Berryessa Valley

A cloud drifted over the quiet Berryessa Valley in 1939 when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed the Solano Project for Putah Creek. In 1948 the U.S. Department of the Interior approved the project that created the Berryessa Dam and Lake Berryessa. In 1956, after years of fighting the project, the last residents of Berryessa Valley and the little town of Monticello were reluctantly, sorrowfully, leaving their homes. The photographs in this catalogue chronicle the last year in the valley – the last spring blossoms, the last Memorial Day in the cemetery, the last harvest, the last roundup, and finally the waters of Putah Creek covering the emptied valley.

Author: Pirkle Jones
Publication date: 1994