Arizona weekly citizen., 1889-09-14
CHA COUNTY.
The Report Made to the Irrigation Conmittee--To Hon. Senator Win. SSewert, Chairman, and Senate Committee OF Irrigation and Re- cIamation of Arid Lands.

| supervisors of Glla county, Arizona, and
 instructed to present to your honorable
 body such facts as may be of importance
 in the course of your investigations, and
 relating to said county of Gila, respect
 fully submit the following, to-wiC:
 Upon careful examination of the sub
 ject, what, if any, measures and under
 takings to irrigate and reclaim desert
 lands in Gila county, not embraced in
 the White Mountain Indian Reserya-
 tion, could be submitted, we find that
 not sufficient arid land is lying without
 the reservation as to warrant govern
 ment work. The most of the tillable
 land in Gila county is within the Indian
 reservation in the San Carlos and Gila
 valleys, and has been computed at 200,-
 OGO acres. or 3GO.OO0 for the whole reser- vdtion. portion of which is in Graham county. and kept from the citizens, and
 preserved exclusively for the question 1 able benefit for three or four thousand ] Apache Indians. l The balance of agricultural lands sus- csptible of irrigation, forms narrow strip, lying along the Salt River, and
 Tonto Creek, not, probably, to exceed i i20O0 acres in the aggregate. These two narrow valleys, each being aDont
 sixteen miles in length and not | over two in width, are surrounded on
 all sides by high and, except in few
 certain places, inaccessible mountain
 ranges which extend north and south,
 east and west the entire length and breadth of that portion of the county
 now embraced within the Indian reser- vation. 4 portion of the lands situated in these valleys are now irrigated by
 small ditches and the ccnfiguration of cnuntry Is such. that within the county, and for its benefit no large storage reser- voirs would be warranted. AnC.ner small acreage Is in the valley of Pinal Creek. extending north from Globe. and being about ten miles in length by one
 n width, but which has not surface water but could be irrigated by raising the water by means of underground dams
 Gila county is chiefly a mining count ", and mountainous, being situated within the great mountain ranges of Gen. tral Arizona, with good grazing but lit tie agricultural land.
 In this connection, we would respect fully call your attention to the late act of Congress withdrawing all entries of land under the homestead, timber, de sert and pre-emption or water-right acts, { which, with strict and literal construc- tion. would prevent the further settle ! ment of most, if not all, the arabic land l in our county, inasmuch as the act with | draws all land, susceptible of irrigation 1 by ditches or canals. The effects of such | interpretations will cause a complete l stagnation in tine progress of this Terri | tory, and especially Gila county, keep | ing in suspense every industry depend | ent upon agriculture and forbidding i'm i migration. The act does not discrimin- | ate buteycludes every acre worth having | from being entered Jas long as the tech | Dical feasibility of the construction of | storage reservoir exists without regard | to whether a site for such reservoir may | be hereafter found warranted or not. It | Is obvious that a law so forbidding to | all progress, all increase of population | and so sweeping in its effect, will be de- structive to the material prosperity of | the Territory at large.
 We would also respectfully submit | the question, whether storage reservoirs O. other water works should be con- structed for the benefit of one commu- nifty or one county, when as q conse- quence such an undertaking would be the destruction of another community or county. This Gestion seems to us one of the greatest importance when justice to and equal rights of all citizens are considered. We do not desire to submit | to your Honorable body a mere abstract question touching the right of eminent | domain, but beg to present a case con- ing near to us when applied to MaricOpa | and Gila counties. Your committee has, no doubt, received from the authorities in Maricopa county the plan and official report of the County Surveyor of the Salt River Storage reservoir to be con- structed in Gila county. intended to dam Salt River to great height, and by which very large tract of arid land in Maricopa county could be reclaimed. l We do not wish to underratel thefgreat and the inestimable benefit which would accrue to Maricopa county exclusively by the construction and operation of such water works, but We are compelled to state that a correspond ing damage, nay, almost an entire de- struction of the integrity of Gila county,
  communications between one part and the other, of any possibility of railway the county which is so essen tial to its mining industries, and the of nearly all its agricultural land would follow this undertaking, and We would respectfully ask whether the Gov ernment would sanction the principle of creating prosperity in one county, upon the ruin of its neighbor?
 The official report of the surveyor states that some 10 miles in Tonto Valley and b miles up Salt River, to- gether with number of miles on Pinto Creek, all being in Gila County, would be flooded by means of this dam. and he that about 6140 acres of arable land, of which 902 are now cultivated. would be covered with water. His state ment of the acreage now under cultiva- ton Is erroneous. as about 1J00 would be a more correct figure. That report also fails to state that the whole flooding. and entire damage would be in Gila County, that the creation of such lake would virtually make ordinary communi- cation between north and south Gila impossible; that the only feasible loca- tlOn or north and south railroad to Globe, the route having already been and 40 miles of track built. would be obliterated. The topographi- cal features are such, that not even a good wagon road, through the mountains to the east of this lake, except at an en- ormous expense, could be built, and even then the distance would be doubled.
 The report further fails to mention the Verde River or any of its numerous tributaries as equally advantageous streams for water storage reservoirs, which, if examined, will be found to con tain several sites for dams which would answer exactly the same purpose as the Salt River dam, and which could be constructed at probably less cost, and canals from which would irri- gate precisely the same section of coun- try, and whose construction and main ,I.-.,,ll ;,,a.=e-.,.-