Housing and Development Newsletter
But all those “plans” changed in 1953 when the dam was completed downstream ranchers found they had been lied to, and the river stopped flowing. Since 1953, the riverbed is dry for several months of the year.
And all those steelhead that once filled the river, they are almost completely gone. A few remain in deep pools near the base of the dam in Hilton Creek, and all fishing in the river has been forbidden for several years by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
But Hilton Creek is several miles upstream from the Lompoc Airport, where the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission plans to put its monitoring device. And the effectiveness of the device itself should raise your eyebrows.