THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 



MONTHLY 



JANUARY, 1907 



THE POSSIBILITIES OF SALTON SEA 



By CHARLES ALMA BYERS 



LOS ANGELES, CAL. 



r I THROUGH temporarily losing control over the Imperial Valley 

 -*- irrigation system in southern California, there has been sug- 

 gested the possibility of creating an immense inland sea. This sea 

 would extend from Volcano Lake in Mexico to a point a few miles 

 north of Indio, California, and would spread over an area of 1,700 

 square miles, with a maximum depth of 280 feet. It would be fed by 

 an irrigation canal intersecting the Colorado Eiver near Yuma, Arizona, 

 and its overflow would be carried into the Gulf of California by the 

 lower part of the same river. It would submerge many acres of irri- 

 gated and irrigable land, about a dozen fair-sized towns of more or less 

 importance, several miles of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and a num- 

 ber of rich deposits of valuable minerals. And the ability to create 

 such a sea or lake lies simply in abandoning the present effort to 

 regain control over this irrigation system. 



Dealing still further with possibilities of this nature, it may be 

 pointed out that the feed canal of this inland sea could be widened and 

 dredged; and thereby could be created a channel sufficient in dimensions 

 for the entry of boats from the Gulf. This would make it possible for 

 coast steamers to ply between ports on the Pacific Coast and a lake port 

 that might be established near the present site of the town of Indio, at 

 the foot of the eastern slope of the Sierra Madre Mountains, and with a 

 latitude almost parallel with the city of Los Angeles. It is true that 

 if the effort now being made to regain control over this rebellious sys- 

 tem of irrigation should be abandoned to-day, and nature be permitted 

 to reign supreme and unaided by man, it would be several years before 

 the Colorado River could possibly complete the creation of the lake; 



VOL. lxx. — 1. 



