INVENTORY OF THE THORNE B. GRAY COLLECTION, 1887-1989, (BULK 1966-1982)

Lola Aguilar
Department of Special Collections
General Library
University of California, Davis
100 North West Quad
Davis, CA 95616-5292
Phone: (530) 752-1621
Fax: (530) 754-5758
Email: speccoll@lib.ucdavis.edu
May 2004 ©2004
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

Note


INVENTORY OF THE THORNE B. GRAY COLLECTION, 1887-1989, (BULK 1966-1982)

D-310

Department of Special Collections

General Library

University of California, Davis

Davis, California

Contact Information:

  • Department of Special Collections
  • General Library
  • 100 North West Quad
  • University of California, Davis
  • Davis, CA 95616-5292
  • Phone: (530) 752-1621
  • Fax: (530) 754-5758
  • Email: speccoll@lib.ucdavis.edu
Processed by:
Lola Aguilar
Encoded by:
Melissa Tyler
Date completed:
May 2004
©2004 The Regents of the University of California

Descriptive Summary

Title: The Thorne B. Gray Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1887-1989
Date (bulk): (bulk 1966-1982)
Collection number: D-310
Collector: Gray, Thorne B.
Extent: 16 linear feet
Repository: University of California, Davis. General Library. Dept. of Special Collections.
100 North West Quad
Davis, California, 95616-5292
Abstract: Thorne B. Gray (1937-1993) worked as a journalist for the Modesto Bee from 1966 to 1982, where he covered city and county government with an emphasis on Central Valley water issues, land use, and natural conservation. He reported on the campaigns to preserve the Stanislaus and Tuolumne Rivers in the 1970s and the construction and filling of the New Melones Dam.
Physical location: Researchers should contact Special Collections to request collections, as many are stored offsite.
Language: English.

Administrative Information

Access

Collection is open for research under regular Reading Room rules and copyright restrictions.

Publication Rights

Copyright is protected by the copyright law, chapter 17 of the U.S. Code. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections, General Library, University of California, Davis as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Thorne B. Gray Collection, D-310, Department of Special Collections, University of California, Davis, California.

Acquisition Information

In 1990, Thorne B. Gray donated this collection to the Library.

Processing Information

Lola Aguilar processed this collection and created its finding aid. Melissa Tyler encoded the finding aid.

Biography

Biographical Narrative

Thorne B. Gray (1937-1993), journalist, was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan and grew up in Los Angeles, California. After graduating from Cornell University in 1960, he joined the U.S. Army serving with the U.N. Command in Korea, where he was a reporter for the Pacific Stars and Stripes. After leaving the Army in 1963, he attended Northwestern University in Illinois and received a master's degree in journalism in 1965.
Gray returned to California where he worked for the San Diego Evening Tribune and the Alhambra Post-Advocate before joining the Modesto Bee in Fresno in 1966. During his seventeen years at the Bee, Gray covered city and county government with an emphasis on California water issues, land use, and natural resources conservation. He reported extensively on the campaigns to preserve the Stanislaus and Tuolumne Rivers in the 1970s and the construction and filling of the New Melones Dam.
Gray wrote Quest for Deep Gold (1973), On this Land (1983), and The Stanislaus Indian Wars (1993), and co-authored California Political Almanac, The Tuolumne River, a 1970 Sierra Club report, as well as contributing to the Knights Ferry Handbook. He also served as editor of the Stanislaus County Historical Society quarterly journal, the Stanislaus Stepping Stones, for seven years. Gray was on the board of Central California Educational Television (KVIE-Channel 6) for three years and taught journalism at Stanislaus State University.
In 1982 Gray left the Modesto Bee and joined the Sacramento Bee's Capitol Bureau in 1983, reporting on the state budget. In October 1983, he took early retirement as a senior writer.
Sources:
Kane, William D. "Thorne Gray Dies at 55, Veteran Newsman, River Enthusiast, Region Historian," Modesto Bee, 21 April 1993, sec. B, p. 3.

Scope and Content of Collection

The Thorne B. Gray Collection is arranged in seven subject series organized by his original approach: 1. Auburn-Folsom South Unit, 2. Central Valley Project, 3. South Delta, 4. New Melones Dam, 5. Modesto and Turlock Irrigation District, 6. New Don Pedro Dam, and 7. Hetch Hetchy Dam. The collection consists of an investigative reporter's reference files and publications on Central Valley water issues. Items span the years 1887 to 1989, but the bulk of the collection dates from 1966 to 1982. The collection includes city, county, state, and federal agency reports, correspondence, and press releases, as well as local and state newspaper clippings and magazine articles. Gray filed his notes and clippings from the Modesto Bee under the subject covered. The collection does not contain information relating to Gray's books.

Related Collections

Other materials related to the Thorne B. Gray Collection may be found in the following collections at Special Collections:
D-348: Hagan, Robert M. Papers
D-229: Prokopovich, Nikolai P. Collection

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online access catalog:

Subjects:

Gray, Thorne B.--Archives
Central Valley Project (Calif.). Auburn-Folsom South Unit
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir (Calif.)
Journalists--California--Archives
Don Pedro Reservoir (Calif.)
Modesto Irrigation District (Calif.)
New Melones Lake (Calif.)
Friends of the River Foundation
Friends of New Melones
Dams--California
Wild and scenic rivers--California
Stanislaus River (Calif.)
Tuolumne River (Calif.)
Turlock Irrigation District (Calif.)
Water resources development--California


Box 1, Box 2:1-3

Series 1.  Auburn-Folsom South Unit, 1974-1982.

Physical Description: 6 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior publications, remarks by Michael A. Catino, Regional Director Mid-Pacific Region, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and a publication and clarifying order from the State Water Resources Control Board.
Box 2:4-8, Box 3, Box 4, Box 5:1-13

Series 2.  Central Valley Project, 1965-1987.

Physical Description: 35 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior correspondence, memoranda, newsletters, reports, and the State of California: The Resources Agency publications.
Box 5:14, Box 6, Box 7:1-7, Legal Size Box 38:1

Series 3.  South Delta, 1969-1982.

Physical Description: 20 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence, memoranda, press releases, newsletters, clippings, reports, and publications from the Water and Power Resources Service and the South Delta Water Agency, the U.S. Army Engineer District, Sacramento, California, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Western Area Power Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, the State of California: The Resources Agency, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior, and the State Water Resources Control Board.
 

Series 4.  New Melones Dam, 1887-1989.

Physical Description: 263 folders

Scope and Content Note

Divided into seventeen subseries: Reference Reports, Water Rights Decision 1422, Correspondence [additional correspondence included in other subseries], Early History, Environmental Impact, Archaeology, Clippings [additional clippings included in other subseries], Environmental Defense Fund, Proposition 17, Behr Bill, SB 1482, Water and Energy Needs, Friends of the River, Friends of New Melones, Filling the New Melones Reservoir, HR 4223, Wild and Scenic River Initiative, State Water Resources Control Board, and Proposition 13, Water Resources Initiative.
Box 7:8-9, Box 8, Box 9, Box 10, Box 11, Box 12, Box 13, Box 14, Box 15, Box 16:1-5

Subseries 4.1.  New Melones, Reference Reports, 1957-1987.

Physical Description: 65 folders

Scope and Content Note

Includes publications and reports plus enclosures from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Stanislaus County agencies, State Water Resources Control Board, Friends of the River, Department of the Army, The Resources Agency, U.S. Department of Energy, and the University of California, Davis.
Box 16:6-7

Subseries 4.2.  New Melones, Water Rights Decision 1422, 1971-1973.

Physical Description: 2 folders

Scope and Content Note

Includes the State Water Resources Control Board Proposed Decision, correspondence, notes, memoranda, press releases, bulletins, and clippings.
Box 16:8-9

Subseries 4.3.  New Melones, Correspondence, 1967, 1976-1977.

Physical Description: 2 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence [not exclusively], press releases, reports, and clippings.
Box 17:1-2

Subseries 4.4.  New Melones, Early History, 1960-1972

Physical Description: 2 folders

Scope and Content Note

Includes fact sheets, correspondence, press releases, newsletters, proposals, and clippings.
Box 17:3-9, Box 18:1-6

Subseries 4.5.  New Melones, Environmental Impact, 1969-1981.

Physical Description: 12 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence, memoranda, notes, statements, reports, studies, press releases, bulletins, and clippings.
Box 18:7-12, Box 19, Box 20:1-5

Subseries 4.6.  New Melones, Archaeology, 1962-1985.

Physical Description: 29 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains reports, proposals, correspondence, notes, newsletters, pamphlets, contact sheet, annual reports, book price lists, and clippings.
Box 20:6-12, Box 21:1-4

Subseries 4.7.  New Melones, Clippings, 1962-1975.

Physical Description: 11 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains clippings [not exclusively], correspondence, reports, agendas, newsletters, press releases, and a photographic print.
Legal Size Box 38:2-10, Legal Size Box 39:1-3

Subseries 4.8.  New Melones, Environmental Defense Fund, 1957-1976.

Physical Description: 12 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains EDF lawsuit court documents, correspondence, notes, press releases, newsletters, reports, and clippings.
Box 21:5-18, Box 22, Box 23, Box 24, Box 25:1-2

Subseries 4.9.  New Melones, Proposition 17-Wild and Scenic Rivers Initiative, 1965-1976.

Physical Description: 42 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence, notes, press releases, reports, voter pamphlets, newsletters, and clippings.
Box 25:3-9

Subseries 4.10.  New Melones, Behr Bill-SB 1482, 1974-1976.

Physical Description: 7 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence, memoranda, notes, press releases, newsletters, a copy of the bill and amendments, analysis of bill, Stanislaus County resolution, statements, and testimonies, reports, and clippings.
Box 26:1-12

Subseries 4.11.  New Melones, Water and Energy Needs, 1961-1989.

Physical Description: 12 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence, notes, press releases, newsletters, reports, maps, clippings, and a photographic print.
Box 26:13-16

Subseries 4.12.  New Melones, Friends of the River, 1974-1982.

Physical Description: 4 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence, memoranda, press releases, a chronology, reports, a speech, clippings, and photographic prints.
Box 27:1-8

Subseries 4.13.  Friends of New Melones, 1974-1979.

Physical Description: 8 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence, memoranda, notes, press releases, newsletters, reports, statements, chronology, and clippings.
Box 27:9-13, Box 28

Subseries 4.14.  Filling New Melones Reservoir, 1974-1982.

Physical Description: 19 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence, memoranda, notes, press releases, notices, newsletters, information sheet, reports, testimonies, statements, a brief and response, pamphlets, publications, clippings, and business cards.
Box 29:1-6

Subseries 4.15. New Melones, HR 4223-Wild and Scenic Rivers Initiative, 1978-1981.

Physical Description: 6 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence, notes, press releases, testimonies, reports, publications, and clippings.
Box 29:7-10, Box 30, Box 31:1-3, Legal Size Box 39:4-6, Legal Size Box 40:1-6

Subseries 4.16.  New Melones, State Water Resources Control Board, 1973-1989.

Physical Description: 27 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence, notes, memoranda, press releases, reports, maps, contracts, publications, court documents, clippings, and a business card.
Box 31:4-7

Subseries 4.17.  New Melones, Proposition 13-Water Resources Initiative, 1952-1982.

Physical Description: 4 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence, notes, press releases, newsletters, a copy of initiative, reports, maps, and clippings.
Box 31:8-24, Box 32:1

Series 5.  Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts, 1965-1978.

Physical Description: 18 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence, annual, and other reports of the Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts.
Box 32:2-5

Series 6.  New Don Pedro Dam, 1964-1973.

Physical Description: 4 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence, a memorandum, press releases, and reports pertaining to the New Don Pedro Project.
 

Series 7.  Hetch Hetchy Dam, 1887-1983.

Physical Description: 64 folders

Scope and Content Note

Divided into four subseries: Public Utilities Commission [PUC] Reports, Clavey-Wards Ferry Project, Tuolumne River, and the Raker Act.
Box 32:6-10, Box 33

Subseries 7.1.  PUC Reports, 1965-1981.

Physical Description: 14 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains annual and other reports, correspondence, and maps.
Box 34:1-6

Subseries 7.2.  Clavey-Wards Ferry Project, 1969-1983.

Physical Description: 6 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains reports, correspondence, newsletters, pamphlets, and maps.
Box 34:7-11, Box 35, Box 36, Box 37:1-2

Subseries 7.3.  Tuolumne River, 1939-1983.

Physical Description: 33 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence, memoranda, notes, testimonies, press releases, reports, publications, pamphlets, court documents, maps, clippings, and business cards.
Box 37:3-11, Legal Size Box 40:7-8

Subseries 7.4.  Raker Act. 1887-1979.

Physical Description: 11 folders

Scope and Content Note

Contains a reporter's notebook, correspondence, memoranda, press releases, reports, meeting minutes, copy of the Raker Act, history and analysis of the Raker Act, court documents, and clippings.