Data Collection Report - Flood Control District of Maricopa County

the Salt River valley and filled the several irrigation canal systems. Mostof the farmers in the study area, and thus most of the land, joined the SaltRiver Valley Waters Users Association which in later years becameknown as the Salt River Project (Rogge and others 1995; Smith 1986;Zarbin 1986). In the first years of the new decade, alfalfa was thedominant crop in the area, used primarily to feed thousands of dairycattle.The hostilities of World War I cut off Egyptian supplies of long-staplecotton from the American market, and defense contractors looked todomestic farms to provide cotton for tires and airplane fabric. The wartimedemand made long-staple cotton into a boom crop in the Salt RiverValley, and in 1916, cotton fields outnumbered the previously dominantalfalfa fields. By 1920, cotton plants filled three-fourths of the irrigatedfarm fields across the valley, a total of 190,000 acres (Luckingham1993:86).Predictably, the dependence on a single crop back-fired when cottonprices collapsed in 1920, and in 1921 local banks offered low-interestloans to valley farmers planning to return their acreage to crops otherthan cotton. All over the valley, farmers returned almost 50,000 acres toalfalfa, used primarily as feed for dairy cattle. In addition, farmersplanted wheat, barley, sorghum and corn to supply local cattle feedlotsand poultry ranches, expanded citrus groves, and experimented witholive and date crops. Farmers also took advantage of new railroadconnections to ship more fragile crops such as melons, grapes, lettuce,and winter vegetables to national markets. Adjacent to the railroadsidings, industrial and warehouse facilities flourished (Kotlanger1993:92-96).By 1940, long and short staple cotton remained an important cash crop,occupying over 117,000 acres in Maricopa County, about one-third theacres under cultivation (Horton 1941:79). Alfalfa remained the secondmost important crop, occupying more than 100,000 acres. Otherimportant crops included lettuce, cantaloupe, and citrus, as well as dairyand beef cattle (Horton 1941:87-88).The combination of fertile, alluvial fields and the availability of riverwater delivered by canal systems encouraged homesteaders to settle thestudy area (General Land Office 1914a,1914b). A map of MaricopaCounty compiled in the 1930s illustrates rural houses as hundreds of tinysquares scattered all across the study area. For the most part, thesehouses, presumably farmhouses and homestead houses, wereconcentrated along the major east-west roadways, and distributedequally along these roads throughout the project area. A rough estimateof the number of squares on the map indicates that a total ofapproximately 60 houses were built along Van Buren, and a similarnumber were built along Buckeye and Lower Buckeye roads. Theshorter, unpaved north-south roads along section lines, such as 115 th and91 st avenues, contained approximately 20 houses (Maricopa County 193-). In some locations across the study area, these houses built in the earlyyears of the century still stand. In other locations, only stands of Arizonacedars and piles of rubble indicate the location of a vanished farm home.Schools were located on the southwest corner of Van Buren and 67 thAvenue, on the southeast corner of Buckeye Road and 27 th Avenue, onthe west side of 51 st Avenue south of Buckeye Road, on the west side of75 th Avenue south of Lower Buckeye Road, on the west side of 91 stAvenue south of Lower Buckeye Road, and on the southwest corner ofBuckeye and 115 th Avenue (Becker 1941; General Land Office 1914aand 1914b; Heard 1915; Salt River Project 1934).Several locales in the study area acquired name designations over theyears, most of them along the railroad line. Cashion, near 111 th Avenueand Buckeye Road, took the name of the Cashion family thathomesteaded four sections of land (General Land Office 1914a). TheCashion Post Office was established in 1911 and named after AngusCashion, “prominent farmer and stockman” (Barnes 1988:30). In 1941,Cashion was home to what was reputed to be one of the largest beetseed storage sheds in the world (Horton 1941:202).To the northwest of Cashion, the settlement of Tolleson grew up around91 st Avenue and Van Buren Road. The station on the Buckeye branch ofthe Arizona-Eastern Railroad was named for W. G. Tolleson (Barnes1988:446). Mr. Tolleson, founder of Tolleson Farms, bought 160 acresof land at the southwest intersection of Lateral 22 and the Yuma Roadin 1910.By 1941, Tolleson claimed to be the “largest cantaloupe producingcenter in the United States” with between 15-20 sheds to house thecantaloupe and lettuce harvests (Horton 1941:202). In addition, a largeice plant outside town produced the ice to cool the produce as it wasshipped to market. The influence of automobile travel through the areais evidenced in the eight cottage courts, four service stations, and twogarages. Tolleson also included seven grocery stores, a dry goods store,five restaurants, a theater, a lumberyard, a barber and beauty shop, twodrug stores, and a clinic. The varied ethnic make-up of the town is hintedat by one observer’s comments about the Japanese and Hindu farmers,and the “prevalence of the Mexican and Spanish population” causingDIBBLE & ASSOCIATES 51 DURANGO ADMPDATA COLLECTION REPORT