Newspaper Page Text
VOL. I.
LIKE THE VALLEY
OF THE NILE
Now a Portion of the Great Des
ert Will be Watered and Made
Fruitful With Waters of the
Colorado
J, A. Johnson, garden and ranch edi
tor on I/o* Angeles Herald, who visited
thi»» region recently, tells of the Im|M.*r
ial country in the following well chos
en words:
It is no doubt true that among our
seventy <*I<l millions of people not
in 're than a th<uis;tii'l or two arc vet
View of Headgates of Imperial Canal from above the Gates, taken at the time of opening, Tuesday, May 15, 1901.
aware that we shall probably soon
have our own Kgypt and our Nile, an
well .in our Italy in the United States.
However, it i* only thirty yearn since
California was first known a» "our
new Italy," when we began to discover
that our climate and products were
practically identical with those of Italy.
At that time I was editing the Santa
Barbara Press, and the traveling peo
ple who came to sjM-nd their winters
there were quite carried away with de
light to find that we had a brand new
Italy of our own under our own flag,
and were constantly contributing in*
formation to show the similarity of
California and Italy.
The delta of the Colorado river com
prises nearly a million acres of level
valley'land lying in the eastern half
of Sou Diego county and the south*
western corner of Arizona, being a por
tion of what seems destined to become
Imperial Press.
our own Kgypt, with the Colorado a*
a veritable Nile, where a *tu|ieudou*
irrigation *y*tcm i* now fairly inau
gurated for the purpo*c of rendering
the*c desolate laud* a* fertile and
useful a* the delta of Egypt '« sacred
river. I wa* instructed to gather ac
curate information audrejKjrt the fact*
a* I found them, which will now be
done, and briefly a* possible*
It is not necessary for thin purponc
to give detail* of the trip, and I *hall
refer to it oiily at the- various joints
visited during the four day* *|>cut on
this vast tract, over which our party
rode in stages and carriages more than
154) mile*. We left Yuinati by boat
and went down the river about eight
miles to Hanlon Heading, on the Cali
fornia nide. and near the boundary
line between the United State* and
Mexico, where the main canal take*
in the water from the Colorado river.
I may add that on the way down we
faced a cool breeze from the (Julf of
California which made the use of over
coats very acceptable right in sight of
Yum a.
We lauded near Chaff cy camp, where
we met (Jeorgc Chaffey, Esq., presi
dent of the California Development
company, the corporation which own*
the canal system which supplies water
for both the Mexican and California
tracts, and also owns 100,000 acres of
laud on the Mexican Hide of the bound
ary line, but doe* not own the land to
be irrigated on the California hide, thin
being government laud and open to
settlers at $1.25 an acre, and just here
as well a* elsewhere, 1 may state that
the promoters of thin irrigation scheme
the largest on the American continent!
and for the benefit of our people, are
not "laud grabbers/ 1 their Mexican
holding* being acquired to facilitate
"Wattr Is Kinti-ljtrt Is If Kingdom."
IMPERIAL, CAL., SATURDAY, JUNE I 5, 1901.
ftcttlemcnt on the laud under the law*
of Mexico and to iunurc protection of
their canal property, *iuce the main
canal lien in Mexican territory in or
der to make u*e of the natural channel
of the Salton river a* the main canal
for a distance of fifty mile* westward,
thereby aaviug a year* time and a
va*t outlay in cutting a new canal, the
natural channel then being preferable.
• • • • • •
Our ftccoud day found v* at the new
town of Imperial, about thirty mile*
nearly due south of Flowing Well, and
nearly in the center of the 100,000-acre
tract which the California Development
Company propose* to have under irri
gation fir»t. After leaving Flowing
Well at 8 o'clock {he Hr*t hour wa%
passed in toiling through loohc Hand
and gravel. Without any noticeable
decent the wheels of the stage suddenly
rolled along on a smooth, hard surface
in which not a traceof sand or single
pebble could be seen, and this is the
character of the land as far as we drove
across the line into Mexico, a distance
of about sixty miles, diverging to the
east five miles and returning by way
of Blue Lake, ten miles west of the
line of travel taken the next day, and
all this fine, compact land is level as
any tract one quarter its size which
can be found in the San Joaquiu valley
or on a Kansas prairie.
No better description of this laud
can be given than that of C. K. Rock
wood, chief engineer of the corporation,
who has spent nearly ten years in
studying the problem which is now
Hearing solution, and much of that
time on the land under consideration.
His surveys were completed in Decem
ccmbcr, 1895. This work involved the
examination of over two thousand
square miles of territory. "With the
exception of about .V),oooacrc*of Randy
mc*a lying along the river on the cant
tide, and the land* lying between Hal
ton ftink and Indio, there in but little
change in the character of the soil.
The entire tract ha* been formed by
the deposit of river *ilt. Thin deposit
in not of local origin, but ha* been
brought down in past ages by the Col
orado river from it* source* in the
mountain* of Wyoming, Colorado,
Utah. New Mexico and Arizona, and
ha* been worked into a homogeneous
mass through its water passage of
thousands of miles; hence there can
!><• little change in it* character any
where in the tract. Within this body
of land there i* neither Hand, gravel
nor rock. It can be described as a
finely pulverized river silt, containing
from 10 to 20 per cent, of clay and in
the percentage of clay in the only
change in it a structure. It issufticient-
lyporusto admit of easy irrigation
and cultivation, and yet contains suf
ficient clay to make it very retentive
of moisture, these being the two struc
tural necessities required to make irri
gation a success."
• • ■'"•". • • *
But I must close this inadequate and
incomplete report with a few words to
those who may wish to secure a bit of
land in our own Egypt. I can say, in
truth, that it is there for you at 51. 25
an acre, government price and terms.
But it will be of no use to you without
water. This you will buy from the
company at SI 1.25 a share, one share
for each acre of land, and on
favorable terms, so that poor men can
safely go there, for on their success
and prosperity the company must de
pend for its income and reward for its
great venture. There will be about
Continued on page 4
NO. 9.
