Arizona republican., 1913-03-25
FORT GRANT |S
 RECOMMENDED
Legislative Commit e e Agrees on New Site for Industrial School Which Assures Removal of the School There Shortly

As was previously forecaSted in the columns of The Republican the Iegis- lative committee that went to Fort Grant to investigate the proposed site oI the Industrial school on the aban- d0ned military reservation have re- ported in favor of the site, and with a few minor exceptions the entire position of the administration on the matter has been endorsed.
 The report was introduced in the house yesterday afternoon and be- cause of this the consideration of the Hughes senate bill S1, providing for the removal of the school, was sent back to the committee on judiciary to have the bill amended so that the portion of the recommendations of the committee relative to water rights could be placed therein, and the mat ter of irrigation on the post fixed for all time.
 The recommendation of the com ittee were:
 (a) That in favored years there was enough water to irrigate part of the land donated to the state for Indus trial school purposes;
 tb) That in summer time and in years that were not favored by rain and snow, the supply of water was very low; so low in fact that no wa ter flowed in the creek:
 co That there was no time when there was not q small amount of wa ter flowing through the pipe line to the fort
 Second After the taking of the testimony your committee went to Fort Grant and after thoroughly look ing over the proposed site and exam ming into the conditions that prevail there. we found as follows:
 (a) That at the present time there is about 200 inches of water running in the creek at the first reservoir. and about 100 inches of water at the crossing near the lower end of the reservation near Bonita, showing that one-half of the water supply could be saved by a system of cement ditches and by taking the water from the creek at the place where the greatest amount flows and conducting it through such cement ditches to the lands that were desired to be cul- tivated
 Cb) That there is one well at the fort in whici the water stood at about forty feet from the surface The evidence shows that at times wells had been dug but had been filled up on account of not being used after the pipe line was put in.
 Your committee is well satisfied that at no time can as large an acre. age be irrigated as suggested by the land commission or by the petition CTS from Wilcox, for the simple req son that the water shed is only iron eight to ten miles long and is in ful view of the fort In our judgment the reservoirs on Post Creek mentioned in the report of the land commission are of no value.
 Relative to the question of the pri ority of rights to the waters of Pos Creek, your committee found that tn, amount of land cultivated in thu Bonita district that has been irrigated from the waters of Post Creel amounts to about six hundred acre! owned by four or five different men While a number of the owners of tn, land at Bonita testified that they con, sdered that the reservation had thu first right to the waters of Pos Creek, your committee is of the opin. ion that the question of priority O rights should be settled before the In. dustrial school is moved to For Grant, and would recommend that tn, bill providing for the removal of tn school from it's present location tC Fort Grant be amended to provide fo an adjustment of the water rights be tween the state and the present user of the water by a commission O