William Mulholland - Initial Career in Los Angeles

Initial Career in Los Angeles

After arriving in Los Angeles, which at the time had a population of about 9,000, Mulholland quickly decided to return to life at sea as work was hard to find. On his way to the port at San Pedro to find a ship, he accepted a job digging a well. After a brief stint in Arizona where he prospected for gold and worked on the Colorado River, he obtained a job from Frederick Eaton as Deputy Zanjero with the newly formed Los Angeles City Water Company (LACWC). In Alta California during the Spanish and Mexican administrations water was delivered to Pueblo de Los Angeles in a large open ditch, the Zanja Madre. The man who tended the ditch was known as a zanjero.

In 1880 Mulholland oversaw the laying of the first iron water pipeline in Los Angeles. Mulholland left the employment of the LACWC briefly in 1884 but returned in mid-December of that same year. He left again in 1885 and worked for the Sespe Land and Water Company. As part of his compensation he was granted twenty acres on Sespe Creek. In 1886 he returned to the LAWC and, in October of that year, became a naturalized American citizen. At the end of that year he was made the superintendent of the LACWC. In 1898, the Los Angeles city government decided not to renew the contract with the LACWC.

Four years later the Los Angeles Water Department was established with Mulholland as its superintendent. In 1911, The Water Department was renamed the Bureau of Water Works and Supply, Mulholland remained in charge, named as its chief engineer. It was not until later when in 1937, after Mulholland's retirement, that the Bureau of Water Works and Supply was merged with the Bureau of Power and Light to form what today is the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.