Engineering in the Modern American West: The Life of Frederick Haynes Newell
Published by Texas Tech University Press. Series: Grover E. Murray Studies in the American Southwest. Paperback 2026. By Cole Bedford. Condition: Brand new.
During the second half of the nineteenth century, Americans dramatically altered the landscape of the arid American West—especially its precious few rivers. Engineers built ever more ambitious dams, canals, diversions, and reservoirs until, by the dawn of the nineteenth century, only the federal government wielded the resources needed to continue the development.
At the forefront of the federal effort was Frederick Haynes Newell: son of a rambling New England businessman, graduate of MIT, advisor to Theodore Roosevelt, and prophet for scientific conservation of natural resources. For more than twenty-five years, Newell defined the federal government’s role in Western water.
