Cadillac Desert

The story of the American West is the story of the relentless quest to control and allocate nature's most common, and the West's most precious, water. CADILLAC DESERT recounts this dramatic saga. The early settlers were lured by free land. But there was not enough water to sustain them, and they drifted on. Only the Mormons stayed, carefully tending a system of irrigation canals that tempered perpetual drought. Their success gave birth to federal aid programs, principally the Bureau of Reclamation. Without the bureau, without Hoover, Shasta and Grand Coulee, the West as we know it would not exist. CADILLAC DESERT is bleak about the future. The natural resources of the West, sparse to begin with, have been stretched, exploited and depleted. How much longer can our gold-plated civilization be sustained?

A semidesert with a desert heart --
A country of illusion --
The red queen --
First causes --
An American Nile (I) --
The go-go years --
Rivals in crime --
Dominy --
An American Nile (II) --
The peanut farmer and the pork barrel --
Those who refuse to learn ... --
Things fall apart --
A civilization, if you can keep it.