The herald., 1893-06-05
THE COLORADO ON THE RAMPAGE.
A Likelihood of the Renewal Of
the SaltOn Sea.
Floods Reported on the River South
of Yuma.
The River Has Been Rising at the Rate
of Five Inches In Twenty-four
Hours-The Possibilities
of Irrigation.

Francisco Chronicle OF Saturday as let
ter from Yuma. 1t is a greatly exag-
gerated statement, as up to last evening
not the slightest indication of water at
Sslton was observable:
YUMA, A. t., May 30.-The average
gauge of the Colorado river at Yuma
May 29th for IA years, as shown by the
records, is % feet Inches. Today it
stands at 25 feet inches, being feet
2 inches above the average. A year ago
today it stood at % feet inches. The
highest point the river ever reached was
S3 feet 6 inches, at the time OF the great
flood in February, 1891. The second
highest water was in 1884, when it
reached 28 feet. In 1862 it marked 81
feet IL inches. The lowest point ever
reached was IL feet. This was taken as
the low-water standard. Last winter it
fell to 15 feet, near which point it stood
for several weeks.
At II feet 8 inches 1t sends large
amount of water off to the westward
through Carter and the Padrones rivers,
by the former into Salton lake, and
through the latter into Lake Julullu,
which is drained by three branches of
New river, one OF which flows northwest
via Indian Wells, over the divide and
down into the Salton basin, while the
other two unite and empty into the Col
orado river, near Horseshoe bend. The
lower As miles of New river, from Mount
Mejor to the Colorado, is called Hardie's
Colorado, after young English lieuten-
ant, who assembled it in 1843, and mistook
the New river for the Colorado, and as
cended it as far as Mount Mejor, when
ha k,.s Cd hon NAIr-
RADIO to the old mission, eight miles
above Yuma.
In the food OF 1891 both Carter and
New rivers cut through the low sand
rim which divides the Indian Wells
basin from that at Salton. These
streams are 20 miles apart where they
cut the rim and pass over the divide,
and at that point are 289 feet above the
level of Salton basin at the salt works.
In July last, at the highest flow of the
Colorado, high wind from the east
blew the driftwood which was being
carried down the river over to the west
shore, and completely damned the
break through which Garter river re-
ceived its supply, and thus cut off the
water which fed it and stopped the flow
to Salton.
Garter river is again running more
than bank full nearly to the divide, and
overhowing it's banks and the low lands
north to the sand hills, and south until
its waters meet the overflow OF the New
river. The country around Cooks and
Seven Wells and at the Dioguena In
dian rancheris is mostly under water.
The old San Diego stage road has been
abandoned, and the Indisne have moved
on to the high mesas, and the mad
waters are rushing on toward Salton at
the rate of l5 tn 20 miles per day, filling
up the old lakes, ponds and lower por-
tions Of the great valley. Lake Julullu
is bank full, and the north branch of
New river is out of its banks as far as
Great Bend and will soon reach Indian
Wells. The Padrones river is out of its
banks and covering the whole country
to the south and east with water. The
Colorado has cut out the driftwood dam
where Carter river receives it's water and
the channel Of the latter is deeper and
wider than ever before.
Standing on the high ssndhills at Al
gydones the great valley to the south
looks like one vast lake. The cattlemen
are moving their stock back to higher
grounds. The Colorado river rose 8
feet inches in the past seven days and
is still rising about 5 inches in "a hours.
1t is thought here by those we'll posted
that the water will reach the 28-foot
mark again.
The Colorado is the watershed for
Southeastern Idaho, Western Wyoming,
Eastern Utah, Western Colorado, South
ern Nevada, Eastern California, all of
Arizona and part of New Mexico and
the Mexican state of Sonora, the waters
of which all pass under the bridge at
Yuma. The area thus drained equals
241 ,695 square miles, or l54, ,S57 800 acres.
At the junction of the Grand and Green
rivers, which form the Colorado, the
altitude is $3.50 feet above sea level. At
Black csfion it is 900 feet and at Yuma
120 feet above the level of the sea. High
tide at the mouth of the river is So feet,
which affects the current of the river for
80 miles from its mouth. The average
current is about four miles per hour.
At high water it is from 10 to 15 miles.
At the lowest water known in the
river, in 1876, when the gauge showed
only IL feet, the flow at Yuma was
found to be 1868 cubic feet per second.
AS one cubic foot of water per second
will irrigste 200 acres, 1t is found that at
it's lowest stage the Colorado will irri-
gate !, ,531 800 acres of land. For four
teen years the average flow of water un-
der the bridge has been 100, ,00G cubic
feet per second for the four months of
May, June, July and August, as the
gauge for those months during that per-
iod has an average of 20 feet, inches.
Taking the general average amount of
water used per acre throughout the irri-
CATION world this flow of water will irri-
gate 30,000,000 acrss of land. East,
west and south of Yuma there are
6,5O0,0OO acres of land that can be
reached by water from the Colorado, SO
that it is plain that every acre of land
in California, Arizona and the Mexican
territory of Sonora and Lower California
can be irrigated and leave enough
Watar in the river for irrigation.