28 



The National Geographic Magazine 



THE COLORADO RIVER 



One of the greatest works in the 

 United States is the utilization of the 

 great Colorado River of the West. The 

 head waters come from Wyoming and 

 Colorado, flow through Utah and north- 

 ern Arizona, and the river finally enters 

 the Gulf of California. Along this 

 stream are lands capable of high cultiva- 

 tion, as the soil is rich and the climate 

 semi-tropical. 



The rank growth on the bottom lands 

 shows that wherever water is found 

 the vegetation is extremely dense. It 

 is, in fact, almost impossible to push 

 one's way through this vegetation. The 

 illustration on page 25 shows some of the 

 broad bottoms that can be reclaimed. 



The river itself is constantly chang- 

 ing, shifting over a very broad extent 

 of channel. Last Christmas I took 

 a trip down the river in a boat, and 

 we floated, paddled, and waded for four 

 hundred miles down that stream, under 

 the most delightful climate in the United 

 States. It was a wonderfully delight- 

 ful experience. We would be sailing 

 under a good breeze, at an exhilar- 

 ating rate, and everybody would be gay, 

 when suddenly we would hang up on a 

 mud bank ; then all would go over- 

 board. We would push off into deeper 

 water, and then on until we brought up 

 in another mud bank. 



Page 26 shows where it will be pos- 

 sible to build dams similar to those built 

 by the British engineers on the Nile. 

 The river, although a quarter or a 

 half a mile wide above, here becomes 

 narrow, hardly wide enough for a 

 steamer to pass, and at this point it 

 would be possible to erect dams holding 

 back the water. The great difficulty 

 is the fact that the mud carried by the 

 river would fill the reservoirs very 

 rapidly. 



THE SALT RIVER 



Another project under consideration 

 is in Arizona, on Salt River. This dam, 



if constructed, will be one of the greatest 

 in the world, being 230 feet from foun- 

 dation to top. The lands to be re- 

 claimed along the Salt River are in 

 the vicinity of Phoenix and are capable 

 of a high degree of cultivation, produc- 

 ing crop after crop throughout the year. 

 There are sometimes as many as seven 

 crops a year raised. 



In southern Idaho are vast tracts of 

 desert land, to which water may be 

 brought from Snake River. At the head 

 of this river is Jackson Lake, situated 

 at the foot of the Grand Tetons. By 

 closing the outlet of this lake all the 

 water can be held, storing a sufficient 

 supply for tens of thousands of acres 

 along Snake River, in Idaho. 



Under present conditions the water 

 supply in Snake River dwindles to such 

 an extent that during the summer the 

 channel is dry at points along its course. 

 This river, which appears to be inex- 

 haustible, is as a matter of fact nearly 

 dry at points in eastern Idaho for sev- 

 eral months when the water is most 

 needed. 



A great project under consideration is 

 is that of taking water out of some of the 

 tributaries of the Columbia. Millions of 

 acres susceptible of irrigation are below 

 the level of the headwaters of Columbia 

 River, but in order to convey these 

 waters to the dry lands it is necessary 

 to traverse mile after mile of steep side 

 slopes. The cost of the project runs 

 up into the millions of dollars ; so that 

 while the government may execute it 

 in the future, the project of reclaiming 

 the great arid lands of the State of 

 Washington is one which is almost 

 impossible for the present time. 



In the region of the Black Hills of 

 South Dakota and Wyoming are numer- 

 ous small projects. Man}' streams flow 

 outwardly from the hills through nar- 

 row canyons. By closing these gaps it 

 is possible to hold water in various 

 places around the Black Hills. Beyond 

 are vast stretches of rolling countrv 



