called "Lexington" (after Lexington, Kentucky, due to the fact that so many people had arrived from that region). However, most areas required irrigation with either surface or well water to make agriculture a possibility. In 1888 the state of California reported that about in the valley were "wet ... and not generally requiring irrigation", while were "highly cultivable and productive lands, but requiring irrigation, at least for some crops." Flowing through bedrock canyons and fed by winter rain and snow, the East and West Forks of the San Gabriel River carry water all year long. Even in the driest summers the San Gabriel flowed all the way to the mouth of San Gabriel Canyon near present-day Azusa, where it percolated into the San Gabriel Valley aquifer. Thus, most of the surface water diversions were taken either directly at the mouth of San Gabriel Canyon, or further down near the Whittier Narrows where groundwater rose to the surface once more. In order to supply water during the dry season when surface flows fell to a trickle, a tunnel nearly long was extended under the river bed to tap the shallow aquifer and supply the Azusa, Duarte and Beardslee ditches. In 1890, some of the irrigation companies operating on the upper San Gabriel River included the Duarte Mutual Irrigation and Canal Company, the Vineland Irrigation District and the East Whittier Land and Water Company. Irrigation soon consumed the entire surface flow of the river below San Gabriel Canyon. As early as 1854 the entire upper San Gabriel River was appropriated, with the Azusa farmers (east of the San Gabriel River) claiming up to two-thirds of the flow and the remaining one-third going to the Duarte farmers, west of the San Gabriel River. Farmers also appropriated essentially all the water emerging from the springs at Whittier Narrows, drying up the river below that point. In 1907 it was reported that the San Gabriel River irrigated some of "the most highly productive citrus regions of Southern California." The Teague Grove in San Dimas, not far from the San Gabriel River, was once one of the largest citrus groves in the world with some 250,000 trees. Conflict over San Gabriel River water reached a head in the 1880s, when such intense litigation occurred it was called the "Battle of San Gabriel River." This led to the creation of the San Gabriel River Water Committee (Committee