THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



203 



RECLAMATION OF ARID AMERICA. 



Imperial Settlements. 



BY o. M. M'KINNEY, 



/ 



G. M. McKINXEV. 



GENERAL IMMIGRATION AGENT SOUTHERN PACIFIC 

 RAILWAY. 



During the month of September, 1902, I was called 

 upon to make an examination of a piece of territory 

 known as the Colorado Delta, lying some 80 miles from 

 Yuma, Arizona, known as the Imperial Settlements, 

 irrigated by the Imperial Canal. I had known this terri- 

 tory for years as a 

 great desert, and the 

 opinion of many who 

 claimed to be experts 

 along the lines of irri- 

 gation, regarded it as 

 , practically irreclaima- 

 Ible. This piece of ter- 

 1 ritory consists of 500,- 

 '000 acres of land in 

 San Diego county, 

 Cal., and 300,000 

 acres in Mexico, just 

 south of the California 

 line, or along the 

 United States bound- 

 ary line that divides 

 the United States from the Republic of Mexico. 

 Originally this piece of territory was the great set- 

 tling basin of the Colorado river, and for many cen- 

 turies has been constantly replenished by organic 

 matter and silt from the annual overflows of this 

 great river. For many years the scientific men of 

 our country have disagreed as to what use could 

 be best made of this great basin, which lies from sea 

 level to 350 feet below it. Some advised the construc- 

 tion of a canal from the Colorado river thus allowing it 

 to fill with fresh water for the benefit of commerce. 

 Others thought it best to cut a canal from the Gulf of 

 California to the Saltoun Basin, thus making an inland 

 sea, 50 miles in width and some hundred miles in length. 

 None of these ideas, however, materialized. It 

 was my province during the year 1890 to become 

 acquainted professionally with a gentleman who had 

 long been identified with the reclamation of the arid 

 lands of the West. The gentleman referred to is C. 

 B. Rockwood, who in recent years has accomplished 

 the niost wonderful results through his thorough knowl- 

 ^dge of irrigation, his foresight, good judgment and 

 close application to business. The reclamation of arid 

 lands being the business of his life. I had not heard 

 from Mr. Rockwood for many years, except incidentally, 

 as he had been employed by our Government in Porto 

 Rico, and by indiivdual corporations throughout var- 

 ious points in the West, as consulting engineer. I was 

 agreeably surprised, however, to find Mr. Rockwood 

 located in the Colorado Delta with headquarters at 

 Calexico, a new town on the American side near the 

 Mexican border some 70 miles Southwest of Yuma 

 in full charge of the Imperial canal. Under him were 

 several large corps of engineers, grading outfits and 

 steam shovels and dredges, all fully equipped for the 

 prosecution of their work in estimating, surveying, and 

 constructing canals, laterals, and reservoirs for the rec- 

 lamation of this vast territory from the Colorado river 

 west to the Salton basin, a distance of 100 miles. 



Mr. Rockwood conceived the idea of reclaiming this 

 vast territory early in '92 and worked unceasingly, 

 encountering untold difficulties and discouragements. 

 An occasional capitalist would become interested soon 

 to get discouraged and drop out of the proposition. 

 Believing, however, that the reclamation of this terri- 

 tory would prove one of the greatest acquisitions to 

 agriculture that had ever been developed in the known 

 world, he continued to prosecute his work with that 

 tenacity of purpose which has invariably crowned the 



VIEW OF THE MAIN CANAL. 



efforts of enterprising men, and today Mr. Rockwood 

 stands at the head of this great enterprise, the master 

 workman reaping the benefit and rewards of this great 

 effort through those years of discouragement. 



I will say in this connection that A. H. Heber, 

 president of the Imperial Canal Co., stood by Mr. Rock- 



FIRST CATLE RANCH IN IM P ERIAL. 



wood through all those years of discouragement, hav- 

 ing implicit faith in his judgment, and 1 can without 

 reservation say that these two gentlemen stand at the 

 head of one of the greatest and most successful enter- 



