The Arizona sentinel., 1903-10-14
THE GREAT COLORADO RIVER

| The great Colorado river is the largest stream, both in drainage area and discharge
 that lies wholly within the arid portion of the United States. 1t is formed by the june | tiOn Of the Green and Grand rivers, rising in Colorado and Wyoming respectively, in re- gions of great precipitation, mainly In the | form of snow. Only a small percentage of the water yielded by the basin of the Colorado has as vet been utilized for irrigation, and practically none for any other purposes. The obstacles are many. Through most of it's course this river and it's tributaries flow at | the bottom of profound canyons, from which it Is impossible to divert them upon irrigabe | lands. The river clnergeS from it's canyon a short distance above the NeedlPs-the cross | ing of the Santa Fe Pacific r;iilrOad-and has
 a series of valleys which between thIs point and the Mexican line aggregate about 500,000 acres. In this region the waters are heavily laden with sediment, which is a serious ob-
 slacle to their diversion The grade Of the [ river is so flat that a diversion canal taken | out at the rivers bed must have so slight a | a fall and low a velocity that it would
 quickly fill with sediment from the river | For the same reason a canal must be very
 long in order to command any considerable
 area of land in the river valley.
 TWO AND A QUARTER BILLION GALLONS A MINUTE.
 Measurements of the flow near Yuma show | that the river sometimes discharges mini
 mum of about 3CU0 cubic feet per second. It's
 maximum discharge Is unknown, but prOba- | bly, exceeds One-half million cubic Feet per second. As the river is supplied mainly by i melting snOwS, it's season of high water cul- | inmates in June, and the low water season is | in the winter. when its sources are frozen. The river Is navigated more or less from it's
 mouth to the Needles by hat-bOttOm, stern- wheel boats, which sometimes even ascend to ! the mouth of Virgin river. It's navigation, | however, is so difficult and precariOuS as to
 make it almost useless. At low water the | channel is so broad, shallow and changeable
 that boats are continually running aground.
 
 | ten or fifteen miles. In times of high water
 the swift current greatly impairs navigation. Wherever wagon transportation is possible | this is preferred to the river.
 The chief obstacle to the utilization of the | waters of thIs basin are: First, the great | fluctuation in discharge; second, the paucity | of land that can be reached by them, third, | the large quantity of sediment making inn
 practicable any diversion on small scale.
 A comprehensive project is here presented, which, if upon investigation, is found i'm | practicable will largely remove all of these
 difficulties, and will also greatly improve | navigation at all seasons of the year.
 The development Of the mineral resources, | In which this country is rich is greatly ham, pered by the great cost of power and the lack
 of transportation, both important requisites
 for the mining industry. The proposed plan | will completely solve both problems
 sUBTROPICAL CLIMATE.
 All of the land that can be irrigated from the lower Colorado may be regarded as hav-
 ing a semi-trOpical climate, where the grow
 ing season for most products continues the
 year round-the requirements for water, how
 ever, being greater in the summer season than
 in the winter. It is here assumed that the
 maximum use in July will be twice as great
 as the minimum requirements in January; and that a stream with the maximum flow of
 two cubic feel per second ill July, furnishing about 1000 acre-feet per annum, will supply 200 acres of land.
 It is probable that with proper regulation the Colorado river will be able to furnish continuous stream of water for industrial uses, varying from To- U0O cubic feet per second in winter to 10000 cubic feet per second in summer in years of smallest discharge al- lowing the great floods of wet years to sweep to the sea as at present. This will be Suffi-
 cient to irrigate ,O00 acres of land, and Is so far in excess of the requirements below the Grand Canyon that no restriction need to be put upon storage and diversion Of waters from the tributaries of the Colorado
 A considerable portion of the valleys of the lower Colorado consists of sandy flood plains subject 10 occasional inundationS, and rough, graVelly foothills with soil unsuitable for cul- tiYatiOn. There .Ire also considerable areas
 of sand dunes, and some tracts rendered bar
 Ten by alkan- All these it is proposed to re- claim by impending upon them the silt river.
 SERIES OF DAMS
 The general plan here proposed is the pro- , vision of Il series of reservoirs on the Colo rado river by the construction of high dams at numerous points where the topography is z IaVGcaDle ana where the DOSSlDlU storage IS large. All of these dams win be provided with large sluiceways through the base, in order that the stored waters may be entirely drawn off, together with their load of silt, i whenever it is found desirable to do SO. The reservoirs will serve as settling basins for Scd- impnt. The dams will also be utilized to
 raise the waters into canals, for lhe double purpose of enclosing more irrigable lands by such canals and of giving them velocity sufficient to cslrTy q large amount of sediment
 in suspension until it can be deposited upon
 An11 tnn Tx-it -CgiNY
 will depend largely upon the character of the soil, and will be the highest permissible with , out involving destructive erosion The fall of the Colorado river is so slight that reSer-
 vOiFS of enormous capacity may he construct ed without involving dams Of mpracticable
 height. At any time, by opening the sluice- ways of he reservoir the current of the river will quickly cut a channel through the de
 posted sediment from the upper end of the
 reservoir to the Sluice gates; this being the longest dimension and deepest part of the reservoir %iIl in all cases form an important z part of this storage capacity, and to this ex-
 tent every reservoir can be permanently kept clear of sediment without expense. With this exception. each reservoir is expected to gradually fill; when this occurs 1t is proposed to draw down the surface of the reservoir
 permanently 20 to 70 feet, and to convert all of the reservoir site except the river channel ntO irrigated ia rming land, and if necessary, construct another reservoir for storage pur-
 poses higher up on the stream. TRis policy will greatly increase the ar;tble area. It will then be practicable, whenever desired, to close the sluiccs and inundate all of the agri- cultural land in each filled reservoir and thus fertiliZe it, as is naturally done by the river Nile fnr the valley. This is done artiflcially in some parts of Europe and Africa. With the deep, alluvial soil, Semi-tropical climate, arid atmosphere, abundant water supply, and the possibility of fertilizing the fields every year without expense, it Is believed that such regions can he farmed the year round, and several crops taken oil annually, an acreage production being thus attained entirely without precedent in history.