Nearly every morning at dawn for the past 34 years I have walked our dogs on a route that takes us across the San Dieguito River and along a dirt track that parallels a swath of wild scrub brush that is home to rabbits, coyotes, rattlesnakes, and in the old days, scooting coveys of California quail.

Planted at intervals along this stretch of no man’s land are four concrete cylinders, or what’s left of them, the tallest remaining standing about 18 ft. high. Never gave them much thought, but they are rather curious relics having once belonged to a massive network of irrigation pipelines feeding thousands of acres of lima beans in our river valley, long before golf courses and housing developments.

These standpipes, as they are known, were situated on slightly higher ground and filled with water from a well two miles up valley, not the river as I had previously thought, The flow of water could be regulated using only gravity to irrigate the fields below. Some standpipes served as air vents while others were outfitted with a butterfly-like control valve operated by a wheel located in the opening at the top. I plan on sharing this information with the dogs in the morning.