
2oy 

FOREST AND STREAM. 

[Oer. 5, 10073 








Southern Pacific Railway, and a branch line 
] 
miles long, 
tion to Mexico. 
Irom these the dam was built. 
By A. 
abandoned its old channel absolutely and began 
SIXTY 
c= 
which extends from Imperial Jun 
Several attempts were made to turn the river 
L. LEEDS 


upon a large 
through it. 
back into its old channel, but they proved is a very fine 
effectual until the Southern Pacific Railway every one 
loaned the money and furnished the men and stones, when 
TRESTLES 
The water on the left 
ACROSS 
out first building 
flat 
held to the bottom of the river by driving piling 
dam 
On 
the 
these 
river 

The Indian Made Good 
the means to the California Development Com- 
and 
consisted in building two parallel trestles 
the river, leaving a space of about a hun- 
trestles 
stones, large and 
gravel and clay, and this was all dumped 
The work never stopped night 
flooding the Salton sink and would have event- work. 
ally drowned out about a dozen towns and 
villages, a hundred miles of the main line of the that a dam could 
Hever 
be 
a brush mat 
boat and 
sand—almost 
thought 
they 
THE 
flowed into the Salton sink; on the right toward the Gulf of California. fl 
that 
necessary for the camps to move along 
made 
This was woven 
then 
a quicksand—an¢ 
without the 
were dumped 
BREAK 
IN 
THE 
paid 
nl, 
The engineers in charge of the work though 
to 
hold 
out 
The soil on the bottom of the river 
COLORADO 
with- 
an 
brush 
would 
[ was identified with this undertaking in the 
The latter position was given to 
It may not be very generally known that the 
Indian is filling a very important niche in the pany to do the work. 
development of the West and Southwest. His The method employed to 
usefulness came under my particular notice dur- turn i 
ng the accomplishment of the supposed impos- across 
ible feat of turning the Colorado River dred feet between the two. 
Vhis very remarkable and costly piece of work were run trains loaded with 
arose from the action of the California Develop- small, 
ment Company, which for the purpose of irri- into the river. 
gating a portion of the Salton sink, known as or day 
the Imperial Valley, took out two canals from 
the Colorado River. One of the canals was taken dual capacity of physician and surgeon, and In- 
out on the American side of the boundary line’ dian agent. 
between California and Mexico, and the other me because we employed a great number of In- 
was taken out four miles below the boundary  dians, and it was absolutely necessary for some- 
or in Mexico. Two miles west from where this 
one to look after their interests and to adjust 
latter canal started from the river it was joined any differences that might arise. When the work 
with the one coming down from above. The first began it was the intention of the company 
topography of the country at this lower or Mexi- to employ only Mexicans as common laborers, 
can intake was very dangerous, because there but after giving them a trial they proved sadly 
was a fall of about six feet from the point in wanting, excepting as mule drivers on the levee 
the river where the water started into the canal work, and even here they failed ts later, and 
to where it joined the other canal coming from their places were filled by Indians. 
tbove. No gate had been built to control the On account of the lay of the land it was neces- 
inflow of water into this canal, and the cut had sary, along with the building of the dam across 
no sooner been made than there came a terrible the Colorado River, to build sixteen miles of 
flood, and the Colorado River soon discovered levee. Four miles of this were built above the 
that was much easier to turn off and rim into dam and twelve miles below, parallel with the 
this canal than it was to continue to the Gulf old bed of the river. The object of the levees 
of California on its old course. was to prevent the river from running around the 
Down through this canal to the Salton sink ends of the dam. It was on this work that the 
was a fall of nearly 400 feet in about 150 miles, peculiar fitness of the Indians soon became ap- 
while to the Gulf of California, a distance of parent, even to a casual observer, and this was 
about 130 miles, there was only a fall of 180 because, as the work progressed and as different 
feet n a very short time the whole river sections were completed, it of course made it 
with the 
the 

a 

RIVER. 




hold, but simply work on down, possibly te 
China. 
Approximately eighty acres of willow trees 
They were cut 
from the densest jungle I ever saw, and as the 
work was done during the months of July and 
were used in making this mat. 


August, with the thermometer ranging from 112 
118 
strenuous enough for anybody. 


degrees to degrees in the shade, it was 

The cutting and 

loading of the brush was all done by Indians 


but most of the weaving was done by Americans 
Whenever it was necessary to move from one 
camp to another all I had to do was to notify 
the Indians the evening before and at 6 o'clock 







the next morning everything was in readiness t 



load into wagons. The women and children rode 



and the men walked, and when we reached out 

































































new camp, the women would begin to build new} 
houses of brush, and the men would at once start 
right to work, so you see no time was lost. This} 
meant everything, too, for the Colorado like the! 
Nile is subject to an annual overflow which! 
comes every spring, and the work of turning 
the river had to be done before the flood came,! 

The ease with which the Indians could be shifted * 
from one camp to another was a constant source) 
of wonder and admiration to me, and as we had} 
to move so many times, I was glad that I had| 
Indians to deal with instead of any other people 
unless possibly Arabs might have been equally) 
migratory. h 
Anyone who has ever spent much time in Ari-t 
zona knows that as a rule living is rather frugal.} 
Distances are so great that it is simply impos-'s 
sible to have a great variety of food, and here)! 
again the Indians proved to be the right people't 
in the right place. As long as the commissaries'l 
kept their stock of beans, flour, sugar and coffee 
from running out, the Indians never complained. i 
Their good nature and patience were SO, markeds 
that the men in charge of the commissaries often? 
spoke of it to me, and said they would rather 
have them for customers, particularly under suchi 
adverse circumstances, than any people they ever) 
At different | 
camps, ten differents 
tribes represented a total of about 500 men, be-). 
saw. one time there were seven 
Indian and about nine or 
sides the women and children. This was prob-jh 
ably the largest number of Indians ever at work} 
for an American company. le 
It was late in the winter when one day I re-i 
Mites 
Indians would 
marked to 
that the 
Cory, the chief engineer, ti 
made |i 
{ 
save the work. I 


