The Parker post., 1914-08-29
NEW PLANS AFOOT FOR
OPENING PARKER LANDS
State Land Commission Asked to Report to Sec.
retary Lane Upon Feasibility Of Reclaim
ing Surplus Lands by Pumping.

Owing to the recent decision of the
interior department not to approve
in it's present form the bill which,
has been pending before the depart
ment for some months providing fof
THE opening of the Colorado Rivea
Indian reservation, many people ina
terested i'm the opening of thesd
lands have become discouraged.
There are absolutely no groundd
for encouragement. 1t has been
known for months that the bill waA
dead letter, on account of the inn
ability of any irrigation company to
market Carey act bonds, or any othe'
sort of irrigation bonds for thas
matter.
Previous to the definite decisJoA
in this matter by the interior DEPART
ment, the board of trade officiaI9
had been urging the Arizona deIe-
cation and the department to sett.d
the matter, either one way or this
other, so that other means might BIZ
adopted to secure the opening of tha
lands. 1t was also urged that soma
alternative plan be presented by tho
department.
At recent meeting held by Assis-
tant Secretary Jones and the Arizona
delegation, Mr.. Jones stated that the,
department would recommend an ap-
preparation for the survey Of the pre-
posed dam at Headgate Rock, and Of
the bitches and Iaterals, as we'll ia
other necessary work required before
any project could be possibly cont
structed.
In accordance with this suggestion
by the department Congressman
Hayden has just introduced a bill n
congress for this purpose, which pre-
vides for an appropriation of one
hurydred thousand dollars. In a re-
cent letter received from Mr.. Hay
den he states that he is confident
that this appropriation will be incIud-
ed in the next Indian appropriation
bill, which is to be passed at tnk
short session, beginning in December.
He further stated that the work
prkvded for in the bill would be
necessary, whether the state took up
the reclamation of the land or
whether the reservation were opened
in any other manner.
Present Plans for Opening.
Last week J. 3. Flanagan, presden
of the Board of Trade, had a conf
ference with MuIfcrd Wnsor, chair
man of the State Land Commission,
regarding future plans for the open-
irg of the reservation lands. Mr..
Winsor recently returned from WASH
ington, where he had several confe1
ences with Secretary Lane and AS
sistant Secretary Jones regarding the
Parker situation. He was authorized
by those officials to make an inves-
tigaton on behalf of the state as to-
the feasibility of opening the lands
under a pumping proposition. That
is, selling the surplus lands to set
tiers at ten dollars per acre if it s
foundthattheycculd be made valuable
by pumping the water onto the Iandsa
Later, the state could assist in Fl
nancing a gravity system after thel
organization OF an irrigation district
Mr.. Winscr requested Mr.. Flana-
gan to proceed at once in securing
the necessary data. This data Will
be submitted to the state land COM
mission, and either Mr.. Winsor o1
some other member of the commis-
zion will then come to Parker to
check up the data, after which it id
to be forwarded to Washington.
The department will then act upcn
the recommendation of the stats
land commission, progabIy by sending
a corps of engineers to investigate
the feasibility of the pumping propo-
siticn.
Of course it can be easily shown
that the lands are capable Of recIa-
nation by pumping, as the wateA
level is from eight to fifteen feet,
andin some places about twenty feet,
Plants could be placed along tha !
river and water taken out of the
stream direct, the same as the pres
ent government plant. Or one pIanA
could be constructed capable of rri
eating all of the land. In the mean-
time settlers could put in small
plants themselves and pump watef
until such time as an irrig alton dis
AG