Abstract
It all started with Hardin Bigelow. The city of Sacramento had only been in existence for a year when in January 1850, the Sacramento River flooded its banks and wiped out most of the town. Immediately after the flood, city leaders, led by Hardin, agreed to tax their citizens $250,000 to build a levee to protect Sacramento from its namesake river. And for a while, Hardin’s levee seemed to work. Just a few months later, the river rose again, but the city was spared. Hardin was a hero, and went on to become mayor (Kelley 1989).
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© 2015 Robert I. McDonald
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McDonald, R.I. (2015). Floodwater. In: Conservation for Cities. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-523-6_5
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