Weekly journal-miner., 1919-05-21
CHA BEND RECLAMATION
 PROJECT ID BE INSTALLED

mated yesterday, in which F. A. Gil lespie and his son, B. A. Gillespie, ac- qured 72.O00 acres of land near G,.a Bend and the property of the Gi'a Water company, of which latter. Judge C. F. Ainsworth was the prin- cipal owner. M J. Murphy was the holder of all option on the land from the Santa Fe Railroad company. which some years ago had laid Mok' scrip on it.
 The details of the transaction have not been fully made public, but it ;s understood that not less than Sl ,0OO,- 900 was involved in it. The promot- CTS of t:1e deal were Mir. Murphy and w. T. Smith. The elder MT. Giles pie is an oil magnate of Oklahoma. His son has for some time been a resident of the city, with offices Fl the Gooding building.
 Canal and Damsite Included.
 The property of the Gila Water company consists of about 40 miles of canal and a damsite near Gila Bend, the site of the o1d Wolfley dam constructed in 1923.
 About 30 years ago, Lewis Wolf ley. former governor of Arizona, un- Ter the Harrison administration, o. ganized the Gila Bend Reservoir and Irrigation company, for the purpose of reclaiming large area of desert and along the lower Gila. He in crested in the project a group of Peoria, Illinois, capitalists who lad already become interested in the Salt River valley, among them the late j. | B. Grenhut, the well known distiller md later New York merchant, whose death occurred few months ago. A !. canal 40 miles in length was constructed, and the dam. which wa' nen perhaps the most extensive artl iicial reservoir in the west, was near l lv finished in 1893, when it was washed out by a flood. Repairs were made and again the dam went out. Litigation Stopped Old Project Soon thereafter litigation aros' ,mong the stockholders, tthe Peori; | .roup on one side and former Gov ernor Wolfley on the other. Tn fight was long and bitter one, orig
 hating in the district court for thi
 .ounty and carried to the suprem
 rourt of the United States. 1t wa
 nlivened by contempt proceeding | md other frills of litigation. In tn
 md Wolfley was defeated and th project was reorganized with Jame McMillan, former superintendent 0
 he Arizona Canal company, as gen
 ral manager
 Throughout this litigation Judg .linsworth was chief counsel for tn | Peoria litigants. The dam was neve reconstructed and for time activi .ies ceased. Later the Gila Wate
 company was organized by Judg
 Ainsworth.
 |. Various attempts were made to re vive the project and two years ag' q party headed by J. C. Adams Wa
 ormed for the purpose of bringing the irrigation project and the lan' together. After that nothing nor I,was heard of it until some tw'
 months ago it was rumored tha
 :here was a revival of interest il the project which, it is now certain
 will be pushed through and man,
 thousands of acres of land in tha rich region will be brought unde irrigation.
 Big New Dam to Be Constructed | An interesting fact in connection with the deal is that the same con tractor who built the Wolfley dan
 will De the contractor for the nev lam, 30 years later-C. F. Crowle, of Los Angeles. But it will be diff ferent kind of dam, for in a genera ,ion there have been many change
 or the better in dam construction The old dam was a rock structure, a good as could have been built at tha time, but not good enough to curl the furious Gila when on rampage The new dam will be concret' structure built upon bedrock.
 The details of the transaction have not yet been made public; that is, i is not known how much money wa paid for the land held by Mir. Mur phy. and how much for the property of the Gila Water company, but I is stated that under the contract fol the construction of the dam NIT Crowley will receive S690000. f
 Biggest Project of Its Kind in Worlt
 This project. it is stated, will b' the largest private irrigation enter prise in the world.
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