[Illustration: MAKING FURROWS FOR IRRIGATION]
“_It is a grander achievement to expand the domain of
civilization by water than by blood._”
National reclamation was the dream of Western statesmen and thinkers
for a quarter of a century before a laggard Congress gave it form and
actuality by the law of June 17, 1902. With the passage of that law and
another which initiated the construction of the Panama Canal,--both
were signed by President Roosevelt in the same month,--the engineering
forces of the nation were flung into widely differing fields of
activity. With the Panama Canal engineers, the task, though herculean,
was confined to a restricted and perfectly well defined area. On
the other hand, the Reclamation problems were generally in regions
widely separated, remote from transportation, and often unsurveyed
and unexplored. To appreciate the variety and magnitude of the tasks
involved, it is necessary briefly to describe the general character of
the country in which these works were projected.
_The Desert States_
The great American desert may be roughly described as lying between
the western boundary of the Mississippi Valley and the Pacific Ocean,
and as embracing about two-fifths of the total area of continental
United States, exclusive of Alaska. The superficial area of the several
states that comprise this desert is almost equal to the combined areas
of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy,
the British Isles, Austro-Hungary, Spain, Portugal, the Balkan States,
Turkey in Europe, and Japan. The population of the so-called desert
states[A] is 16,423,625, while that of the countries above-mentioned is
over twelve times as great. Within the confines of the desert is every
gradation of climate from north temperate to semi-tropic found in these
European countries. Its physical geography includes a wide variety of
features from the Great Plains to the highest and lowest elevations
in our country. Herein are found the most notable scenic attractions,
including the great national playgrounds of Yellowstone, Glacier, Rocky
Mountain, Mount Rainier, Crater Lake and Yosemite National Parks, the
Grand Canyon of Arizona, and the principal national forests.
[A] Arizona, New Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Utah,
Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota,
Oklahoma.
[Illustration: THE FIRST FLOW OF WATER