Cuyamaca Water Company

Historical Background

On June 1, 1910, Colonel Ed Fletcher and Montana businessman James A. Murray purchased the San Diego Flume Company for $150,000, renaming it the Cuyamaca Water Company. The initial purchase transferred all water rights and properties owned and managed by the San Diego Flume Company to the Cuyamaca Water Company, including the Cuyamaca Reservoir and Dam, the Diverting Dam, Eucalyptus Reservoir, La Mesa Reservoir (later renamed Murray Reservoir), and the thirty-six mile Cuyamaca flume line, which ran parallel just east and south of the San Diego River from the Diverting Dam, located on the San Diego River just below the junction of the Boulder Creek, to the Eucalyptus Reservoir, located near present day La Mesa.

The Cuyamaca Water Company was one of several water companies servicing the greater San Diego area at this time. At the time of purchase from the San Diego Flume Company, the Cuyamaca Water Company was furnishing irrigation water to Ex-Mission Rancho, Rancho El Cajon and domestic water to a portion of the City of San Diego. Fletcher and Murray expanded the areas serviced by the Cuyamaca Water Company to include La Mesa, East San Diego and El Cajon; by 1924 the Cuyamaca Water Company was furnishing between 65,000 and 70,000 people with water, both for irrigation and domestic purposes.

Fletcher and Murray owned and operated the Cuyamaca Water Company for 15 years, making or planning several improvements to the existing system, including the construction of the San Vicente Dam and Reservoir, the El Capitan Dam and Reservoir, the Mission Gorge Dam and Reservoir (which was never realized) and the purchase of the El Monte Pumping Station. The most ambitious and controversial of these projects was the El Capitan Dam and Reservoir, which, from its conception, was met with resistence from the City of San Diego. After the Cuyamaca Water Company secured the land intended for the El Capitan Dam and Reservoir, the City of San Diego filed to condemn the Cuyamaca Water Company in an effort to stifle any further development, usurp its water rights and acquire the company at a nominal price. The City of San Diego appealled to the Rail Road Commission to fix a valuation on the Cuyamaca Water Company, which was determined to be $745,000. The City of San Diego, however, declined to exercise its right to purchase the company and dropped the suit. Despite the efforts of Fletcher and Murray, the El Capitan Dam and Reservoir project was not completed until 1935. Many of the projects initiated by the Cuyamaca Water Company were not completed until after the company was sold.

The initial financial arrangement between Murray and Fletcher saw Murray as the principal financier of the Cuyamaca Water Company, owning 5/6 of the company, and Fletcher owning the remaining 1/6 and managing the company. In 1915 William G. Henshaw, a San Diego businessman instrumental in helping to build the Lake Hodges Dam with Fletcher, purchased one half of Fletcher's 1/6 interest in the Cuyamaca Water Company. The three men attempted to sell the Cuyamaca Water Company to the City of San Diego and the La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Spring Valley Irrigation District on several occassions without success. Eventually, Colonel Ed Fletcher sold the Cuyamaca Water Company to the La Mesa, Lemon Grove and Spring Valley Irrigation District for $1,400,000 on January 4, 1926.

From the guide to the Cuyamaca Water Company Records, 1867-1938, (University of California, San Diego. Geisel Library. Mandeville Special Collections Library.)