Densho Digital Archive - Kerry Christenson Powell Interview (denshovh-pkerry-01-0020)

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KL: For the sake of posterity, would you tell us the story of the Wedding of the Waters?

KP: Sure. Father Crowley came here and ministered to the Catholic church, of course. And then he was kind of a missionary priest that went to a number of different parishes to do services for the Catholic people. And he realized very soon that there was the highest water and the lowest water in the continental United States in this (Inyo) county. And he was very impressed, of course, he loved the mountains and the Sierras and everything about this whole area. But he would drive to Furnace Creek (in Death Valley) to do church services over there. Well, at that time, in the early '30s, he had to go through Darwin (30 miles away) and down Darwin Wash, which gets washed out. Every big rainstorm it would get washed out. He would try to go through there because there was no highway. So they started campaigning to get a connecting highway (shortcut) down into Panamint Valley, over to Death Valley, and then on over to Las Vegas from the southern end of Owens Valley. So they campaigned with the state, the powers that be, the Inyo Associates and other groups like that, and they finally got this road to go through, and they (eventually) built the road. And he had the idea to do a big celebration weekend including the opening of that road with all kinds of other events going on for a whole weekend. And he wanted to do the Wedding of the Waters, bring in the water (in a special gourd) from Lake Tulainyo, (Highest Sierra Lakes) on Friday morning by (trail by) Indian runner, which would be the original way the water was brought down (from the Sienna). And then into Whitney Portals (at the end of the road up from Lone Pine), and put it on a Pony Express rider, which was the local cowboys, and three different riders brought it from Whitney Portals into Lone Pine that first evening, and they had a parade of cars following them with their headlights coming down at dark, because it was October and dark (early). [Laughs] And by the time he got the water to the Portals, it was four-thirty or five in the evening, coming down from Lake Tulainyo. It was a long climb, it was a big climb. And so then (Friday evening) they put it in the bank, which (is a) shoe store (now), which was the Bank of America at the time. They put the water in the bank overnight with the assistance of the movie stars, Hopalong Cassidy. Some other people were there, and Governor Merriam came from Sacramento. (Father Crowley) invited dignitaries from all over the state to come and be part of this whole weekend. And he had set up dinners and events, demonstrations, shooting events, (horse) shoeing events, football games, dances, dinners, barbeques, all kinds of things all weekend in Independence and Lone Pine and then even in Death Valley for part of the weekend events.

So Saturday morning a miner (with a burro) picked it up, it was supposed to be Death Valley Scotty, but he wouldn't do it, I guess, or he didn't come over for some reason. But anyway, the miner took it to the Catholic Church which was on Main Street at the time by the Dow Hotel. And then he gave it to a covered wagon, which took it just several miles down (south on the main highway) and gave it to the twenty-mule team, which kind of went on Keeler Road out that way. And then they gave it to a stagecoach, which took it to the (narrow gauge) train. This is all on Saturday, big day, big day. And the train took it the fourteen miles to Keeler, and they put it in the Keeler (Railroad) Station, the water (gourd) in the Keeler Station overnight (or Sunday). (A specially invited winning) Indianapolis driver took it in his fancy car, a Lincoln Zephyr -- I've been reading up on this because I have to interview, I have to do this talk in a couple of weeks, next weekend. He took it in the Lincoln Zephyr and took it up to the dedication on the other side of Keeler where they were dedicating the opening of the (new) road from (the) Darwin turnoff. And they did the dedication there, and they had set up... what did they call it? (Telex?) Anyway, President Roosevelt sent a message there to them at the dedication telling them that the road was officially open so they could go down that road. So (the driver with the water) went down that road into the bottom of the Panamint Valley (where) he met an oil company plane, (landed on the dry lake there), and the plane took it from there that (Sunday) morning over to Furnace Creek (Inn), and they had a big dinner and a big lunch there. And then at four-thirty the plane took off and went down to Badwater (in Death Valley below sea level) and dumped the water from (the highest) Lake Tulainyo into (the lowest) Badwater (water) from the airplane, and that was the end of the actual Wedding of the Waters.

They had set up campfires or fires up on each mountaintop to go ahead and signal to Lone Pine that it was over. So (up on) Dante's View, as soon as they saw them, so dump the water, they lit their campfire there, and then they did it on top of Cerro Gordo (above Keeler), or Telescope (Peak), I think Telescope first, and then Cerro Gordo, and then they saw it (from the) top of Mt. Whitney. And so at the top of Mt. Whitney they lit the campfire and they had (a) fire fall in front of Mt. Whitney to let the people know (down) in Lone Pine that (the wedding) was completed. So that's the whole story.

KL: You're gonna give a good talk.

KP: [Laughs] That's the whole story. I think I got it all in sequence.

KL: Yeah. I did not expect to ever have an Indianapolis motor speedway car in any of my oral histories for Manzanar National Historic Site.

KP: So that was a very interesting weekend. And like I said, he had set up a trout dinner in Lone Pine for Governor Merriam that first night, so many special events, dances, there was a big dance in Independence, and there was a dance in Lone Pine, I'm sure. And then like I said, a football game and shooting demonstrations and all kinds of things.