THE END OF THE DESERT
There must be, we are told, an end to everything, and the beginning of
the end of the desert is at hand. Already two hundred thousand acres of
the great Colorado Desert has been taken from it and placed with the
productive acreage of the State.
This is but a fraction, to be sure, of the vast amount of arid land in
the State and but about one five-hundredth part of the arid area in the
United States, but it is a beginning, and when it is considered that it
is the work of only two years it will be conceded that it is a
marvelous beginning.
Irrigation, to be sure, is not new to the Western country, but
reclamation on a gigantic scale is new. Farming was carried on by
irrigation in the West before the first white man visited this
continent. In Arizona and New Mexico are to be traced to-day vast
irrigation canals and reservoirs used by a race that had been forgotten
when the first white man visited the region. Some of these ancient
canals are now being used by both Indians and white men in those
Territories.
[Illustration: IRRIGATING DESERT LAND]
The national irrigation idea had its birth in Los Angeles in 1890, when
the business men of that city met and opened a campaign for securing a
Government system. Nearly six thousand letters were written and mailed
to representative men of the country with the result that the idea took
root and national irrigation became an accomplished fact.
Before the Government passed laws whereby irrigation became a national
charge, private enterprise had taken hold of the matter, and the
Imperial canal had been started out into the Colorado Desert. This
canal has had marvelous development, and two years from the time work
was begun upon it more lands had been reclaimed than by any other
single irrigation system in the world.
The work of reclaiming the Colorado Desert was begun in 1900. Not far
from the Mexican line, at Hanlon's Crossing, the river left a
convenient place for the headworks of the great canal. Here is where
the river was tapped. About a mile from the headworks the river, which
in the bygone ages laid down the sixty-mile barrier between the gulf
and the desert, also left a channel whereby to aid in reclaiming the
desert. The first ten miles of this natural channel required some
deepening, and then for some sixty miles across the Mexican border and
back to the international line the canal was ready-made.
From the point where the canal leaves the Colorado to where it returns
to the international line, after circling through Mexican territory,
there is a fall of one hundred and fifteen feet, less than two feet to
the mile. This, however, is sufficient for the purposes of irrigation.
One of the first questions to be settled, when the project for leading
the river out into the desert was considered, was the character of the
water. Not all water found in the arid regions is good for irrigation.
Much of it is so impregnated with alkali as to be injurious rather than
helpful to the soil.
The University of Arizona made daily analysis of the waters of the
river for a period of seventeen months. This analysis showed that the
waters contained no injurious substances, but, on the contrary, much
that is nutritive to the soil.
[Illustration: DESERT SORGHUM]
The waters of the Colorado carry in suspension one-fourth of one per
cent. of solid matter. The color of the water is about like that of
lemonade. The analysis shows that this matter in suspension is composed
of clay, lime, phosphoric acid, available potash, and nitrogen. The
fertilizing value of these substances is about 25 cents per acre-inch
of water. As from twenty-four inches to thirty-six inches of water are
used in the course of the year for each acre irrigated, it will be seen
that the fertilizing value of the water is from $6 to $9 per acre per
year. This means that the land will never wear out but will produce
abundant crops so long as worked and irrigated.
Another question which came up for settlement was the permanence of the
water-supply. The answer to this was equally satisfactory. The mean
flow of the river is found to be forty thousand cubic feet per second,
an amount of water ample to irrigate territory eight times as large as
the Colorado Desert.
The volume of water in the lower Colorado River is greater in the
summer, or dry season, than in the winter, or rainy season. This is
because the river has its source in the great mountainous region in the
north, where the melting snows on the mountain-tops during the summer
season furnish large quantities of water to the streams which make up
the river. This brings the greatest amount of water at the season of
the year when the farmers use the most, a condition most satisfactory
to the projectors of the irrigation system.
The main canal, which was begun in 1900, at the beginning of 1903 had
grown to be one hundred miles long. This canal is seventy feet wide and
eight feet deep, and supplies more than three hundred miles of lateral
canals with water. The first season that water was turned into the
canal, six thousand five hundred acres of crops were raised where for
ages had been nothing but barren desert lands. The second season forty
thousand acres were raised, and at the end of the season one hundred
and twenty-five thousand acres of land had been broken ready for
seeding.
The great sandy wastes have given way to green fields of waving grain,
verdant seas of billowy maize and millet, broad meadows of rich green
alfalfa, and wide pastures where thousands of cattle dot the plain. In
addition to this, new cities are springing up where desolation so
recently reigned, and a railroad has crept down toward the Mexican
line, and is destined to go on to the line and over, even to the great
gulf which ages ago retreated from the land now being turned into a
paradise.
[Illustration: MILO MAIZE ON RECLAIMED DESERT LAND NEAR HEBER]
One of the first towns a man hears of now, when he enters the desert
region, is Calexico, the most remote of the settlements in the desert
north of the Mexican line. It is noted for two things, both of which
have to do with the hotel, one of the half-dozen buildings which
compose the town. When the visitor steps from the train at Old Beach,
in the very heart of the desert, he is apt to be greeted with this
question:
"Going down to Calexico?
"Waal, ye'll git the best meal there of any place in the desert, an'
they've got a shower-bath at the hotel there, too," is the information
vouchsafed when the visitor announces Calexico as his destination.
These are the things which have given Calexico fame. It was nine
o'clock in the evening when the writer and his party arrived at
Calexico in June, 1903, after a two-days drive across the dusty,
burning plain.
"This way," said the landlord who answered our hail, showing us into a
side room in the adobe structure. "Drop your luggage here. You can wash
over there. And right in here," said he, proudly pointing the way, "is
a shower-bath. Help yourselves."
A shower-bath in the very heart of the desert! It is no wonder the
landlord is proud of it, for there is not another within two hundred
miles.
Calexico is a town with a future,--like most of the desert towns,--in
fact, it is nearly all future as yet. It has streets and public
squares, but it lacks the buildings. They will follow, however, for the
railroad is coming, and a rich farming region will center there. The
town is laid out beside the irrigation canal which there forms a
portion of the international boundary.
Over this ditch, in Mexico, is the embryo town of Mexicala, which
consists of a single row of thatched huts and adobes strung along
beside the canal. Nearly every building is a saloon or gambling den, or
both. The town boasts of a population of three hundred souls, with but
a single white man.
None of the towns in the Imperial country on this side of the line sell
intoxicating liquors. This makes Mexicala the Mecca for the
"spirituously" inclined. The liquor obtainable there is of a brand
known as mescal, and there is murder in every glass. In proof of this
assertion, just before we arrived there a Mexican took four drinks and
then shot four persons.
[Illustration: ADOBE HOTEL, CALEXICO, WHICH HAS THE ONLY SHOWER BATH IN
THE DESERT]
Silsbee, twelve miles north of Calexico, is a very young city. There
are three or four tents among the mesquites which border Blue Lake, and
there is a general store, post-office, and dwelling combined. The
building, as well as the business thereof, is composite. It is made
partly of boards, partly of tent cloth, and partly of poles, thatched
with greasewood boughs. The proprietor of the establishment, Dan
Browning, is a red-faced frontiersman who has faith in the future of
his city, and he is in on the ground floor. He will point out to the
visitor "Main Street," "the park," "the hotel site," and other
attractions, and he sees them all in his mind's eye. To the visitor,
however, all these metropolitan wonders appear to be simply desert.
Imperial has the one church of the desert. It is a small wooden
structure--the first wooden building in the valley--which is
whitewashed on the outside. Imperial is ancient. It has two years the
start of its sister towns and it looks down upon them with disdain.
Some of the infant cities have designs upon their big sister, however,
and they mean to outstrip her in the near future. Brawley is one of
these ambitious towns. Heber is another and Holten is still another.
Plans have been perfected for the construction of a grand boulevard
which will pass from the northern limit of the Imperial canal system
to the international line at Calexico. This street will be one of the
wonders of the State when completed. It is to be one hundred feet wide
and thirty-five miles long, and will be so level that it cannot be
determined with the eye which way the street inclines.
Along either side of the way and down through the center of the
thoroughfare will be rows of trees to shut off from the street the
glare of the desert sun. Also on either side will be small canals of
running water which will serve, not only to irrigate the trees but will
be utilized to lay the dust of the street. When completed it will
require but two men to keep the entire street in order.
With this glimpse of the work of reclamation which is taking place in
the desert thus afforded the reader, I will drop the subject and bring
the final chapter to an end. The death of the desert will be a
beautiful one. There will be no lack of flowers to lay upon its bier.
Its grimness and fierceness and terrors will have given place to peace,
plenty, and prosperity. The region of death will be transformed into a
kingdom of life.
INDEX
Alkali, 1, 18
_Allenrolpea occidentalis_, 49
Andesite, 157
Arizona candle, 41
Arsenic spring, 37
Asbestos, 157
Ash Meadows, 175
Banning, 9
Baryta, 157
Basket-making, 92-104
Birds, 66, 67
Bitter sage, 1
Black Buttes, 199, 200
Black Lake, 186
Black Rock Desert, 2
Borax, 1, 142-153, 178
Brawley, 217, 233
Breccia, 157
Bull snake, 61
Burial customs, 75, 80-91
Burro, 107-123
Cactus blossoms, 53
Cactus, grape, 53
Cactus rat, 63
Calexico, 229
Camels, 107, 108, 111, 178
Centipede, 65
_Cereus giganteus_, 41
Chaparral, 38
Chemehuevi Indians, 76
_Chlorogalum pomeridianum_, 50
Cinnabar, 178
_Clistoyucca arborescens_, 38
Coachella Valley, 165
Cocopah Indians, 72, 75, 190
Colorado Desert, 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 61, 71, 161-169, 213, 218-234
Colorado Desert, how formed, 10
Colorado River, 9, 76, 205, 218-234
Copper, 157-159
Coyote, 66
Creosote bush, 57
Crescent Hills, 206
_Crotalus cerastes_, 60
Daggett, 157
Death Valley, 5, 6, 68, 103, 142, 146, 149, 150, 172-183
Desert journalism, 209-217
Deserts,
Black Rock, 2;
Colorado, 1, 2, 5, 6, 9, 61, 71, 161-169, 213, 218-234;
Great American, 1, 2;
Mojave, 2, 5, 6, 80, 84, 87, 108, 116, 140, 209;
Nevada, 2;
Painted, 2;
Smoke Creek, 2
Deserts, extent and origin, 10
Devil's Chair, 175
Early navigators, 13
Earthquakes, 186, 187
_Ephydra Californica_, 68
Funeral Mountains, 175
Furnace Creek, 175
Gila Monster, 1, 61, 62, 63, 65
Gila River, 10
Gold, 131, 140
Gold districts, 131, 139, 154, 157
Gold Mine, Pegleg, 193
Grand Cañon, 9
Greasewood, 38, 49
Great American Desert, 1, 2
Gulf of California, 9
Gypsum, 157
Hanlon's Crossing, 222
Heber, 233
_Heloderina horridum_, 61
Hematite, 178
Holton, 233
Hopi Indians, 100, 103
Horned toad, 62
Human bones, 30, 34
Imperial, 217-233
Imperial Canal, 217-234
Imperial Press, 209-217
Indio, 166
Iron, 157
Irrigation, 218-234
Jasper, 158
Journalism, 209-217
Koochabee, 68
Lake Juala, 186
Lead, 157
Lithia, 159
Maguey, 54
Manganese, 157
Map ancient California, 14, 15
Marble, 157, 158
McPherson, John F., desert experiences, 22-29
Mescal, 54
Mesquite, 38
Mexicala, 230
Mirage, 6
Mojave Desert, 2, 5, 6, 80, 84, 87, 108, 116, 140, 209
Mt. Grayback, 9
Mt. San Jacinto, 9
Needles, 209-217
Needle's Eye, 209-217
Nevada Desert, 2
Niter, 1, 146
Nopal, 53
Oases, 2
Old Beach, 229
Ollas, 195, 196
Onyx, 157
Owen's Lake, 68
Padre Junipero Serra, 83
Painted Desert, 2
Palo-verde, 38
Panamint Indians, 68, 71, 103
Pectis, 57
Pegleg Gold Mine, 193, 194
Phantom ship, 199
_Phrynosoma_, 62
Pilot Knob, 201
Pomo Indians, 95
Prickly pear, 50
Prospector, 127-141
Randsburg, 209
_Randsburg Miner_, 209-217
Rattlesnake, 1, 60, 61
Rhyolite, 157
Sage, 38
Sahuaro, 49
Salt, 161-169, 178
Salton, 6, 161-169
Saratoga Springs, 176
Scorpion, 65, 66
Serra, Padre Junipero, 83
Side-winder, 60
Signal Mountain, 201
Silsbee, 230
Silver, 158
Smoke Creek Desert, 2
Snakeweed, 54
Soap plant, 50
Soda, 146, 176
Spanish bayonet, 45
Submarine, 209-217
Sulphur, 157, 178
Sutuma, 83-91
Tarantula, 1, 64
Temperature, 22, 140
Thirst, tortures of, 18, 172
Tin, 157
Tortoise, 64, 65
Tourmaline, 159
Tufa, 157
Tuna, 53
Turquoise, 76
Volcanoes, 6, 71, 184-188
Walking Hills, 202, 206
Water, 17-37
Water wells, 30, 33
Well of the desert, 53
Yucca, 38, 45, 49
Yuma Indians, 75
Zinc, 157
Old Paths _and_ Legends of New England
_With many Illustrations of Massachusetts Bay, Old Colony, Rhode
Island, and the Providence Plantations, and the Fresh River of the
Connecticut Valley_
By KATHERINE M. ABBOTT
_8^o, very fully illustrated, net. $3.50. (By mail, $3.75.)_
The idea for this book grew out of the fact that Miss Abbott's little
paper-bound _Trolley Trips_, describing the old New England
neighborhoods that may now be reached by the trolley, have met with an
astonishingly wide demand. In this more pretentious work Miss Abbott
has utilized her fund of material to draw a delightful picture of the
quaint byways of New England. But in this case her wanderings are not
limited by gaps in the trolley circuit, or by daylight or car-fares.
Historic spots of national interest, curious or charming out-of-the-way
places, Indian legends and Yankee folk-lore find full justice in Miss
Abbott's entertaining pages. Fiction could never interpret New England
so honestly as does this volume.
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
New York London
The Romance of the Colorado River
A Complete Account of the Discovery and of the Explorations
from 1540 to the Present Time, with Particular Reference to
the two Voyages of Powell through the line of the Great
Canyons.
By Frederick S. Dellenbaugh, Member of the U. S. Colorado
River Expedition of 1871 and 1872, author of "North
Americans of Yesterday," etc. 8^o. Fully illustrated. $3.50
net. By mail, $3.75.
Ever since the day of its discovery by Alarçon in 1540, the Colorado
River of the West has been of romantic interest. Bound in for more than
one thousand miles of its course in the stupendous canyon which was and
always will be one of the wonders of the natural world, it defied for
centuries full exploration. The first descent of Major Powell through
its magnificent gorges, in 1869, and his second in 1871-72, giving to
the world a complete knowledge of the unknown river, form together one
of the most interesting pages of our history. The volume is well
illustrated by photographs, taken on the expedition, by new maps, and
by drawings made by the author and by others.
The Hudson River from Ocean to Source
Historical--Legendary--Picturesque. By Edgar Mayhew Bacon,
author of "Chronicles of Tarrytown," etc. 8^o. With over 100
illustrations. Net $4.50. (By mail, $4.80.)
No stream in America is so rich in legends and historic associations as
the Hudson. From ocean to source every mile of it is crowded with the
reminders of the early explorers, of the Indian wars, of the struggle
of the colonies, and of the quaint, peaceful village existence along
its banks in the early days of the Republic. Before the explorers came,
the river figured to a great extent in the legendary history of the
Indian tribes of the East. Mr. Bacon is well equipped for the
undertaking of a book of this sort, and the story he tells is of
national interest. The volume is illustrated with views taken
especially for this work and with many rare old prints now first
published in book form.
New York--G. P. Putnam's Sons--London
Transcriber's Notes
Page 53: Changed "cyclindrical" to "cylindrical."
(Orig: a cyclindrical-shaped green plant)
Page 116: Changed "indisspensable" to "indispensable."
(Orig: the prospector deems him indisspensable)
Page 171: Removed duplicate "a."
(Orig: information that a a similar inundation had taken place)
Page 217: Changed "oufit" to "outfit."
(Orig: first objects to greet his eye was a printing oufit,)
Page 235: Changed page 156 to 157.
(Orig: Gold districts, 131, 139, 154, 156)
Page 236: Changed "Mexacala" to "Mexicala."
(Orig: Mexacala, 230)
Page 237: Changed page 180 to 172.
(Orig: Thirst, tortures of, 18, 180)
End of Project Gutenberg's The Mystic Mid-Region, by Arthur J. Burdick