Wealth of the Worlds Waste Places and Oceania | Page 7

in trying to find the legacy of Smith have met the same
fate.
But the hidden wealth of this great region, so long known as the "Great
American Desert," is by no means confined to its storehouses of gold,
silver, and copper. Here, there, and almost everywhere are areas that
lack but one element to make them the most productive regions of the
world, and that one element is water.
The conquest of the Colorado desert is not the first instance of desert
land reclamation in the United States, but it is certainly one of the
marvels of the world's history. A more pronounced and inhospitable
desert never existed; and, in proportion to the area reclaimed, it is
doubtful if one can find greater productivity than the lands that
constitute Imperial Valley. Let us take a glance at nature's work in this
region.
Long before the Mississippi was born the Colorado was an ancient
river and it formerly flowed through a fertile valley. During countless
ages it has stripped from the plateau and carried into the Gulf of
California a deposit of rock waste from the land surface of its basin
many feet deep, and abraded billions of tons of material from its

channel. All this silt and detritus have served to fill up the northern part
of the gulf, the result of the deposit being an immense land area. At
length a great bar was formed across the northern part of the gulf,
making a sort of inland sea. Then the hot climate caused the water to
evaporate, while from time to time the Colorado overflowed its banks,
spreading a rich sediment over the former sea-bed.
Various parts of this depression, which, like Palestine, lie below the
sea-level, are known as Salton, Coahuilla, and Imperial Valleys. The
lowest part, now filled with water, is usually called the Salton Sea. The
whole of this region is comprehended under the name of Colorado
Desert. In 1900 a company was formed to reclaim that part of the desert
included in Imperial Valley, by taking water out of the Colorado River
a few miles below the boundary between California and Mexico.
A main canal, called the Imperial Canal, one hundred miles long,
seventy feet wide, and eight feet deep carries water from the Colorado
to Imperial Valley, where it is distributed by hundreds of smaller canals.
The irrigation facilities are already sufficient to water more than one
hundred thousand acres.
This region, rightly named the hot-house of America, produces
marvellous crops of hay, grain, and fruits; it is an ideal place for raising
live-stock and poultry as well. Some of this land already brings into its
owners from three hundred dollars to seven hundred dollars yearly
income per acre, and because of its wonderful fertility it is likened to
the valley of the Nile.
In 1904 the Imperial Canal was filled with silt for some distance, thus
preventing the flow of the proper amount of water needed for irrigation.
To remedy the defect a temporary canal was cut around the head-gate.
This expedient had been tried and then the gap had been closed up
before high water. At this particular time high water came earlier than
usual, and a great flood tore out the channel of the temporary canal to
such an extent that before it could be prevented the whole Colorado
River was flowing through the breach, leaving its own bed perfectly
dry to the Gulf of California, filling up the Salton Valley, burying up
the Salton salt-works, and making an inland sea such as formerly

existed there. After most strenuous efforts, and at the enormous
expense of upward of a million dollars, the gap was at length repaired
and the Colorado made to flow in its own bed.
One should remember that in the development of these deserts the
prospector owes a deep debt of gratitude to that patient, faithful little
beast, the donkey, or "burro," as it is commonly known; without the
service of this animal many a man would have suffered a lingering
death. As a matter of fact, it is unsafe to venture far out into the desert
unaccompanied by this oft-maligned creature--about the only animal
fitted to carry supplies.
[Illustration: Built by the U. S. Reclamation Service The Roosevelt
Dam, Arizona, showing south bridge and spillway]
But the use of dams and canals to conserve and supply water for
irrigation prevailed even in most ancient times. Extensive irrigation
works were built in Egypt three thousand years ago, and in India, China,
Persia, and the countries bordering on the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers
irrigation dates back centuries before the Christian era.
The Romans introduced irrigation into southern Europe. When Pizarro
conquered the empire of the Incas he found the people possessed of
wonderful systems for irrigation. Likewise, Cortez found the