The Library of Congress
Conservation Crossroads

Lesson Two

Case Study: Should the Hetch Hetchy be Dammed?

In this lesson students will explore the controversy surrounding the city of San Francisco's request to turn the Hetch Hetchy Valley into a water reservoir to meet its increasing needs. (The Hetch Hetchy was a part of Yosemite National Park.)  Students will explore the divisions this controversy exposed within the conservation movement by using teacher-selected documents and text representative of both sides of the debate along with actual records of the Congressional hearings held to decide the valley's fate. 

Objectives

By the end of this lesson, the students will:
  • know the major purposes of and provisions of legislation establishing Yosemite as a national park;
  • possess a clear understanding of the controversy that Hetch Hetchy sparked between "preservationists" and "conservationists;"
  • have experience in analyzing and interpreting primary records of the congressional debate over Hetch Hetchy;
  • have experienced a simulation of the Hetch Hetchy debate.

Time Required

This lesson should take 4 - 5 50-minute class periods.

Recommended Grade Level

Grades 11-12 (could be adapted for grades 7-8).

Curriculum Fit

This lesson would fit with a unit on turn-of-the-century Progressivism, U.S. history units dealing with the environment in a later period such as the 1960s or 1970s, or in a U.S. government unit dealing with the role of congressional committees or interest groups in the formation and passage of legislation.

Standards

McREL 4th Edition Standards & Benchmarks

Civics
Standard 14. Understands issues concerning the disparities between ideals and reality in American political and social life

Geography
Standard 14. Understands how human actions modify the physical environment
Standard 16. Understands the changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution and importance of resources

Historical Understanding
Standard 2. Understands the historical perspective

Procedures

  1. Review what previous lesson activities have helped students discover concerning the various reasons people supported conservation efforts.

  2. Introduce this lesson by informing students that they will be re-creating a Congressional debate over the Hetch Hetchy Valley in California's Yosemite National Park, which served to clarify the issues and divide the conservation movement clearly into "preservationist" and "conservationist" camps.

  3. In full class discussion or interactive lecture, review the reasons for setting aside Yosemite as a national park.  Students should notice during this review the mixture of reasons, some "preservationist" and some "conservationist", adduced by various advocates.  Use selections from works and public acts concerning Yosemite from list of sources below.

  4. Form groups focused on the major interests of various parties involved in the Hetch Hetchy controversy:  the city of San Francisco, the Sierra Club, Progressive conservationists such as Pinchot, Congressional representatives from other states, and business interests.  Each group should choose at least one spokesperson to play the role of a leading figure (e.g. John Muir for the Sierra Club or the chair of the House Committee on Public Lands).  Others in the group may adopt roles as appropriate as witnesses, research assistants, publicists, lobbyists, or members of Congress.  Each group will develop a strategy for researching the resources listed below to gain an understanding of the arguments advanced by their particular interest group and to glean what they consider to be the best arguments for their position in the public hearing.

  5. In the 3-4 day interval between the initial lesson and the mock hearing, students will research their positions using online and print resources below.  The teacher will provide assistance as needed.  Advocates for the various positions may also engage in various forms of public advocacy for their point of view, such as radio spots, print advertising, posters, flyers, and short speeches.

  6. On the day of the mock hearing, all members of the class except those in roles as spokespersons or witnesses will become members of the House Committee on Public Lands, the committee which began holding hearings on the damming of the Hetch Hetchy in 1908.  Each spokesperson will be given an allotted time to make a statement, after which s/he will stand for a minimum number of questions from the committee.  The time limit and number of questions will depend on the number of persons testifying.  At the close of the hearing, the committee will vote on whether to send the Raker Bill to the full House.

  7. The teacher will follow up the vote with a review of the principal arguments advanced by each side, exploring the main differences that emerged between preservationists and conservationists through the controversy over Hetch Hetchy.

Resources Used

These links are to documents selected from "The Evolution of the Conservation Movement, 1850-1920" regarding the establishment of Yosemite National Park and the debate over damming the Hetch Hetchy Valley.  The Editors Comments, The Evolution of the Conservation Movement Collection Connection and Conservation Timeline all contain valuable background information for teachers as does the collection's Preface.

Conservation Writers

Congressional Debate
The resources below consist of transcripts of the committee hearings and debate over two bills during the year 1913.  By this time, battle lines had been clearly drawn between "preservationists" and "conservationists" and may be easily detected in the testimony.

Note: the links below will take you to a Library of Congress American Memory record for the documents. The actual documents appear on page images, which are linked from the record page.

Extension

This lesson will involve students in extensive research in collections specifically focusing on Yosemite and the Hetch Hetchy Valley. Student extension activities include:
  • developing research further into a formal essay on some aspect of the controversy;
  • developing a comparison between the establishment of Yosemite and another national park such as Yellowstone;
  • exploring period photographs and paintings for insights on the role of visual imagination in the controversy;
  • identifying and developing a comparison with a more contemporary controversy such as the Michigan debate during the summer of 1997 over whether to permit angle drilling for oil along the shores of Lake Michigan;

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Last updated 12/16/2003