Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1911-10-06
District Attorney Starts a
Proceeding to Forfeit
Rights of a Once Famous
Land and Irrigation Com
pany.
SCHEME PROMOTED
BY A MINISTER
Stock Was Sold With the
Assurance That a Tithe
of the Profits Were to be
Set Apart to Spread the
Gospel.

The far famed Verde Valley irriga-
tion project, which at one time attract
ed the attention of the people of a
large section of the country but Of
which little has been heard for the
past several years has been made the
object of a proceeding in the United
States district court, in which the
government is the plaintiff and the
Rio Verde Canal company and the YER
de Water and Power company are the
defendants. The proceedings were in
stituted by Joseph +. Morrison, United
States district attorney, who is acting
lat the suggestion of Attorney General
Wickersham, who, in turn, has taken
this move at the request of the interior
department
The government asks for u forfeiture
of all the rights of the defendant COM
panies. 1t is claimed that the reserved
rights of the United States were never
surrendered and that the defendants
have not done and will not do the
things necessary to make their claims
valid. It is also asserted that the de-
fendant last named has no existence in
fact and that the real persons in in
terest are those connected with the
Rio Verde Canal company
This company was organized in 1896
and numbered among its promoters
several Phoenix residents. IL was pro-
posed To build a dam on the Verde
river and by an extensive system Of
canals to bring a large section of the
New river plain under cultivation. Quite
a lot of stock in the company Is said
to have been sold, but little or no prog
ress was made in pushing forward the
plan to bring the valley under irriga-
tion.
Finally. in 1907 the company was
notified TO relinquish its claim. The
case went through the general land
office and was passed upon by the
secretary of the interior. 1t was held
in each instance that the claim should
be relinquished and forfeiture made to
the United States government.
The outcome of this proceeding will
be watched with interest. Many peo-
pie here recall the operations of the
company and they will all be curious
ter of it's history.
In the early conception and de-
velopment Of the Rio Verde enter
prise, great things were expected Of
it, and undoubtedly its promoters be-
lieved implicitly in the possibilities
of their undertaking. But irrigation
was then a comparatively new thing
and capital needed was often lacking.
Like many another project its de-
mands were greater than its pro-
moters imagined.
Offices were opened in Phoenix and
large engineering force was en-
ployed. The plan involved diverting
water from the Verde river some
distance above Fort Mcdowell, dig
ging an extensive tunnel through the
mountains to the west and carrying
the water thence westerly across
Paradise valley to the mesa land of
the New river section many miles
north of Phoenix. where by taking
advantage of a natural depression it
was proposed to construct a huge
of the project thousands of acres of
government land were filed upon and
much money spent i'm initial payments
by settlers. in the hope of reclaim
ing and proving up on their lands by
water through the Rio Verde canal.
Events progressed until construc-
tion work was actually undertaken and
prosecuted to the extent q excavating
the canal clear across Paradise valley
and the doing of some work near the
dam site. Sufficient funds were not
forthcoming and the enterprise lag
ged An itinerant preacher and
colporteur. who came to Arizona on
mission work. became much inter
ested in the scheme and identified
himself with the company. going east
for the purpose of raisings funds.
Much literature was published there
after that is said to have caused the
financial ruin of many ultra religious
people who were influenced to invest
their savings in the belief that an
enterprise being exploited by so
worthy a man of the cloth as this
representative seemed to be. must
surely be the chance of a life time.
Literature for which this man is
said to have been responsible. set
forth a reorganizing of the original
enterprise after plan that was to be
as much for the glory of God and
the salvation of the world as it was
for the creation of wealth for the pro-
mOters and stockholders. 1t was set
- ole Inc .
Continued on Page 81