The Journal of San Diego History - San Diego History Center

The Journal of San Diego History
dominate its story. Michael J. Pallamary’s Lay of the Land: The History of Land Surveying
in San Diego County is a focused look at the history and legacy of land use,
development, exploitation, and surveying in San Diego County in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries.
Pallamary’s work comprises a detailed series of accounts and anecdotes including
the establishment of the International Boundary Line, early coastal surveys,
Mexican land grants and the United States Land Commission, and various township
and railroad surveys. While many of these anecdotes may not be new to
scholars and students of San Diego history, it is interesting to have them assembled
together here. As an example, Chapter 10 is entirely devoted to the conflicting
boundaries and surveys of Rancho Buena Vista: Jack Hays (1858), Max Strobel
(1870), William Minto (1882), Myron G. Wheeler (1884), Harry Willey (1889), J.B.
Treadwell (1896), and Lew B. Harris (1908). Pallamary’s training and expertise as a
Professional Land Surveyor (PLS) is clear in this book; he demonstrates an attention
to detail for recording measurements and lot numbers while still creating a
readable narrative for those who lack his credentials. However, this work could
be vastly improved and more useful had it been reviewed by a professional editor
or historian prior to publication. Its index does not list personal names by the last
name first, as is standard practice, but Alonzo Horton is found under “A,” Senator
Cornelius Cole is under “S,” and Deputy Surveyor John Adelbert Benson is under
“D.” Some figures, such as Julius Wangenheim who is quoted in the text, are curiously
absent from the index. The numerous illustrations throughout the book have
brief captions, such as “Early Military Engineers” (p. 35), “Coronado In Its Glory”
(p. 184), and “Poole’s Map Showing the Worthless Sand Spit” (p. 317), but none cite
their sources. The “Hancock Park” and “The Kumeyaay Territory” illustrations on
pages 176 and 363, respectively, appear to have been taken from the Internet, but
once again are not cited (the former appears to be from Mapquest or Google Maps).
The poor index and lack of individual illustration credits, combined with the
fact that the text does not have footnotes or endnotes to indicate the author’s specific
sources of information, should prompt other authors to hesitate before citing
or using Pallamary’s work in their own research. This is unfortunate, because what
Lay of the Land ultimately demonstrates is how much our understanding of San Diego’s
history can benefit from the expertise of individuals with training in various
disciplines and professions.
Owens Valley Revisited: A Reassessment of the West’s First Great Water Transfer. By
Gary D. Libecap. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2007. Bibliography, illustrations,
index, and notes. viii + 216 pp. $65 cloth. $24.95 paper.
Reviewed by Steven P. Erie, Professor of Political Science and Director of the
Urban Studies and Planning Program, University of California, San Diego.
Scholarly attempts to use meticulously researched fact to debunk popularly
accepted fiction are a noble but often quixotic enterprise. Hopefully this will not be
the case with Gary Libecap’s valuable new addition to the scholarship on the Los
Angeles/Owens Valley water controversy. Following in the footsteps of Abe Hoff-
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