History Buffs’ Find May Threaten Plan for Site

An irrigation ditch believed to have been dug in 1781, when Los Angeles was founded, has been discovered in Chinatown by two amateur archeologists on the site of a $40-million project to turn an abandoned railroad yard into an industrial park.

Environmentalists say the discovery of a five-foot portion of the Zanja Madre irrigation system is historically significant because it carried water to the infant El Pueblo de la Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles. The discovery could provide ammunition to opponents of the project, who are trying to scale it down. The ditch was unearthed in February by Craig Howell and Melody Carver, two history buffs who acquaintances say like to dig things up. News of the discovery--on a hilly slope next to North Broadway--is only coming to light now because, Howell said: “We didn’t know how to deal with people walking through the place.”

Advocates of river-related preservation talked about the discovery Wednesday.

“It’s a crucial piece of L.A. history,” said Lewis MacAdams, chairman of the board of the Friends of the Los Angeles River.

“It’s part of our history,” said Chinatown activist Chi Mui, who took some time out of his day Wednesday to snap some personal photos of the double-layered brick dome that covered the ditch. “We saw it. We felt it.”

The Zanja Madre system ran from the Los Angeles River for more than a mile to the pueblo’s plaza, where the Olvera Street marketplace is now. Residents not only got their drinking water from the ditch, but the surrounding vineyards and farmland were irrigated by its water.

The site, where the discovery was made, is referred to by many as the Cornfield--a nod to the past, when the parcel produced tons of corn.

Originally, historians say, a three-foot ditch was dug from the river through the area. Eventually, the ditch was reinforced and covered in the 1880s with bricks.

The ditch was in use until the aqueduct that brought Owens Valley water to Los Angeles opened in 1913.

It was forgotten and covered up when the land became a Union Pacific rail yard. Today, the Cornfield, north of City Hall between Broadway and North Spring Street, is deserted and covered with old steel, dirt and pavement.

The 50-acre Cornfield has been the subject of controversy because of a plan by Majestic Realty Co., the city’s largest development company, to create an industrial park that would provide room for manufacturing businesses and provide as many as 1,000 jobs. The industrial park would cover 43 acres. An additional eight-acre parcel--where the ditch was discovered--is earmarked for open space parkland and other community uses.

Opponents such as MacAdams favor a more environmentally oriented approach with more green space, affordable housing, a swimming pool and a large lake.

Tensions over the Cornfield have been escalating since Majestic’s plan received Mayor Richard Riordan’s support.

MacAdams said Wednesday that he would take up the ditch’s discovery next week with the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission in hopes of earning landmark status for it. That, he said, could slow down Majestic’s project.

“This clearly complicates matters for Majestic,” MacAdams said.

Not so, retorted John Semcken, a Majestic vice president who accused MacAdams of using the discovery as a delaying tactic to derail the project. “We’ve known about the Zanja Madre all along,” he said. “We studied it. We knew it was there.” But Semcken had never seen the ditch.

He said MacAdams and other opponents didn’t approve of Majestic’s plan to commemorate the Zanja Madre’s existence in the area with a memorial.

In addition, Semcken said, planners for the Blue Line project were aware of the ditch and that hasn’t slowed that work.

The top official in the mayor’s Office of Economic Development, Deputy Mayor Rocky Delgadillo, said the mayor continued to support the Majestic project and would favor “appropriate” measures for historic items found in the Cornfield.

Far from the argument Wednesday was Howell, 53, a self-described “history slug” who revels in looking for overlooked parts of Los Angeles history like old relics that tell of the development of area utility companies. Reached by telephone, he talked about how he and Carver, a nurse by night and history sleuth by day, made the discovery.

“I had these hunches [about the Zanja Madre]. They keep telling me, ‘Keep walking, keep walking.’ I knew that there was a ditch there. We had an old map with references to the Zanja Madre.

“The sun broke through the clouds and I saw four bricks [in a curve]. I started digging, and then I said, ‘Uh-oh, there it was.’ ”

Howell called the discovery the most important of his many years of digging and searching, but added in an off-handed manner, “I don’t look for ancient ruins. I look for old stuff.”