Source: https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=1138559
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 10:58:56+00:00

Document:
177 ing."151 Following Mexico's 1821 independence from Spain, irrigation usage in the Southwest was influenced for a time by Mexico's colonization policies, an influence terminated as to Texas with its independence in 1836, and as to the areas ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, and under the Gadsden purchase in 1853.152 In the meantime, the Mormon settlers had already started irrigation works in the Utah area. The very afternoon of their arrival in Salt Lake Valley in 1847, it is reported that a small advance group of these pioneers set about building an irrigation dam.183 Noteworthy here is the fact that the common-law riparian doctrine never existed in Utah, the appropriation doc- trine deriving from custom and from territorial and state laws now being reflected in a comprehensive water code.154 In addi- tion to the irrigation operations of many individuals, millions of acre-feet of water are today stored in Utah to furnish the needs of hundreds of mutual irrigation companies.155 Early day miners also influenced the development of water law in the West. After the 1848 discovery of gold in Cali- fornia, a custom evolved whereby the first appropriator of waters for mining purposes was held to have a better right than others to use the waters.156 This custom was sanctioned by the courts of California and other western jurisdictions.157 ™ Id. p. 36. 158 For an extensive discussion of Mexican legal antecedents of Texas water law, see Motl v. Boyd, 116 Tex. 82, 286 S. W. 458 (1926). See also BoquilUs Land & Cattle Co. v. Curtis, 213 U. S. 339 (1909); Los Angeles Farming and Milling Co. v. City of Los Angeles, 217 U. S. 217 (1910); United States v. Gerlach Live Stock Co., 339 U. S. 725, 742-745 (1950). For discussion of Mexican law in relation to California water use, see Lux v. Haggin, 69 Cal. 255, 313-334, 10 Pac. 674, 705-719 (1886). "* Irrigation Companies in Utah, Bulletin 322, Agricultural Experiment Station, Utah State Agricultural College, p. 10 (March 1946). ™ State v. Rolio, 71 Utah 91, 100,, 262 Pac. 987, 993 (1927); Utah Code Ann. 1943, § 100-1-1 et seq. 188 Irrigation Companies in Utah, Bulletin 322, Agricultural Experiment Station, Utah State Agricultural College, p. 3 (March 1946). "• Atchison v. Peterson, 20 Wall. 507, 510 (U. S. 1874) ; Long, A Treatise ow the Law of Irrigation, § 76, p. 138 (2d ed. 1916). 1871 Wiel, Water Bights in the Western States, §§ 154-155, pp. 177-180 (3d ed. 1911).

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