In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there was one surefire way for man to conquer nature in Southern California. Build a dam. With dams, water agencies could control the flow of raging rivers, stockpile emergency water supplies and even create giant lakes out of natural dry (or mildly soggy) basins. But the water that was supposed to be held and controlled sometimes overcame some of these great civil engineering feats. And so, many of the stories of the Los Angeles Basin’s tragedy and triumph can be told through the histories of its dams – those that still exist and those that have been lost to failure.