The Arizona sentinel., 1911-05-18
COLORADO RIVER
The Source of Yuma's Great
 Water Supply

ance in an irrigation scheme, and in this regard the Yuma Project is most fortunate, for water is diverted from the never failing flow of the Colorado of the West. This river is formed in Southeastern Utah by the union of the Grand and Green rivers. The entire length of the Colorado, including the Green, which is it's upward continuation, is about 20OO miles, being the longest stream on the Pacific Coast south of Alaska. The drainage ground is about 800 miles long, varying in width from 300 to 500 miles, and covers an area approximating 100000 square miles, comprising the southwestern part of Wyoming, the western part of Colorado, the eastern half of Utah, prac- tically all of Arizona, and small parts of California, Nevada, New Mexico and Old Mexico. The rivers receive their main supply from the melting snows on the high mountains of Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. In their upper reaches the streams flow through canyons of practically inaccessible depth, which results in preserving their fertile waters for the irrigation of the rich bot tom lands below. In it's present state, the lowest recorded flow of the stream is sufficient to ir- rigate an area several times larg- CT than that now contemplated near Yuma, so there can be no danger of water famine. As the work of the Reclamation Service advances, immense stor- age reservoirs along the upper reaches of the Colorado and it's tributaries will so conserve the flood discharge, allowing the water to flow at a more uniform rate throughout the year, that the irrigation possibilities of this stream are hard to estimate. The The settler on the Yuma Project is assured a water supply that is never failing.
 In Bulletin No. A of the Ari- zona Experiment Station, Pro lessor R. H. Forbes describes the river:
 "The Colorado river is ia many respects remarkably similar to the historic Nile. Like the Nile, it rises in g. distant, mountain ous country; it's lower courses traverse sami tropical and nearly rainless desert; and both rivers empty into great land locked arms of the ocean at a a little less than 32 degrees north latitude. Like the Nile, the Col. orado has, for long distances along it's lower courses, created 8 narrow ribbon of fertile soil in 1 the midst of the desert through
 which it flows, and has depos- tied a great alluvial delta be- tween Yuma and the Gulf of Cal
 ifornia. This delta is chiefly ir Mexican territory. Like the great river of Egypt, the Colo
 rado is subject to an annual sum
 mer rise sufficient to overflow
 great areas of it's border and delta. These high waters arc
 rich in fertilizing sediments, arc
 exceptionally free from alkaline
 salts, and come at an opportune
 time for irrigation. When the
 Colorado floods are less thar
 normal, the Yuma Indians fai
 of satisfactory crops, just as dt the Egyptians with low Nile
 Although the climatic condition! Tn winter are slightly more SC we're in the Colorado delta thar
 in that of the Nile, yet these tw' regions closely resemble eact
 other agriculturally. Some com mon products are tor may be alfalfa, wheat and grains of tn, sorghum class; the date palm
 fig, orange, olive and pomegran
 ate; cotton, melons and sugar
 cane.
 "When the Colorado is under
 stood and utilized as success
 fully as its greater and bette
 known parallel, it will be recon ized as the American Nile, tn creator of & new country for tn