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From its beginnings in the suburbs of the San Fernando Valley to its mouth at the Pacific Ocean, the Los Angeles River is made almost entirely of concrete. Chain-link fence and barbed wire line its course. Graffiti marks its banks. Discarded sofas, shopping trolleys and litter line its channel. Little water flows in the river most of the year. According to the author of this text, this image belies the river's eventful history and its importance to the development of Southern California. Three centuries ago, he explains, the river meandered through marshes and forests of willow and sycamore. Trout spawned in its waters and grizzly bears roamed its shores. The river and adjacent woodlands helped support one of the largest concentrations of Indians in North America. It also largely determined the location of the city of Los Angeles. The river was the city's sole source of water for more than a century, providing drinking water and irrigating its vineyards and orange groves. At the heart of Gumprecht's story are the dramatic changes brought by the flood control projects that have made the Los Angeles River what it is today. The river was prone to flooding and repeated catastrophic floods in the 19th and 20th centuries led to the creation of a regional flood control programme. Gumprecht describes the complex and controversial process by which the river was straightened, deepened and widened, and its new channel lined with concrete. Though flood control turned the river into an eyesore, large parts of Los Angeles could not have been developed if its nature had not been controlled. He argues, moreover, that public perceptions of the river helped doom it to a concrete coffin.