Villain and Visionary

This article is about the legacy of William Mulholland, engineer of the Los Angeles Aqueduct who was instrumental in building public support for funding and building the project. Supporters hail him as a masterful campaigner and visionary without whom Los Angeles could not have developed into a major city; detractors accuse him of swindling farmers in the Owens Valley out of money and water rights and a puppet of powerful real estate interests in Los Angeles who lied to the public to get voters to support the aqueduct.