The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-07-30
FLOODING OF
DEATH VALLEY
Colorado River May Submerse the
Desert Waste in Time.
yuma Cor. Chicago Chronicie.)

Desert Waste in Time.
yuma Cor. Chicago Chronicie.)
An army of men will shortly begin
the titanic struggle with the rushing |
Colorado river, attempting to check the
devastation which the change in the |
rivers course has brought to two
states. Three hundred square miles |
| flooded, 200 miles of railroad tracks |
washed out, a thriving industry ruined
this is the record of destruction
caused by the river breaking through
| its banks and flooding the surrounding
country.
| Should the struggle prove vain it
must be said that the continued growth
of Salton sea might not prove an un-
mixed evil. for it is believed it might
in time inundate the Death valley.
! The Colorado river is the dividing line
/ between Arizona ard the southern por-
ton of California. Most of the water
| has poured into the Yuma basin in
Arizona, but the flood has also brought
destruction to the one industry in the
miles of the burning southern Califor-
MIA desert. The Salton sink, once a
part of the Pacific's bed, but for centu-
ries past level bottom of pure salt
! harvested year after year for the mar
| ket, has been flooded and the unique
salt farm been wiped out of exist
ence, temporarily, at least. Hopes are
held forth that the work which the
Southern Pacific Railroad company is
to begin will make the salt industry
possible there again, and that once
mere the little village of Salton, where
the salt workers lived, will be popu-
| lated.
Flowing Up the Salt.
To operate this novel salt farm a
pillow was designed, drawn by a cable
attached to small steam locomotive
! This locomotive passed to and fro on
a miniature track and by means of a
big grooved wheel set horizontally in
the fashion of a street cable the pillow
was drawn to the engine Plowed into
burrows, the salt was heaped into
great cones, placed in cars and shipped
to the market, the greater part of ii
requiring no refining process so pure
was it.
The salt farm was a profitable indus
try and the operating company built
a little settlement at the foot of the
mountain. Here the salt was treated
when necessary, and here were the
homes of the wOrkmen and their fam
lilies. But at present the village is
wrecked and the farm deserted, for it
has become literally another Great Salt
lake.
Charles P. Thompson, who has just
returned from a SOjourn at his ranch
at Helix, southern California, saws the
subject of the greatest interest to the
people of Riverside and San Diego
counties is not the San Francisco
earthquake but the ever-increasing size
of the Salton sea- phenomenon that is
attracting attention from scientists and
+geographers the world over.
May DeIuge Death Valley.
That the Colorado River of the West
should cease to pour it's food into the
Gulf of California and give it's waters
to the creation of a great inland sea,
obliterating the famous Death valley
and inundating the arid desert basin
between Yuma and San Bernardino has
in it climatic possibilities that may well
engage the attention of scientists
The lower part of the Coahuila valley,
as this region is called. includes about
1900 square miles and lies below the
level of the ocean.
In prehistoric times this was sep
arated from the ocean by the growth of
the delta of the Colorado river, which
gradually extended from east to west
until ii finally Joined the peninsula of
Lower California and thus shut out
the ocean.
|, At some earlier time and probably
} a. several different epOchs the Colorado
has flowed down the northwestern side
Of its delta into the Coahuila valley,
which was then occupied by a fresh
water lake. Since the occupation of the
country by white men the river occa-
sionally during high flood, usually in
June, when the SHOWS melt i'm the
mountains where it has it's source, has
discharged a portion of it's waters
toward the Coahuila valley by means
of a channel called the New river
Other channels have formed and the
} New river has been cutting deeper and
the floods have formed what is known
as Salton lake or Salton sea.
: May Cover 1000 Square Miles.
''This Salton sea- said Mr. Thomp-
son, interests me greatly Recently
while in company with a government
engineer who is on the reclamation
service, building dams to reclaim arid
lands, L gathered some information
: concerning this sea. He told me the
area now covered by the Salton sea
is 300 square miles and now, following
the June floods, the water is rising at
the rate of seven inches day. He was
of opinion that if this went on the
fully 1900 square miles.
"A year ago l was along the edge of
: the Salton sea for about twenty miles
on the railroad. The water comes from
: the Colorado river and began filling
! this desert space about two years ago
OF course, there is great evaporation
over this body of water The California
newspapers are filled with discussions
as to what will be the climatic effects
of this evaporation. Weather Observer
Carpenter said that the effect would be
, about as great as a saucer of water
! set on a stove, so far as the country
: round about would be concerned. In
Los Angeles county it is thought by
some that this large body of water
, will greatly affect the climate and it is
pointed out that this year there has
been in southern California a consid-
cradle increase in the rainfall.
Salt Works Submerged.
1.-The area now being flooded by the
} Colorado river was at one time I'M
; doubtedly a part of the Gulf of Cali
fornia The bottom of the Salton sea
before this inundation began was about
275 feet below the sea level. The South
; ern Pacific road passes through this for
fiftV miles As the water pOurs i'm the