Backbencher

Turning on Water with a Shovel is a biography about Elwood Mead and his career as a irrigation engineer. Mr. Mead’s fifty-year career took him all over the world as a consultant for irrigation projects and creating “model communities”; places like, the United States, Australia, Israel, and Italy. One of Mead’s greatest accomplishments was Lake Mead (reservoir) is created by the magnificent Boulder Dam on the Colorado River. Mr. Mead was a model engineer whose principal concern was public welfare, where he “attempted to secure the betterment of society by combing the best from the past with the hopes of the future.”

Mead was born January 16, 1858 in Indiana of a farming couple on the Ohio River. As a child mead adored the outdoors and enjoyed reading his grandfathers books. Mead worked his way through Purdue University and in 1882 graduated and marred Florence Chase. His early work involved agricultural experiments and teaching, but increasing political regulations on appropriating water caught his interest. Mead followed his mentor to Colorado and learned about large scale irrigation. He then devoted his life to “the study of the physical, human and legal problems of turning on water with a shovel”.

Mead spent nearly 10 years in Wyoming and his wife died. He moved to D.C. and spent time working in the Agricultural Department and re-married. Mead then spent 8 years in Victoria, Australia even though he had only planned on spending 6 months. He liked how the Australian government was so interested in public welfare. After returning to the U.S. he became an integral leader in the reclamation of land. He concluded his career with creating the model community, Boulder City, and Boulder Dam.

The book was a very nice biography on Meads career. It was real easy to read because it didn’t get too in-depth on every little detail, it just coved the important highlights of his life. It could have easily been a 400 page book but it was summarized very nicely. I liked it a lot because I am going to be graduating as an engineer in 2 weeks and this was about a model engineer who strived to make life better. A nice inspiration to become an amazing engineer who affects peoples lives around the world, and to make public welfare a priority.