Skip to main content

The timeline can be navigated with the “Scroll Left” and “Scroll Right” buttons or by dragging the pointer to a date on the timeline waveform (located at the bottom of the screen on the desktop version and on the left of the screen on mobile). To filter by a particular topic and see a smaller section of the data, make a selection on the dropdown “Filters” menu or click “Search” to do a keyword search. Hover over the abbreviated filter tags in the blue boxes to see the complete name of the filter, or click a filter to display all the data with this tag. If you want to take a deeper dive into a specific topic by viewing a narrative essay page and a curated timeline, click on “Stories.”

Read More
Three men and one woman pose for the camera, wearing hats and holding shovels. They are surrounded by earth, trees, and other nature.
Men and women mining for gold during the California Gold Rush.

The California Gold Rush explodes the population and increases water demands.

1850

ENV
ECON
Men and women mining for gold during the California Gold Rush.

The West Coast has a natural flood/drought cycle. As the population grows and agriculture explodes, an irrigation system that is dependent on dams, constructed rivers, and lakes is erected. The irrigation projects are built to channel rainwater and, in particular, snowmelt towards irrigation for agriculture.