The Controversy Has Not Been Forgtten

The name "Hetch Hetchy" comes from a grass with edible seeds that grows in the valley, in the Native American Sierra Miwok language. It was first used in the English language by Joseph Screech, who in 1850 became the first European to enter the valley. Screech noted that Paiutes[1] had inhabited Hetch Hetchy and still gathered seeds, roots and acorns in and around it. Acorns are indeed available in the valley, but rare elsewhere in the high country.

Charles F. Hoffmann of the California Geological Survey conducted the first survey of the valley, in 1867.

In 1906, after a major earthquake, San Francisco applied to the United States Department of the Interior to gain water rights to Hetch Hetchy. This provoked a seven-year environmental struggle with the environmental group Sierra Club, led by John Muir. Muir observed:

Dam Hetch Hetchy! As well dam for water-tanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.
Proponents of the dam replied that the valley would be even more beautiful with a lake. Muir correctly predicted that this lake would deposit an unsightly ring around its perimeter, which would be visible at low water. Because the valley was within Yosemite National Park, an act of Congress was needed to start the project. The federal government ended the dispute in 1913, with the passage of the Raker Act, which permitted flooding of the valley.

Construction of the dam was finished in 1923. Water from the dam serves 2.4 million Californians in San Francisco, San Mateo, and Alameda Counties, as well as some communities in the San Joaquin Valley, and generates electricity for San Francisco. Environmental groups (including the Sierra Club) advocate removing the dam.