Building a State in Apache Land | Page 5

When the State of California was organized in 1850, the constitution
adopted the boundary line of the State, and consequently assumed
jurisdiction over the slip of land on the bank of the Colorado opposite
Fort Yuma. When Fort Yuma was established, the commanding officer
established a military reservation, including both banks of the Colorado
River at its junction with the Gila.
The boundary line between Mexico and the United States, under the
treaty of 1848, was run in 1850, and monuments erected on the
southern bank of the Colorado, to indicate the possession of the United
States.
While we were encamped on the banks of the Colorado River, in the
hot month of July, 1854, we concluded to locate a town-site on the slip
of land opposite Fort Yuma, and as we were well provided with treaties,
maps, surveying instruments, and stationery, there was not much
difficulty in making the location. The actual survey showed 936 acres
within the slip, and this was quite large enough for a "town-site." A
town-site is generally the first evidence of American civilization.
After locating the town-site at Yuma there was nothing to do but to
cross the desert from the Colorado River to San Diego. We made the
journey on mules, with extraordinary discomfort. At San Diego we
were as much rejoiced as the followers of Xenophon to see the sea.

The town-site was duly registered in San Diego, which could not have
been done if both banks of the Colorado just below its junction with the
Gila had not been recognized as being within the jurisdiction of the
State of California. The county of San Diego collected taxes there for
many years. After the organization of the Territory of Arizona in 1863,
Arizona assumed jurisdiction over the slip, and built a prison there.
Congress subsequently made a grant of land included in the slip to the
"Village of Yuma," so that it is a mere question of jurisdiction, not
involving the validity of any titles. The question of jurisdiction still
remains unsettled, as it requires both an Act of Congress and Act of the
State Legislature to change the boundaries of a sovereign State.
The town-site of Yuma has grown slowly, but there will be a town
there as long as the two rivers flow. The Southern Pacific Railroad was
completed years ago, and forms the great artery of commerce.
Immigration enterprises of great magnitude have been undertaken with
the waters of the Colorado River. The river washes fully three hundred
thousand square miles, and furnishes a water power in the cataracts of
the Grand Cañon only second to Niagara.
"At Yuma, on the Colorado River, the only attempt at irrigation so far
made is by pumping works, which raise the water from the river and
convey it in pipes to the lands to be watered. While thus far only a
limited area is watered by this method, the results are satisfactory, and
the expense no greater than in many of the pipe systems of California.
"But for the magnitude, scope, and the boldness of its purpose, the
project to irrigate the great Colorado Desert is without a parallel in the
arid West, if in the world.
"This undertaking contemplates the construction of gravity canals from
a point in the Colorado River, several miles above Yuma, and the
conducting of the waters of this river over an arid waste, that, while
forbidding in appearance, is known to be capable of great fertility. One
interesting feature of this plan to reclaim the desert is found in the
character of the water to be utilized. Analysis shows that the water of
the Colorado River carries a larger percentage of sedimentary deposit
than any other river in the world, not excepting the Nile. The same is

true, in a relative degree, of all the other rivers in Arizona. By constant
use of these waters the soil not only receives the reviving benefits of
irrigation, but at the same time a very considerable amount of
fertilizing material.
"The beneficial results thus made possible have already been
practically demonstrated, and what may be achieved by the proposed
reclamation of a vast area, with peculiar advantages of climate and
environment, is one of the most significant suggestions conceivable in
connection with the new era of irrigation.
"The storage of water by reservoirs for irrigation purposes has thus far
been one of the untried problems in Arizona. But the possibilities in
this section are equal to any section of the arid West, and because of the
stability and certainty of this method, it is only a question of time when
it will be carried into practical force."[B]
In the progress of civilization, Fort Yuma has given way to an Indian
school, where the dusky denizens of the Colorado are progressing in