Salt River Project

SALT RIVER PROJECT First Project Organized Under The Reclamation Act of 1902 MAJOR FACTS IN BRIEF DAMS ON THE SALT RIVER HORSE MESA MORMON FLAT STEWART MT. SALT RIVER PROJECT A UNITED STATES RECLAMATION PROJECT OPERATED BY SALT RIVER PROJECT AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENT AND POWER DISTRICT AND SALT RIVER VALLEY WATER USERS' ASSOCIATION District and Association Victor I. Corbell, President Bert M. Pringle, Vice President S. G. Bazzill, Treasurer R. J. McMullin, General Manager District A. L. Monette, Secretary Association J. F. Griswold, Secretary Nov. 1, 1958 J. F. G. ROOSEVELT DAM ON THE SALT RIVER HIGHEST MASONRY DAM IN THE WORLD, CONSTRUCTED ALMOST HALF A CENTURY AGO TO IMPOUND FLOOD WATERS FOR USE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR ON SEMI- ARID LAND EIGHTY MILES AWAY. IT WAS DEDICATED IN 1911 BY PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT. -2- SALT RIVER VALLEY PREHISTORIC IRRIGATION - 200 B. C. Irrigation in the Salt River Valley is not new. It was not new when the first white man promoted irrigation prior to 1869 -- and dreamed of a future in the mesquite and creosote covered Valley, now thriving with its cities, suburban homes, agricultural communities, industry, and tourists. Before London and Paris had their first mud huts the ancient Hoho- kam of 200 B.C. were diverting waters from the Salt River through 125 miles of hand dug canals to their corn and cotton fields. The shadowy tracings of these canals over the Valley floor follow practically the same pattern adopted by the Water Users' engineers with their precision survey- ing instruments of today. That nation of ambitious and courageous people known as the Hoho- kam were the original engineers and indeed performed miraculous feats with their stone axe and stone hoe. Dr. Omar A. Turney, past state his- torian and archaeologist, states in his writings as late as 1924 that "a larger rural population tilled the fields of this valley before the Christian Era than farms its lands today." Through climatic change, channel eros- ion and the lack of water storage facilities the great Canal Builders who created an empire with a piece of stone held in the fingers were compel- led to relinquish their dominion and abandon all. To them also this land must have been known as the Valley of the Sun as evidenced by the re- mains of their many Shrines and Sun Temples scattered throughout the valley. This was the greatest irrigation achievement of ancient man in America and possibly in the world. IRRIGATION RESUMED PRIOR TO THE WHITE MAN Adjacent to the Salt River Project on the north, east and south the colorful American Indian may be found irrigating his corn, cotton and other crops from waters of the Salt and Verde Rivers by virtue of his prior appropriation which was not molested but protected for him by the white man and the water delivery service greatly improved. The Mohave Apache lives on the Fort McDowell Reservation to the northeast, Pima and Maricopa Indians on the Salt River Reservation to the east and Maricopa Indians on the Gila Reservation to the south. These reservations cover many thousands of acres but the irrigated lands consisted of only 4,713 acres which mostly lie along and close to the Salt and Verde Rivers. Their canals were short and their lands level; therefore, they got into no engineering problems as did the ancient Hoho- kam. These friendly Indians are still irrigating the same lands as they were found to be farming by the first white settlers. Their use of water was increased by 20,000 acre feet per year with the construction of Bart- lett Dam on the Verde River in 1939. -3- . •• • , ./4.r.44 MONUMENT MAP OF PREHISTORIC IRRIGATION CANALS DR. OMAR A.TURNEY ERGS. PHOENIX .ARIZONA SCALE t It Copy/79h/ /921. LS A/oomph/el occom A// rigfils reserveo! Ikrle of' map, o6o -4- SALT RIVER PROJECT HISTORIC EVENTS OF MODERN IRRIGATION AND ELECTRIC POWER With the coming of the white man appropriations of Salt River waters were made from time to time for the thirsty land in the large fertile area surrounding Phoenix and adjacent cities. It is well known that the water supply in the Salt River Valley in the absence of storage facilities, is not sufficient for extensive cultivation of crops. In 1869 a few of the settlers constructed a ditch on the northside of the Salt River and diverted its flow upon some of the land east of the present site of Phoenix. The owners of the ditch were associated to- gether, but without any particular formality. They had no particular rules for their government or the definition of their rights among themselves. There were few settlers in the Valley at that time. The available water was sufficient for their needs. Each of the farmers contributed to the construction and maintenance of the ditch and participated in its benefits in proportion to his respective share in the ditch. As time went on and a greater number of settlers moved to the Valley other canal companies were formed. Some of these were corporations, while others were merely informal associations of farmers. CONFLICTS AROSE To attempt to set forth with any detail the history of the various canal companies would unduly lengthen this memorandum. It is sufficient to say that it was not long before confusion and conflict arose. There were disputes as to priority of appropriations. The waters diverted into the various canals were not always equitably distributed. Such diversion dams as were erected from time to time were tem- porary rock and brush devices which washed out annually at times of heavy rain. There were no facilities to conserve water in storage, so that a large percentage of the flood waters inevitably flowed to waste without any beneficial use being made of them. In 1902 when the first Reclamation Act was adopted by the United States Government, the inhabitants of the Salt River Valley immediately made known their desire to obtain the legal benefits. They wished to eliminate the inextricable confusion, sharp conflicts, constant disputes, vexations, uncertainty and frequent litigation which was then the order of things. Their basic desire was to establish some sort of a system of regulation among themselves to determine in- - 7 - dividual water rights and provide storage of flood waters on che Salt and Verde (tributary of the Salt) rivers so that an adequate supply of water could be assured. With the opening of the West for settlement, the need became apparent for irrigation and reclamation to make productive the newly settled land and land available for settlement. CAPITAL NEEDED It was soon realized that private capital could not be induced to take on the risks involved on a scale necessary to accomplish the ob- jectives to be attained. Prior to the Reclamation Act those organizations which had attempted to go into the irrigation business either had already reclaimed the most readily accessible land or were not generally suc- cessful in their enterprises. It thus became apparent to President Theodore Roosevelt that if any large scale reclamation program was to be developed, it would have to be done by the federal government. With this situation in mind, and by virtue of its control over land owned by it, the United States undertook to establish a federal reclamation program with the act of June 17, 1902. ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED The Association was incorporated under the laws of the Territory of Arizona, Februai y 9, 1903. At that time there were approximately four thousand individual landowners who expected and desired to be benefited by the proposed Salt River Project. (In this connection it may be noted that within a month after the enactment of the Reclamation Act, an ex- amination of the feasibility of the Salt River Project had been undertaken, and surveys and estimates for the construction of Roosevelt Dam were being made.) At the time the Salt River Project was undertaken nearly all the de- sirable land in the Salt River Valley was in private ownership. Conse- quently the government was faced with a peculiar problem in dealing with the various landowners. Furthermore, practically all of the landowners then in the Valley had appropriated water from the Salt River. Under the Reclamation Act the United States government had no power whatever to interfere with the rights of the appropriators. -8- REASONS FOR ORGANIZING It may therefore be concluded that the basic and underlying reasons for the formation of the Association were these: (a) To establish, both for the benefit of the United States Govern- ment and the water users themselves, a central organization which could represent the individual water users in dealings with the Secretary of the Interior. (b) To establish and maintain a central organization which could be in a position to guarantee payment of the construction costs of the Project to the government and to enforce collection of each installment of the construction costs from the individual landowners. (c) To establish a central organization which could assume at a future date the responsibility for operation and management of the irrigation works, and distribution of water to the landowners in accordance with their rights. (d) To insure that the right to waters stored by Roosevelt Dam would be equally available to all participants in the Association. (e) To insure that the cost of construction would be distributed equally among the members of the Association and that assessments should likewise be equitably distributed, notwithstanding use or nonuse of water. AGREEMENT SIGNED Negotiations were commenced between the Association and the In- terior Department for a basic agreement covering the proposed Salt River Project.

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