civilization the world has seen” (2).
From here, Reisner alerts the readers to the structure of the argument that follows, including key players and places. The book covers approximately 150 years of history and documents the growing concern about water scarcity in the western United States and how dam construction and agricultural development have contributed to the denigration of water quality and the environment. Key water projects discussed include the Central Valley Project, the California Water Project, the Central Arizona Project, and the North American Water and Power Alliance (NAWAPA). Reisner also discusses key political figures and administrations and their effect on water distribution policy throughout the American West.
The story begins with irrigation. The region’s natural environment, which receives less than 20 inches of rain annually, is not conducive to large populations or agriculture. However, through irrigation, the Mormons successfully civilized the desert. Based on their experiences and success, the US government launched its own irrigation program in 1902. The US agency in charge of this program was the Bureau of Reclamation. Through the Bureau of Reclamation’s “messianic” effort of building dams and aqueducts in the West, it led to substantial population growth and agricultural production.
By the end of the 20th century, all significant rivers in the West had been dammed. States like California, Arizona, and Nevada exist only because of these large-scale water projects. Most of the water goes to farmland. Water from rivers and reservoirs alone does not satisfy demand, resulting in the use of underground water. Water from rivers and reservoirs is technically renewable, until climate changes, the water’s salt content significantly increases, and the dams silt up (all of which are occurring now in the West and are part of Reisner’s story). However, groundwater is nonrenewable and will be mostly gone within a hundred years due to overuse and lack of regulation.
The challenges that Reisner discusses throughout the book illuminate how truly precarious the West’s water supply is. As Reisner notes, we have foolishly created a “civilization whose success was achieved on the pretension that natural obstacles do not exist” (1).
Chapter 1 Summary: “A Country of Illusion”
This chapter focuses on the exploration and settlement of the American West. The first European exploration of this region was by Don Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, a Spanish conquistador and explorer, who was on a quest for gold. This region remained unexplored by whites for another 300 years until President Thomas Jefferson purchased the French territory of Louisiana in 1803. This $15 million deal was known as the Louisiana Purchase and resulted in one of the earliest American expeditions to the area west of the Mississippi. Meriwether Lewis, the personal secretary of Jefferson, and William Clark, an army captain, led this expedition party. Lewis and Clark were “bewildered” by the landscape, which bore no resemblance to the East. Other explorers who followed Lewis and Clark “dismissed the whole country as an arid waste” (19).
One of the most important figures in the early settlement of the West was John Wesley Powell, who was compulsively drawn to the region. In 1869 he led a three-month river trip from Green River, Wyoming, to Grand Wash Cliffs in northwest Arizona, known as the Powell Geographic Expedition. This expedition, along with others that Powell led, led him to strongly believe that the American West was too arid to support agriculture. In hopes of convincing the public and politicians, Powell published A Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States, with a More Detailed Account of the Lands of Utah. This report outlined the West’s unsuitability to agriculture due to climate, even with irrigation. It also supported the construction of strategically placed reservoirs to increase efficient water storage, something that required the federal government’s involvement.
Powell’s perspective sharply contrasted with other leading scientists and politicians who followed a new school of meteorology. Claiming that “‘Rain Follows the Plow’” (35), proponents of this theory believed that agricultural development would alter the climate and increase precipitation in the West. Simultaneously, railroad companies, which had begun increasing railroad tracks in this region, created propaganda encouraging migration. While climate and railroad propaganda played a role in Western settlement, the primary driver was the Homestead Act of 1862. This law encouraged western migration by providing settlers with 164 acres of land. The most sought-after plots of land were those by rivers, and thus began the monopolization of the “few manageable rivers of the West” (43). To Powell, this settlement strategy was dangerous in both economic and natural terms, yet no one at the time headed his scientific backed conclusions. This ignorance continues to have serious ramifications for the American West and its water supply.
Introduction-Chapter 1 Analysis
The Introduction and first chapter of Cadillac Desert, taken together, serve as an important overview for Reisner’s argument. The Introduction helps orient Reisner’s readers to the broad outlines of his argument, which covers around 150 years of history, including key figures, places, and legislation. Reisner grounds his book in meticulous and detailed research as he seeks to persuade his audience that the water situation in the West is truly precarious and that continuing to make the same mistakes will lead to brutal land and water disputes and catastrophic environmental and economic impacts. Reisner’s goal so far is to orient readers to the problem at hand. This means providing the historical context needed to understand how the settlement of the West influenced this drive to build dam after dam.
To that end, Chapter 1 outlines the earliest explorers and expeditions to the Western region. From the beginning, people went to the West seeking treasure, including literal gold and quick ways to make a fortune (such as beavers for hats that were in style and land that could become productive agricultural land). The federal government encouraged the region’s settlement partly out of fear that the depopulated area might be vulnerable to various foreign entities. Salesmanship and graft were early and lasting features of the West’s settlement. For example, publicists for railroad companies created notices comparing the West to “The Promised Land” and noting that there were no cases of illnesses in western states (38).
The most influential piece of legislation that encouraged Western settlement was the Homestead Act of 1862. It also shaped the West’s current water predicament. Many members of Congress who drafted the legislation and the newspaper editors who celebrated the valor of those heading West had never actually been to this region. They did not realize that 160 acres in states like Utah, Wyoming, and Montana were not enough for people to make a living on. Instead, they needed 2,500 to 5,000 acres. Yet, to amass this kind of land under the law, settlers would have to cheat. Most of these settlers had never been property owners before; thus, “all they had in common was greed” (43). John Wesley Powell was the first explorer and scientist to point out the shortcomings of this law and its potential ramifications, yet no one headed his warnings.
Reisner’s frustration with the current situation is apparent from these opening pages. Powell, 150 years ago, suggested the rivers in the American West could sustain humans on land areas that made sense for irrigation. While he proposed federal irrigation programs, he never would have imagined the government, settlers, and politicians taking his idea so far that there would be no wild rivers left. As Reisner notes, the irrigation program turned into a monster, leaving economic and natural destruction in its path. Even after bearing witness to this destruction, people still demand these programs.
