10 SOUTHERN ARIZONA. 



feel the heat in my head at all. There are but few weeks in the year 

 when people feel as thougli they would prefer to be nearer the 

 coast. " 



Wherever in Southern Arizona its arable lands can be irrigated 

 the same wonderful results follow which have been pictured above. 



Gov. C. Meyer Zulick, in his official report to Hon. L. Q. C. 

 Lamar, Secretary of the Interior, illustrates the rich rewards that flow 

 from the reclamation of the desert land by irrigation, with a short 

 history of Mesa City, a thriving town in Maricopa county. Governor 

 Zulick says : 



"In January, 1878, a party of four, as an exploring party for a 

 colony, located a water-right on Salt River in Maricopa county, and 

 entered the present town-site of Mesa City, consisting of 640 acres. 

 In February they were joined by their families and others, thirteen 

 families in all, and went into camp. February 18 they began active 

 operations excavating their ditch to irrigate their land, which was 

 completed and the water introduced upon their town-site and farm 

 land after nine months of hard labor. 



The canal is owned by a stock company consisting of 200 shares 

 with a par value of $100 per share, which now have a cash value of 

 $500 per share. The main canal is 10 miles long, with a capacity 

 sufficient to reclaim 15,000 acres of desert land. Several miles of 

 the canal traverse the bed of an old Aztec ditch that had been cut 

 through a layer of cement. This prehistoric water way, excavated 

 probably thousands of years ago, was not less than 30 feet wide at 

 the top and 20 feet at the bottom. It is estimated that a saving of 

 $25,000 was made by following the alignment of this old canal, 

 which to these pioneers was the important item that made their 

 enterprise successful. 



The section of land entered as a town-site was divided into 10- 

 acre blocks and these subdivided into 1 j- acre lots for residence and 

 business property ; the land immediately surrounding the town was 

 entered by the various members of the colony for more extensive 

 agricultural purposes. 



The first water was turned upon the land where the town of 

 Mesa now stands in November, 1878, and not until the winter of 

 1879-'80 was much seeding or planting done, for they had houses to 

 build, land to clear, and other preparatory work to do. It must be 

 remembered that this energetic, industrious little colony of thirteen 

 persons settled upon a desert, where for centuries the sun only 

 smiled upon the sparse growth of cacti and sage-brush ; where there 



