Arizona weekly citizen., 1890-07-26
ARIZONA AND COLORADO.
Prehistoric Canals of the Southwest High Engineering Skill--Utiliz- ing the Ancient bitches.

--High Engineering Skill--Utiliz-
 ing the Ancient bitches.
 In many respects Arizona presents the most interesting field on this conti- nent for the student of the subject of irrigation. There IS an abundance of ir- refragable though mute testimony here to the fact that far in the past the for bidding and uninhabitable deserts of the Territory teemed with human life, and were covered with vegetation. In whatever portion of the valleys or the Salt and Gila rivers and their tributar- les the traveller goes, if he be observant, he will find traces of systems of irriga- tion by which these broad plains and mesas once must have been brought to the highest state of productlveness. Enough can vet be seen of these prehis- toric works to show that they were constructed with no small amount of engineering skill, while the labor ex- pended upon the canals must haze been immense. It Is singular fact, in this connection, that modern engineers, who are now engaged in again diverting the water af the streams mentioned upon the barren plains in many places find that all their skill is unavailable to pro- vide any better grades or levels for the canals, and that the prehistoric engI- neers of long centur;eSago were possessed of tine highest skill in that art.
 The valleys of the Verde, San Pedro, the Colorado, Chiquito and other streams all show unmistakaGly that at some for mer time they were under high state of cultivation. AS far back as 1859 trave- iers from Mexico visited the Salt river valley, and the records yet Tn existence of these journeys contain accounts of the ruins of these irrigatlng canals by which the water of the river was divert ed. One of these canals Is described as having been at least ten varas long and four varas, deep and inclosing many lea yues of land Other ancient travellers have described ruins of immense reser- voirs which have subsequently been found by modern explorers in what are CdlllSu I16 bOupCISillOL IAOdh N-O which undoubtedly supplied water for large area. One of the largest Of these reservoirs occupied site which had evidently ages ago been the bed or ailake Between the Salt and GllS rivers, near Marysville, IS plain thirty miles long by four or five in width which was evident ivy all under cultivation at some time, for it is marked by the remains Of old canals. Near Phenix are the remains of an old canal which was twenty-five to fifty feet m width and over thirty miles long. Twenty-Five miles above PhenlX is another canal on the south side of the Salt river. For eight or ten miles this was fully fifty feet wide, and was excavat- ed in the rock and in the hardest sort of soil It conveyed water by which a plain sixty miles in length and thirty Tn width was irrigated, and which was evld- ently thickly populated.
 Still farther down the river, at Tempe, are tie ruins of other canals, while oD the plain that was once irrigated by them are vast ruins of cites which must navo sustained an immense population.
 Space is too limited to enter into description of all these prehistoric re- mains, but it is enough t0 say that every watercourse in the entire region was at some time utilized for irrigation and that an immense population was sus- tained where now IS naught but desert.
 It is barely twenty years since the nrst systematic attempts were made to again reclaim the fertile lands of the Salt and Gila valleys by diverting the water of those streams. Since that time millions of dollars have been spent and thous ands of acres of land have been supplied with water, and curiou5ly enough, some of the ancient canals have h=eu rebuilt, and the water Is again being conduc ed in the same channels where It first ran under the guidance of the preAZtec race that once inhabited the valley. Several hundred thousand acreo ln the valleys named are nov accessible to lrrI- gation. and wherever the land has been ,.:Iiuiral-sd the Lest Te ults have followed.
 l the Mohawk valley, near Yuma, several canals have diverted water from sue Gila, ard a large amount of recla nation is :w being done. very fruit or other crop that is produced Tn Cali fornia also attains perfection in Arizona wherever water can be had, and large crops of grain and alfalfa are also pro- duced under the same benefcent sti- .nuluS.
 The subject of reservoirs for preserv ing the waste water of the numerous streams has long been under discussion, the prehistoric remains of such struc lures showing that the matter was per fectly feasible and only needed a little enterprise in order to be carried out. Near Prescott the Hassa ampa creek has been damned by wall of masonry l35 feet thick at the base, 400 feet long and no feet high, by which an immense amount of water is rendered available both for mining and for agriculture. They are numberless opportunities for similar enterprises in all parts of the country, and it is not too much to say that water enough can be economized in this and other methods to lrrigate all the arable land in Arizona; an area, by the way, which is far larger than is generally supposed by the casual obser- yer or nasty traveller.
 Preliminary steps have already been taken for the construction of reservoir near Florence, by which the surplus flow of the Gila river is to be held in re- serve. A stone dam is to be built at an estimated cost of 5250 900, and by it reservoir some ten miles long and two in width will be formed, which will con tiain water sufficient to irrigate many thousand of acres.-EX.