Date of Award

5-1998

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Departmental Honors

Department

History

Abstract

"Nature is both powerfully attractive and powerfully repellent,"1 describes the "Western Paradox" as it was first described by Donald Worster in his Under the Western Skies: The West has been an American symbol of independence, equality and self-preservation from its earliest day, but that freedom had a price. The scarcity of water in the arid West shackled these free spirited adventurers as they became slaves to canals, dams and irrigation ditches.2 Their natural spirit seemed to be defied by the world of technology and machines, which they sought to leave behind by coming West. Yet, by coming to the arid West, the need for water to merely survive grew severe, and with it, grew a need to efficiently use limited water resources. Out of this need, evolved an increasing use of technology to obtain water resources effectively, as well as innovations of new technology. When this happened, those free-spirited adventurers found themselves becoming caught in the capitalistic and dependant world, that they had dreamt of leaving behind, and transforming into victims of Worster's Paradox..

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