By an edhat reader
Was there a tunnel dug out at the end of Tunnel Road in 1903? This photo is titled 1903 Tunnel Road, Umberto de Piazzi.
History of Santa Barbara Tunnel Road?
verde
February 15, 2018, 7:58 am
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Written by verde
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On the subject of Lotus Eaters and water tunnels: In the 80’s I was very taken with the water courses, fountains and the Japanese water gardens on the Armour Meat Packing estate, El Mirador. Being a self avowed water freak, I had to understand the perpetual flow of water flowing through the extensive estate that had previously been subdivided into various properties. Above the Japanese Gardens with many pools, koi fish, a stone moon bridge, stone slab bridge, floating tea house etc. was a very formal, rectilinear, Italian watercourse. This consisted of a series of low plastered retaining walls with exquisite patinas of age, walkways, planter beds, rectangular pools with fountains fed by runnels along and enchanting walkway and multiple stairs. The taller walls which flanked a staircase with water runnels on each side created the most delightful flowing water sound as it resonated between the walls. All this was flanked by two impeccable rows of huge Deodor Cedar trees about a hundred feet apart. Next to the cedars was a very large and deep pond that was under construction in spite of the drought at that time; there would be plenty of water to fill it, but that is yet another story. The entire water course and Japanese gardens were fed from a large 30′ deep open, rectangular masonry cistern at the top of the property in a parcel that was then owned by Princess Ashraf and/or Princess Shams of the Pahlavi Family, former rulers of Iran. I was driven to follow this water to its’ source and that is how I discovered the private water tunnel up Cold Springs Canyon, also dug with Asian laborers. The tunnel entrance in a face of rock in Cold Springs canyon is about 4-5 feet high. It was wet and dark as I followed the cast iron pipe into the tunnel. At a depth of about 50′ in it seemed that the tunnel had collapsed around the still flowing pipe, and I decided that I had gotten as close to the marvelous source as was practical, and so exited the tunnel. That pipe flowed at 30+gpm into the cistern and undoubtedly does the so to this day. Santa Barbara has always been a multi-faceted and magical place. A place that made an indelible impression in my being, for which I am most grateful.
My understanding is that we would get a greatly reduced amount, but not 0. In dry years all allotments are cut, some more than others depending on their water rights and how much they paid into the State Water Project. Most of the time we just sell our allotment to someone else rather than bring it to Cachuma, dump it into the lake, and then pump it out into our distribution system. They didn’t want to pay to make a direct connection to our pipeline which would have saved on evaporation losses. Anyway, how smart does our City Council look for starting the desal plant up again with our looming drought condition? Genius!