The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-09
THE COLORADO DESERT
GREAT ACHIEVEMENT IN DEvE- LoPMENT OF FAR SOUTHWEST
Hundreds of Thousands of Acres to Be Made Fruitful by the Waters of the Colorado
 River.
Los Angeles Letter in New York Even

ing Post.
 The greatest achievement in the his | tory of the development of the South
 west is taking place so quietly 'hat | few persons in this country are aware what is being done. It IS the placing
 of irrigation water on hundreds oI
 thousands of acres of the most forpid- | ding of American deserts-the Colorado | occupying very large part of South. ern California. More than i've hun- dred thousand acres in Southern Cali l Iornia are 10 be irrigated and cultivated | for the first time during the next two
 years, while across the river in Arizona about one hundred and fifty thousand l acres will be brought under cultivation during the same period. These two great bodies of land will about equal
 the total area of Rhode Island, and viii constitute more irrigated land than
 there is at present in the seven coun~
 ties of Southern California. To this
 grand total is to be added 500000 acres
 across the international line in Mexico
 Of this land much will be planted to
 crops during the next month, while it
 is expected that about 300, ,00O acres lvil!
 be unocl irrigation and cultivation by
 next winter.
 The iand on the Arlzona side of tno Colorado River is to be irrigated from
 several ditches put in under different conditions. On the California side is a body of land about Indio, comprising about 100000 acres, which is being de. veloped by means of artesIan weIs. Il having been discovered that a fine arte sian belt underlies the cove like val ley in which the Indio oasis has charm. ed the eyes of many tourists .)aSSing through the desert on the Southern Pacific Railroad.
 But the chief undertaking is that nf the Imperial Land Company, which has just turned. through it's headgates, water for the irrigation of 250, 900 acres of land, and all of which will be used At once but which will be available for use within two or three weeks. or so soon as 1t can find its way through fifty miles of canal and several miles of lateral ditches. The Same company is to put in additional canals for the irrigation of 100000 acres in the Cali. fornia portion of the Colorado desert, and 500.000 acres in the lower CalifOr. mia and Mexico portion. and so rapidly Is the project being worked out that there is little doubt that it will be fully consumnlated within two or three years. The man whose genius worked out this great enterprise is George Chaffey, who executed two or three irrigation projects in Southern Califor- mia successfully d number of years ago. and then brought to completion ip Australia one of the worlds greatest projects in the same line.
 AS has often been described, the Colorado desert was at one time cover- ed by the waters of the Gulf of Cali fornia. which were finally shut off hy a huge dam sixty feet in height and fifty miles in width, formed of soil brought down by the Colorado River. when it was cutting out the Grand Canon. The basin, having an insuffi- cient supply of water to counteract the effect of evaporation, in the course of time developed into a barren stretch | of ground which today finds its low 1 est point more than 300 feet below the level of the sea, at the salt marsh of | Salton. The soil brought down by the river however. covered the old bed of | the sea hundreds of feet deep, and in | one case well drilled 5S2 feet failed | to penetrate the deposit. Even up to the present time there are two l of the Colorado, known as | Salton and New rivers, which have i been taking a portion of it's water | near it's mouth at times of flood and | 'arrying it towards the bed of the sink. | where it is lost in time through evapo- ration. These streams have proved of | the utmost value to the proiector Of l his great irrigation enterprise, for their channels have been utilized to conduct the water for fifty miles on its course to the land 10 be irrigated, thus saving hundreds of thousands of d0l- lars in dredging.
 What the Land Will Be Valuable
 For.
 It is not proba ole that this great tract will in any way come into com petition with the fruit producing sec Lions of Southern California. for though 1t has been known for years to