EASTERN CANAL South Side of Salt River Mesa Vicinity Maricopa

5 i EASTERN CANAL HAER AZ-56 South side of Salt River AZ-56 Mesa vicinity Maricopa County Arizona PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA FIELD RECORDS HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD INTERMOUNTAIN REGIONAL OFFICE National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior 12795 West Alameda Parkway Denver, CO 80228 HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD EASTERN CANAL Location: On the south side of the Salt River, extending through the City of Mesa and Town of Gilbert in Maricopa County, Arizona. USGS Mesa and Gila Butte Quadrangles Universal Transverse Mercator Coordinates: Head: 427,708.5342E- 3,703,121.3135N Foot: 426,245.1880E- 3,675,675.1940N Dates of Construction: March-December 1909. Engineer: U.S. Reclamation Service. Present Owner: U.S. Government, operated by Salt River Project (SRP), Phoenix, Arizona. Present Use: The Eastern Canal carries water for agricultural, industrial, and municipal uses in the southeast portion of the Salt River Project. Significance: The Eastern Canal expanded the irrigable acreage of the Salt River Project and currently supplies water for the Roosevelt Water Conservation District (RWCD). It was the first SRP canal constructed by local landowners under the cooperative plan. Historian: Marc C. Campbell SRP Research Archives EASTERN CANAL HAER No. AZ-56 (Page 2) Table of Contents Introduction 3 Early Irrigation in the Salt River Valley 3 The Highland Canal 5 Federal Reclamation and the Highland Canal 6 Building a Reincarnated Highland: The Eastern Canal 11 Enlarging the Eastern 15 The Contract with Roosevelt Water Conservation District 17 The Civilian Conservation Corps 21 Rehabilitation and Betterment (R&B) 21 The Eastern to the Present 23 Bibliography 26 Maps 29 EASTERN CANAL HAER No. AZ-56 (Page 3) Introduction On August 22, 1870, four men departed Prescott, Arizona on a 150-mile trip south to the Salt River Valley near Phoenix. The men, including Arizona territorial Governor Anson P. K. Safford and local liquor dealer C.A. Luke, represented an upstart irrigation company, and they traveled to the area in search of a promising canal location. After a brief stop at Jack Swilling' s ranch-the individual who helped organize the first modem canal company in Phoenix-where they rested and changed to a lighter wagon than the one they arrived in, the four representatives proceeded to a site just south of the Salt River. There, "at a point almost five miles above the crossing of the McDowell and Florence roads ... and opposite a red mountain on the south side of [the] river," they claimed forty thousand miner's inches of water to be used for irrigation purposes. Although the project never progressed much beyond the initial ambition of its planners, the general area selected as head of the Salt River Ditch Company ultimately became an important part of Arizona's built environment. In time, as more irrigation cooperatives formed and federal reclamation efforts focused on the desert southwest, the land near the red mountain came to house both the Highland Canal and its eventual replacement-the Eastern Canal. 1 The Eastern Canal-so-called because of its geographic location-sits at the eastern edge of the Salt River Project (SRP) in central Arizona (see Map 1). Originating near Lindsay and McDowell roads in northeast Mesa, the Eastern today stretches 14.65 miles south from its head in the South Canal. Built between March and December 1909, the canal provides irrigation water for lands lying between it and the Consolidated Canal to the west, and it also serves as a vital source of domestic water for the Town of Gilbert. The canal has been modified several times over the years, altering its length, dimensions, and course. Despite these changes, it remains an integral structure in the water delivery system of the Salt River Valley. This report chronicles the history of the Eastern, including its construction, operation, and maintenance, from inception to the present. 2 Early Irrigation in the Salt River Valley The Salt River Valley in central Arizona has a long and rich history of water engineering. As early as 300 A.D. the area's first known inhabitants, the Hohokam Indians, began to lay the foundation for an intricate and extensive canal system. As agriculturists, the Hohokam (a Pima word which means "those who have vanished") recognized the importance and necessity of irrigation for successful farming-particularly given the light annual rainfall in central Arizona-and turned to harnessing the Salt River to nurture their fields. Using manual labor aided only by simple stone and wooden tools, the Hohokam built and maintained canals up to 30 feet wide and 15 feet deep. At the height of their settlement, from 1200 to 1400 A.D., between 250 and 500 miles of ditches 1Earl Zarbin, Two Sides ofthe River: Salt River Valley Canals, 1867-1902 (Phoenix: Salt River Project, 1997), 24- 5; Miner, August 27, 1870. The Salt River Ditch Company was a different enterprise than the Salt River Canal Company. All materials cited in this report are located at SRP Research Archives. 2Salt River Project, "SRP Canals," 7. EASTERN CANAL HAER No. AZ-56 (Page 4) radiated throughout the valley serving as many as 50,000 people (see Map 2). Although the Hohokam mysteriously left the area by approximately 1450 AD., their canals proved to be a durable and lasting feature of the landscape. 3 Following the departure of the Hohokam, irrigation practices in the Salt River Valley declined over the next four centuries. Bands of Apache Indians and other native groups used and lived in the area, to be sure, but their impact on the land remained minimal. For the Apache, the territory served primarily as tribal hunting and raiding grounds, and while Pima (Akimel 0 'odham) and Maricopa Indians (Pipakves) cultivated crops of pumpkin, melon, and cotton, among other produce, the extent of their farming did not match that of the Hohokam. Even when Spanish explorers, Mexican settlers, and American traders entered the region in the years leading up to 1850, searching primarily for mineral wealth and animal pelts and skins, these visitors left little permanent development to mark their presence, and they did not attempt any large-scale farming activities. For four hundred years, Hohokam canals in the Salt River Valley lay in disuse, collecting silt and becoming overgrown with shrubs and bushes. 4 Agriculture and irrigation received new impetus in Phoenix in the second half of the nineteenth century. Following the Civil War, the area received an influx of American settlers as national interest turned toward the southwest. In 1865, the U.S. Army established Camp McDowell at the eastern end of the Valley ostensibly to protect American homesteaders and discourage local Apache raids. The presence of the military not only helped stabilize the area, it also created a growing demand for hay and grain that local farmers moved to fill. Like the Hohokam, these new residents soon began to dig ditches and construct simple dams of brush and rock to water their farms. 5 Jack Swilling, an ex-Confederate wagonmaster, became the first individual to recognize and act upon the potential of the abandoned Indian canals. In 1868, Swilling, along with twelve men and $10,000 in capital dredged the "community ditch" (later Swilling's Ditch) along the north bank of the Salt River, approximately eight miles southeast of present-day Phoenix. To manage operation of the canal, Swilling and the other farmers organized a cooperative association-the Swilling Irrigating Canal Company-that established a set of formal rights and obligations among those contributing to the ditch's construction and maintenance. An individual's share in the irrigation community and, with it, the amount of work or capital they were expected to invest in maintaining the canal, was generally determined by the proportionate part of their land served by the ditch. 3H.M. Wormington, Prehistoric Indians ofthe Southwest (Denver: Denver Museum of Natural History, 1956), 118-125; Jay J. Wagoner, Early Arizona: Prehistory to Civil War (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1975), 21; "SRP Canals," 3. 4Wagoner, Early Arizona, 36; Kenneth M. Stewart, "Mohave," in Alfonso Ortiz, ed., Handbook ofNorth American Indians: Southwest, Volume 10 (Washington: Smithsonian Institution, 1983), 72, 134; Thomas Edwin Farish, History ofArizona, Vol. 2 (San Francisco: The Filmer Brothers Electrotype Company, 1915), 29. 5 Alfred J. McClatchie, Utilizing Our Water Supply, University of Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station Bulletin No. 43 (Tucson: University of Arizona, 1902), 75. EASTERN CANAL HAER No. AZ-56 (Page 5) Those with more acres receiving water not only held more shares, they also had to contribute more in either cash or labor to keep the enterprise going. 6 Following the success of Swilling's venture, other irrigation cooperatives and corporate associations soon began to form. In the 1870s and early 1880s, a number of organizations planned new canals on both sides of the river patterned after the community ditch. Although some, such as the Salt River Ditch Company, failed to progress beyond initial development stages, many others reached completion. Gradually, but steadily, the agricultural infrastructure of the Salt River Valley began to be rebuilt, increasing the amount of acreage under cultivation and transforming the landscape. Fields of alfalfa, clover and grain, as well as newly introduced orchards of peach, apricot, and citrus trees thrived with the artificial application of water, replacing native plants and vegetation. As word spread around the country of central Arizona's rich farmland, more settlers moved to the region to build homes and work the land. The Salt River Valley had been launched on its modem trajectory toward becoming a major agricultural and population center. 7 The Highland Canal With increased population growth and higher demand on irrigation systems in the 1880s, water development became a profit-oriented enterprise.

Load more