18 THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



of wealth, with its ideal climate, fertile -soil, and great fertilizing 

 source of irrigation, has slumbered on year after year in profitless 

 lethargy, hopelessly awaiting the advent of state aid, or some other 

 form of extraneous assistance. 



From time to time, during the past fifteen years, various public 

 spirited local residents, realising the vital importance of providing an 

 irrigation system upon a sufficiently large scale to provide water for 

 the service of the Rincon, Mesilla and El Paso sub-divisions of the 

 valley have endeavored to awaken the leading citizens and land owners 

 from their Rip Van Winkle like repose. Scheme after scheme has 

 been proposed, government after government at Washington impor- 

 tuned, and the co-operation of the Mexican farmers on the Mexican 

 side of the river solicited, but local jealousies, imperfect plans and 

 conflicting interests invariably barred the way. 



For a time the accivity in railway construction in Western Texas 

 and Southern New Mexico seemed to promise permanent and progress- 

 ive prosperity for the Rio Grande Valley, but the water question re- 

 maining unsettled, affairs soon drifted back to the old dead level of 

 passivity. 



A few determined advocates of enterprise and progress continued 

 seeking the aid of capital, and finally, after years of effort and repeated 

 failures, at home and abroad, to secure the large amount of capital re- 

 quired to carry out an irrigation scheme that would properly control 

 and utilize the waters of the Rio Grande, and after Congress had again 

 and again declined to seriously entertain the problem or Rio Grande 

 irrigation, the Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Company was incorpor- 

 ated, under the laws of New Mexico, with the declared intention of 

 impounding and utilizing the waters of the Rio Grande. Shortly after 

 the incorporation of the company steps were taken to secure the ap- 

 proval of the Secretary of the Interior, of the company's filings for 

 a dam and reservoir site at Elephant Butte, in Sierra County, New 

 Mexico, the only feasible storage reservoir site on the Rio Grande in 

 southern New Mexico. Complete surveys were made, elaborate plans 

 were prepared, and all the requirements of the territorial and federal 

 laws having been fully complied with, the company's rights and titles 

 as granted by its charter of incorporation under the laws of New 

 Mexico, were in due course confirmed by the federal authorities. 



The Secretary of the Interior, having formally approved of the 

 company's plans, vigorous efforts were made to raise capital on the 

 bonds and shares of the company. Unfortunately the financial depres- 

 sion throughout the West, consequent iipon much ill-advised official 

 tinkering with the tariff and currency questions, rendered it impossi- 

 ble to raise in America at even the most usurious rates, the large 

 amount of capital necessary to carry out the proposed irrigation works. 

 In Europe the discreditable histories of the bond issues of certain 

 California and Kansas Irrigation Companies were too fresh in the 



