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The Los Angeles Water Wars represent a significant moment in Los Angeles history. As Los Angeles swelled in the first few decades of the 20th century, it quickly used up much of its available water resources. Historians of the American west have extensively noted that water was often the key to determining the success or failure of a settlement. In much of the arid landscape of the American West, water was a sacred commodity and source of life . Water was critical to the indigenous communities that originated there, and became essential to accommodate the Americans immigrants who eventually made their way west.<ref>Donald Worster, ''Rivers of Empire: Water, Aridity, and the Growth of the American West'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992).</ref>

The Los Angeles Water Wars, which have been (perhaps incorrectly) immortalized in by Roman Polanski's ''Chinatown,'' emerged against this backdrop. Fighting for water justified legal cunning and violence for many Angelenos in the late 19th and early 20th century. When a lengthy long drought from 1892-1904 threatened to damper Los Angeles' growth and survival, city official officials recognized the need to find a new source of water quickly. The Mayor of Los Angeles, through bribery and trickery, facilitated the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct to feed the water needs of Los Angeles--much to the detriment of those where the water came from--the Owens Valley.