Bisbee daily review., 1909-04-11
LAGUNA DAM PROJECT WILL
 MAKE EMPIRE
In Time the Control of the Col orado Will be of Enormous Value to the Entire Imperial Valley.

A present no apparent relation ex- asts between the Yuma project and the Imperial valley.
 There is, however, a vital relation between the two and time is certain to demolstrate it. At present the Imperial valley has protection from the vagaries of the Co-srado. and has an adequate water supply from the headings of the California Develop ment company.
 Should there come a time when these headings are less effectuaI than at present the cost of a canal
 from the Imperial country to a point
 of service with the Laguna dam would be comparatively slight in pro
 portion to the great and permanent
 benefit to be derived by such connec-
 ton. This service may not become a necessity for twenty-five or fifty
 years, but it is the logical outcome OI
 the situation for some future day.
 Laguna dam is adequate to any de
 mand that can be made upon it from
 lands beneath it in the United States
 territory. It could also supply a large
 area of land in Mexico.
 Any idea of what a ditch connect ing the dam with the Imperial valley
 would cost would be only theoric and superficial and the insurance which ] such a service would give to the big rich Imperial agr Cultural belt would pay for a ditch in the salvation of a single crop. This does not mean that | the California Development company's | provision for the territory 1t covers IS
 not ample and secure. It only means ! that there is permanent safety ana supply through the big government | dam at Laguna, which has been in 1 construction process for four years and which has been finished at cost
 of mere than S1.O00.O00.
 The closing of Laguna dam brings
 to a successful issue one of the most | difficult engineering feats ever under | taken. The eyes of the engineering world have been fixed upon this pro | ject since its inception, and countless | prophets of woe nave never been able ] to see anything but failure in the at- renpt. Some weeks ago t was COS i and it is now a success in every par ticular
 The main canal through which the
 water will be carried to the Yuma
 valley is yet to be cut It will Dc carried down the California side as
 far as the Southern Pacific bridge al Il Yuma. where it will cross the river by
 means of an inverted sipnon- | This will supply S5,OO0 acres of the
 Yuma valley. With the construction of a pumping plant, an additional area of 10000 acres of mesa land around Yuma will be reclaimed. Tn , flow of the water through tSe mar canal will generate sufficient power ti operate fhp contemplated pumping
 plant
 Probably it will be a matter o ; two or three years before ditcnes ar [ cut on the Arizona side of the rive ' 'or the kupDly of the Gila valley whic | 1 is abcu I7 900 acds in area. Lateral r have already been run on the Cal a fornia side for the supply of the For eI Yuma Indian reservation This COT g tafus 17,000 acres of land I About 12,00O acres of this will D f open to homesteaders in lots Of 7 n acres in a few months. A nomins
 price wHl be placed on this land to s | maid in annual installments over > period of ten years. and this none s will be turned over to the India h branch of this department VI Every Indian on the reservation Y has already been allotted five acres s land. For each family of four II e dians this gives a ranch of 20 acre e which is all that one family can ma D. age on a basis of extensive culture. x- It is estimated that the water ti h on land under this project will g about S3.50 per acre a year Tor tf st years. by which time the governmel -- will have collerted every cent e " pended on the project. The wider q le acreage participating in the use es the dam the less will be the cost w the water users.