By Heather Hartley
The Mill Creek Zanja
The Mill Creek Zanja, probably best known today as the creek running through the University of Redlands campus and Sylvan Park, is the main reason Redlands has flourished over the years.
The construction of Mill Creek Zanja was the combined project of Pedro Alvaez from the San Gabriel mission and some Indians under the orders of Chief Solano, explains Larry Burgess, A.K. Smiley Public Library Director. They began constructing it in 1819 and by 1821 it was delivering water.
In Miss Emma Jackson’s 1922 speech, given at the Contemporary Club at the Centenary Celebration of the Mill Creek Zanja, she described how Indian women went along and removed the loose earth in bowl shaped baskets, as the men worked, piling it along the margin of the stream.
The original purpose of the Old Zanja was to supply water for domestic use and crop irrigation for the Mission Rancho and a settlement of about 500 Indians.
However, the development of the valley was slow. Mrs. Myron H. Crofts wrote about the terrain when she first arrived in 1862. The road led through an arid plain of sage-brush, cacti, chaparral and mesquite. In the distance, to our right, we could see the flowing, bubbling stream known as the Mill Creek Zanja, which gave life and freshness to everything in its course, bordered by stately trees and under-brush of green.
During those early development days, residents of Redlands utilized Zanja water for many crops including corn, wheat, pumpkins, squash, vineyards, cattle farms, and citrus groves.
Water today is diverted above Mentone and carried through underground pipes into the Redlands valley. To read more about the history of the Mill Creek Zanja, visit the Heritage Room at A.K. Smiley Public Library.
Published U.S. Legacies January 2006
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