Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-03-01
sALToN SINK.

Comprehensive Explanation Of the Re-
markable Situation In Lower Colorado.
There has been good deal in the
newspapers lately about the disaster
caused by the Colorado river break
ing it's banks and overfowing the val
ley in the lower part Of Colorado
known as the Salton Sink. but there
are many people who do not fully un-
derstand Il.
The last issue of Golfers Weekly
contains the following short but
graphic and thoroughly understand
able article concerning It:
Imagine a cup-shaped hollow in the
earth. And imagine up along one side
Of the rim of the cup a great river
running. How the river came to be
away up there, four hundred feet above
the valley, is a story of geology, too
long and complicated to tell here.
"The cup-shaped depression was the
Salton Sink. At its bottom
365 feet below. the sea level. and just
4S3 feet below the Colorado river.
Men walking in the valley used to look
wonderingly up at the river as men
look at clouds. And all that kept the
river In its course, all that stood be-
tween 1t and the Sink. was frail
bank Of salt.
There was never drop Of water
in the Sink; but there was fine, pow
derry black loan. marvelously rich.
Also the temperature was ITO. This
situation could not help but be sug-
gestfve to reflective minds. With wa
ter-and that soil and that heat-you
would have simply a hot-house, with
no expense for coal. Crops?--
$50 they tapped the bank Of the
river high up the side OF the valley,
and ran an irrigation canal into the
Sink. Settlers poured in-2,000 fam
lilies and 10000 people. Such crops
were never heard Of. Every six weeks
they harvested crop Of alfalfa Such
fruitfulness excited cupidity, and set
tiers came faster and faster--so fast
there wasn't enough water-so they
tapped the Colorado high up the val
ley side. little more. Then towns
sprang up, and the Southern Pacific
laid branch in to carry the crops to
San Francisco. More settlers, more
need for water, more tapping OF the
Colorado.
Finally they tapped once too often.
While they were at work food came
down the river. The work Of the trap
pers was like the fingerhole In the dixie.
The hole grew larger and larger. FL
nally, the whole Colorado river just
abandoned its old course and turned
right into the Salton Sink--just as II
the Mississippi should leave it's banks
Davenport and start cross country
to Springfield.
THAT was in 1904 The river has
been pouring into the Salton Sink ever
since. There is no outlet for It. The
plain end of It is new lake bigger
than any within the United States---as
big as Lake Ontario. Already a space
half as big as Rhode Island is cover
ed, some of It from 80 to 80 feet deep.
The farms and the wonderful alfalfa
crops are submerged. and the slowly
rising water has compelled the rail-
road to move back, and farther back.
for forty miles.
"And all these two years men have
done their best to stop the river and
turn It back into its old course. First
they drove piles and flied In with
brush and bags of sand. But, without
going into details. there have been six
separate attempts, and all unsuccess-
full. Lately. congress has appropriated
two million dollars to do the work"
The disaster Is a tremendous one.
Not only is all the property In the
fertile valley destroyed but the course
Of the river seems to be permanently
changed and all the country below
which has been watered by the river
will be irreparably injured. To stop
the break in the river and make It fol-
low the old channel presents probably
the greatest engineering problem Of
the age-greater, perhaps, than the
digging Of the Panama canal.