432 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1935 



that stood them well in the following battles with the river, and 

 the event focused attention of the State and Nation to the need for 

 lower Colorado River control. 



On several later occasions the river threatened to break through 

 the dikes, and of the 150 miles of levees that have been built to hold 

 the Colorado in its channel only one-third now remain. Thus the 

 struggle with silt and flood has continued, while ever in the back- 

 ground has hovered the dread spectre of drought. Only a high 

 dam and huge reservoir could successfully control the river, but the 

 cost was too great to be borne by the lands directly benefited. 



Aid, however, was not far away. Man has ever traveled westward 

 in the settlement of our country, and in southern California, where 

 the slopes of the Pacific are bathed in the warm winds of the Japa- 

 nese current, he had found a land much to his liking. The large 

 ranches and presidios of the Spaniards were transformed into smaller 

 towns and farms. Towns grew to cities, and these, under the im- 

 petus of vigorous advertising and an aggressive community spirit, 

 often doubled in population each year. Water for domestic use was 

 brought by steel and concrete lines f om mountains hundreds of miles 

 away, hydraulic and steam plants were built to supply the needs 

 for power and light, until, finally, the continued growth required 

 greater supplies of water and power. Here then lay the solution of 

 the problems confronting both the Imperial Valley and southern 

 California cities, for the Colorado River could be harnessed to supply 

 ■water and electric energy, while the same curb would restrain the de- 

 structive forces of flood, silt, and drought. 



Equitable allocation of the river waters between the States of the 

 Colorado River Basin, the location of a suitable dam site, and the 

 actual financing of the project construction were the next obstacles 

 presented. 



As mentioned before, most of the lands in the Southwest require 

 irrigation for the raising of farm produce ; consequently, the streams 

 are its very life blood, and it was to be expected that the distribution 

 of the Colorado River waters passing through several States would 

 involve much dispute. The Colorado River Commission, composed 

 of representatives of the seven States of the Colorado River Basin — 

 Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Wy- 

 oming — was formed to discuss the matter. After several meetings, 

 the State commissioners, with Secretary of Commerce Herbert 

 Hoover as the United States representative, gathered in Santa Fe, 

 N. Mex., in 1922, and there framed the Colorado River compact 

 whose primary provisions were as follows : 



1. Division, for reference, of the Colorado River Basin into the upper basin 

 and lower basin, the dividing line being at Lee's Ferry a mile downstream from 



