Data Collection Report - Flood Control District of Maricopa County

per second) 4 . The Salt River Farming Ditch Company built a canaldownstream from the Griffin Ditch in 1872, and with a bottom width of25 feet, it was much larger than the earlier canal. At a cost ofapproximately $22,000, the ditch was planned to extend all the way westto the Agua Fria River (Zarbin 1997:35)By the spring of 1872, six ditches diverted water from the north bank ofthe Salt River within the project area. From east to west, the list includedthe Swilling Canal, the Wilson Canal, the Juan Chiviri/Griffin Ditch, theSalt River Valley Canal, the Monterey Canal, and the Mexican Canal. Inone observer’s opinion, farmers cultivated about 8,000 acres in thespring of 1872, about half in barley, one-third in wheat, and the rest invegetables, alfalfa, vineyards, and orchards (Zarbin 1997:35).The Arizona desert climate cycles between wet spells and dry years. Inthe first years of the 1870s, abundant floods washed out both canals andbrush diversion dams across the valley. By 1879, however, a dry yearbrought new concerns and accusations. The worried Salt River Valleyfarmers talked about building a unified irrigation system with a singlewatertight dam on bedrock to divert the Salt River water into theircanals. In 1881, Territorial Governor John C. Fremont urged theTerritorial Assembly to “seek federal aid to develop water-storageprojects that would enable vast wastelands to be occupied by settlers”(Waggoner 1970:174). The discussions eventually led to the formationof the Salt River Valley Water Users’ Association and the constructionof Roosevelt dam in the first decade of the new century.4 The term “miner’s inch” is a measurement of small amounts of flowing water, and the exactamount of water included in a miner’s inch is determined by individual state statute. In Arizona, a miner’s inchof is equal to 1 /40 cubic foot of water per second, or 11.22 gallons per minute.“Full of Push and Enterprise”Worries about insufficient river flows did not prevent new groups fromforming irrigation companies. In the early months of 1887, W. H. St.John and three other men dug a new ditch on the north bank of the SaltRiver. Intending to irrigate forty sections of land, they appropriated5,000 miner’s inches of water into the St. John Canal from a canal headat 83 rd Avenue. In 1892, the small canal company sold the seven-milelong St. John Canal to the Orange Belt Land and Canal Company(Zarbin 1997:109). The St. John Canal extended northwest from theSalt River almost to the Agua Fria River and persisted on maps into the1930s (Heard 1915;Maricopa County 189-; U.S. Reclamation Service1914; Salt River Project 1934).Also completed prior to 1891 was the Farmers Canal between the St.John Canal and the Griffin Ditch (Maricopa County 189-; Schultz &Franklin 1891). Although one source suggests that the Farmers Canalmay have been constructed as early as 1868, it is likely that this canalthrough the study area flowed only intermittently in the 1870s and1880s. As was typical of simple diversion dams, the brush dam in theSalt River in the general area of today’s 27 th Avenue and Lower BuckeyeRoad washed out frequently. When investors in the newly formedFarmers Irrigation Company inspected the Farmers Canal in the summerof 1890, they described it as in poor repair, with less than 5,000 acres offarmland contracted to receive water [out of a possible 24,000 acres thatmight have been served by the length of the canal]. In October 1890,crews worked to re-dig a 12-mile segment of the canal, but therevitalization of the Farmers Canal system was short-lived. Perhaps dueto damage caused by wide-spread flooding in 1891, the FarmersIrrigation Company dissolved within the decade amid a flurry of legaldocuments as the board members of the company sued each other(Rogge and others 1991:170-172).By the early 1890s, more than one hundred miles of canals had beenconstructed across the valley to irrigate more than 100,000 acres offarmland. Optimism for the future of the desert settlement ran high.Promoters such as Theodore Schultz and William Franklin, self-styled“immigration solicitors,” touted the agricultural potential of the Valleywith promotional literature including maps, brochures, and even poetry.The following verses were inscribed on Schultz and Franklin’s 1891 mapof the Salt River Valley,The branch here bends beneath the weight pear,And verdant olives flourish round the year;The balmy spirit of the western galeEternal breathes on fruits untaught to fail.The same mild season gives the blooms to blow,The buds to harden, and the fruits to grow(Schultz & Franklin 1891).In the same spirit of optimism, the publishers of the first city directorydescribed Phoenix as the most important commercial town in theTerritory, “thoroughly American, and its citizens are live and go-aheadpeople full of push and enterprise” (Bensel Directory Company 1892).Fields, Towns, and HomesDrought followed flood, and the drought years of the late 1890s againspurred discussions of a major storage dam on the Salt River. Tied withnational sentiment for reclamation, these discussions culminated in theformation of the Salt River Valley Waters Users Association in 1903, agroup that worked with the federal government under the 1902Newlands Act to begin construction of the Theodore Roosevelt Dam in1905. Completed in 1911, the masonry dam assured a water supply toDIBBLE & ASSOCIATES 50 DURANGO ADMPDATA COLLECTION REPORT