Paper touts trip by car to Owens Lake

July 31, 1910: The Times announced that it was organizing “an automobile tour, which, to Los Angeles people and their neighbors in Southern California, at least, is to be the greatest ever conceived.”

The round-trip excursion, the newspaper said, would give Los Angeles residents an up-close view of their new water source, taking them on a previously treacherous journey “from Los Angeles over the aqueduct route to the Owens River Valley and Owens Lake.”

Construction of the aqueduct, which was still underway, had necessitated improvement of the roads, the newspaper said. The Times promised to supply, at cost, ample food and tents for the trip, which would likely take three days each way.

The trip, The Times said, would give Angelenos a chance “to inspect the great work of the city and to revel in the anticipation of the good things that are coming to Los Angeles and some of her fortunate neighbors. It will be a triumph for the automobile to travel into the places where railroad ties have not been laid, where the whistle of the electric car has not yet been heard.”