Sacramento Valley Development Association
On January 15 and 16, 1900, delegates from six counties gathered in Woodland where they formally elected General Green, a renowned state politician and fierce advocate for Central Valley irrigation, as President, a capacity in which he served until his death in 1905.
Another meeting would be held soon afterward in Oroville to formalize the proceedings and make permanent the renamed Sacramento Valley Development Association, then headquartered in Colusa.
[5] After General Green's death in 1905, Yolo County Democratic state senator (1903–1907)[6][7] Marshall Diggs was elected President (with widespread support),[8] an office which he held for over 16 years.
[9][10] However, unlike Dunton, who had served as delegate to the state convention[11] and on a committee to the National Irrigation Congress,[12] Diggs wasn't particularly keen on politics.
[15] The irony in Dunton and Biggs' close involvement is that the decision to create such a League in the first place had been opposed principally by some members of their own organization, the Sacramento Valley Development Association.
[17] With the exception of time spent on his run as the Democratic nominee for California's 2nd congressional district,[18] Beard had served continuously within the organization (manager, secretary, editor and vice president) since 1905.
[5] Such barebones campaigning wasn't sustainable, however, so a permanent rule was implemented that required each participating county to contribute one-half cent for every one hundred dollars of assessed valuation.
Detailing the aims and intentions of the Association, he recognized how little work had actually yet been accomplished before finishing with a singular wish: "But, gentlemen, my only hope, as I am on the decline of life, is that some day I may stand on Pisgah[21] and see a Promised Land for God's people in this valley.
"[22][23] Green never saw the completion of it, but one of his organization's early successes was the approval of the Orland Project on December 18, 1906, the result of letters from various officers throughout the years 1902 to 1905 as well as a petition from owners of over 40,000 acres of land conveyed through the Sacramento Valley Development Association to the Secretary of the Interior Ethan A. Hitchcock.
[27] He and his fellow Yolo County leaders infamously had a hand in pushing Judge Peter J. Shields to pin a blue slip to the bill, which added an irrigation requirement disqualifying more than a dozen other locations (many in Southern California) but not Davisville.
Conrad, testified at a consequential record of public hearing in 1916 against opposition that wished to keep the river navigable up to Red Bluff year round.
Beard, hyperbolic as always, cited "how [they were] sufficiently near to justify the War Department in providing us with this information", by which he meant the amount of water needed for storage and navigation.
He emphasized the fact that development would reach its maximum output soon if storage capacity weren't increased, while others pointed to the decreasing navigability of the riverbed and banks.
"[33] In 1902, the association published a booster periodical called the Wednesday Press, which was renamed The Great West in October 1907 by manager turned editor W.A.
[36]In truth, Redding did not grow to over 4,000 inhabitants until 1930, but the narrative helped Beard, on behalf of the Association, make the demand for "the gridironing of the valley with railroads" among other things.
[34] Prominent Catholic journalist and booster Thomas Augustus Connelly also worked for a time as an associate editor under Beard and played a role in the name change.
While most of his work was spent promoting the economic interests and growth of the area, he also covered its social development in pieces like "Sacramento's Numerous and Beautiful Church Structures", in which he highlighted each of the city's established denominations.
[1] The next year, the same groups were granted $100,000 by the state legislature to represent the Sacramento Valley and California at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon.
Yet, according to a final report by the state itself, none featured more items than Sacramento County, which included a 12-foot high mural of the Great Seal of California made entirely of beans, a model of the California State Capitol constructed of nuts and a pyramid of beer bottles from the Buffalo Brewery in the shape of a giant beer bottle.
