This article discusses federal and state cooperation in the development of water resources in California. The article discusses past projects that integrated land and water for the benefit of the population, and that reveal a pattern for future enterprises. The projects discussed include: the Klamath Project, a 1905 Bureau of Reclamation project in northern California; the 1935 Central Valley Project that readjusted the inequitable distribution of water within California's Central Valley; and, the Colorado River development projects that included the Boulder Canyon Project with the All‐American Canal System, Parker Dam, the Colorado River Aqueduct, the San Diego Aqueduct, and the Palo Verde Diversion Dam.