Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1900-03-07
4 VOICE FROM
 THE VERDE VALLEY
A CORRESPONDENT DISCOURS ES ON THE WATER SUPPLY
 PAST AND PRESENT.

Priority of Appropriation Over the
 Salt River Valley Fully Demon-
 strated-Other Items.
 Camp Verde, Arizona, March A. Editor. JOURNAL MINER: I notice in your week. y issue of Feb. 2S an arti- cle headed Salt River Alarmed Over the Water Situation," and threats of coming up to Verde Val icy and shutting off our water sup ply. 1 suppose the writer thereof aims to satisfy the whimsical ideas of the new corners or tender feet, as we of old times used to call them. 1 remember way back i'll even the early sixties, ana on up to the first two or three years ln the eventies, when few of the old pioneers, among whom were Charlie Yates. Monroe Sweatman, William Osborn, now of Salt River valley; JoLn Whitcomb, Micha Foster, Hank Morse. w. c. Ralston, Tom Ruff, J. |. c. Boblelt, Joe Melvin, William Crawford, Jake Ramstine. John Long, Polk James, Dick Elliott, Judge Ed w. Wells, now of Pres colt; Ike Skillin, Judge J. NJ. San ford, Waies Arnold, Joe Burroughs. Bob Bill and others, many of whom have long since passed to the great beyond, came to Verde valley and took out irrigation ditches from th
 Verde rlver, Beaver creek, Oak creek and Clear creek and planted the family tree of civilization, where today there IS a settlement on Verde river forty miles long, and taking in the tributary streams there IS a set clement ten miles wide, with sixteen public schools, with the city of Je-- ome. Counting all told more than 10000 people. Last August and September made close settlement or house to house canvas of the Verde valley and its tributary streams. aud from actual count and personal visits found there was at that tune ifty-six irrigating ditches ln the valley; some not over a mile long aud carrying water for Cnly a few acres to large condes sixteen feet wide and fifteen miles long. am safe in saying at least two-tnirds of these ditches were built before the mesa or grand condes or Salt River valley, and one-third of them were built before Jack Swilling took out the waters of Salt river into what is now known as the Town ditch at Phenix. 1 only speak of matters as they have existed since my time iu the territory, the last thirtv-two years. The old timers here can tell more about the first settlement of the valley than | can, but since that time 1 am quite a walking encyclopedia of Verde val ley; too much so to get very badly scared or excited over any threats about stopping our irrigation sys- tenn. Of course, any one. with only one eye, and that dim, can see they have bit of more than they can chew" in the way of irrigation at Phenix, and that water storage IS all bosh when they have not hall enough for winter use, to say noth. ing about the storage for summer use; besides, We have Hon. H. J Allen and the city of Jerome, with its 4000 people and the richest mine in all the world, and any legislation that might he sprung would be re- sisted to the last notch. So taking all in all the best way is to take Mo hamet's plan, and you Phenicians with your parched tongues like Dinics of old, come up here to the water for you cannot get the water to come to you.
 Now 1 dld not intend to write quite so long an article on this water question, but 1 give this as pointer to the Phenix people that we are the oldest irrigation settlement except Tucson in Arizona and any threat they may make may bolster up theil water schemes to get outside capi tai to build cOndes, but they already have three times the land covered by condos than water to irrigate i with, and as to water storage that il entirely out of the question, for tht simple reason there is not enougl water for winter use, to say nothing about storage dams for summer use For the special use and benefit O the Salt river and Gila valley people I intend to make out a tabulateC statement of all lands located anC and under a complete system of irrl gation, with total number of acre of alfalfa in Verde valley, and 1 asl thet each person interested get copy and ''paste it'in his hat" for th, statements can be fully corroborateC by the United States land office an( the books of the county officials.
 My intention when 1 started in t. write was to say something abou
 our base ball team. We have nin
 here that can and has knocked th
 stuffing out of anything they hay
 ever tackled. When the Indian
 came after our crowd they don them up real nice; then we sent tn, Indians up as a sort of a teaser fo
 lu0 OPD6I 0lQ0 Ot OOblOAWOON
 team, with W. c Strahan as cap
 tain. After they done up the In : dians they had kind of stuck up no tions and sent a challenge to ou captain, Jimmy Gilbert, and ou financial man at once put up S5
 and today they played, resulting il victory for the Camp Verde team but it was no easy job as it wa only won by one point, IS to + |, The Upper Verde boys are nic team and blooded, and left chal lenge for Sl00 a side, which 1 under stand is 10 be accepted and the gam ' is to come off in the near future.
 The final wind up was foot rae
 between a Mir. Bidwell and an h
 dian, resulting in an easy victor for Bidwell. Yours, etc.
 G. W. H. 2 Filipino Bushwhackers.