Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Clair Engle Collection
Dates: 1933-1979.
Collection Number: MSS 177
Creator/Collector:
Engle, Clair, 1911-1964.
Extent: 226 boxes, 116 linear feet.
Repository:
California State University, Chico
Chico, California 95929-0295
Abstract: This collection spans the political career of Clair Engle from 1933 - 1964 with additions through 1979, topics include: Legislative
Files, Legislative Correspondence, General Files, Mining, Congressional Records, Speeches, Statements, Broadcasts, Guest Books,
Press Releases, Invitations, Tapes, Campaign Materials, Voting Records, Newspaper Clippings, Photographs and Artifacts.
Language of Material: English
Collection is open for research.
The library can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claimants of literary
property.
Clair Engle Collection. California State University, Chico
Tehama County Library 1985 and California State Archives 1990.
Biography/Administrative History
Clair Walter William Engle was born on September 21, 1911 in Bakersfield, California. He was the second of three sons to Fred
J. Engle and Carita Alta Keeran Engle. He attended Chico State Teachers College at age 16, graduating in 1930 and went on
to Hastings College of Law, University of California graduating in 1933. The following year he was elected District Attorney
of Tehama County. Then in 1942 he was elected to the California State Senate, in 1943 elected to the United States House of
Representatives, and in 1958 elected to the United States Senate. He lived in Red Bluff, California for 51 years. He married
Hazel Burney Sheldon in 1933; they had one child Yvonne Lorraine on October 17, 1933. After divorcing Hazel in the late 1940s,
he married Lucretia Caldwell in 1948. He held several posts and committees held while Congressman and Senator. As a Congressman:
Assistant Democratic Whip in the House from the 80th-84th Congress, Member of Veterans Affairs Committee, Chairman of the
Committee on War Claims, Chairman of the Public Lands Subcommittee, Chairman of the Irrigation and Reclamation Subcommittee,
Chairman of the Interior and Insular Affairs Committee. As Senator: Democratic Legislative Review Committee; Armed Services
Committee and its Military Construction Subcommittee and National Stockpile & Naval Petroleum Reserves Subcommittee; Commerce
Committee and its Aviation Subcommittee and Merchant Maine & Fisheries Subcommittee; Select Committee on Small Business and
its Monopoly Subcommittee and Financing Subcommittee; Special Committee on Aging. His major legislative contribution is the
Central Valley Water project. He authored a two-volume publication entitled “Central Valley Project Documents.” He author
or co-author of 104 bills that were signed into law. He served active duty on assignment in Korea in 1952, holding the rank
of Air Force Reserve Colonel. He was a licensed pilot enabling him to cover his congressional district which spanned 53,000
miles stretching from Oregon to the Mojave Desert. After suffering from a brain tumor he died July 30, 1964 at the age of
52, and is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Red Bluff, California.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection consists of the legislative and subject files from Clair Engle's office when he was a Congressman and United
States Senator from California. Also included in the collection are campaign material, press releases, photographs, films,
tapes, and awards.
Clair Engle, as representative and senator from a district in northern California that included the Sacramento Valley, and
the Sierra Nevada Mountains, was deeply concerned with the water problems of the area. His correspondence, studies, and legislation
deal with conservation and utilization of water resources including, flood protection, irrigation, electric power, desalination
of salt water, river and harbor development, and reclamation projects. He was the author of the legislation that created the
Central Valley Project, the Saline Water Act of 1952 and the Reclamation Project Act of 1939.
Other topics covered in the collection include mining resources and development, timber industry, Indian land, and federal
land management. Subjects of national interest include statehood for Alaska and Hawaii, the Air Force, the Forest Service
and the Bureau of Land Management.
Legislators--United States--Congresses.
Political campaigns--California.
Agriculture.
Armed Forces--Political activity--Congresses.
Civil rights.
Commerce--Congresses.
Elections--California.
Electricity.
Forests and forestry.
Gold mines and mining.
Lumbering--California.
Mines and mineral resources.
Veterans--California.
Roads--California.
Navigation--California.
Public lands--United States--Government policy--Congresses.
Reclamation of land--California.
Engle, Lucretia.
Hagen, Harlan, 1914-1990.
McFall, John J.
Sisk, Bernie.
Central Valley Water Project (Calif.)
Senators--United States--Biography.
United States--Politics and government--20th century.
California--Politics and government.
Congressional records.