The Salton Sea: An account of Harriman's fight with the Colorado River — John Shaqi
The Salton Sea: An account of Harriman's fight with the Colorado RiverKennan, George
History
The Salton Sea: An account of Harriman's fight with the Colorado River
Kennan, George
Harriman, Edward Henry, 1848-1909; Imperial Valley (Calif. and Mexico); Salton Sea (Calif.)
It is unfortunate that so fine an achievement as the controlling of
the Colorado River and the saving of the Imperial Valley should have
been clouded by national ingratitude or indifference; but if Mr.
Harriman were living today, he would doubtless find compensation and
satisfaction enough in the results of his work as they now appear.
The Salton Sea, which once threatened to submerge and destroy the
artificially created oasis in the desert, ceased to rise in 1907 and is
now slowly drying up. The great Laguna dam above Yuma is done, and is
furnishing water to tens of thousands of acres in southern California
and Arizona. The territory along the Colorado River below the Grand
Cañon, whose prospective value President Roosevelt estimated at “from
$350,000,000 to $700,000,000” is safe. The Imperial Valley, which was
yielding only $1,200,000 to its cultivators ten years ago, is now
producing cotton, barley, alfalfa, cantaloupes, grapes, vegetables
and live stock worth more than ten times that amount. According to an
estimate made by the Imperial Valley Press in June, 1916, the farmers
of the Valley will earn this year a sum equivalent to the interest on
$500,000,000. And all of this actual and potential wealth, as well
as the land that has produced or will produce it, was threatened
with total destruction in 1906, and was saved for the nation by the
constructive genius and the invincible resolution of the “Master
Builder.”
Printed in the United States of America
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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