Then You Will See How Absolutely Useless A River It
Is.
In this regard the Colorado River is unique.
Most rivers carry
beneficent life all along their journey. They distribute fructifying
waters, from their rise to their end in the sea. Thriving towns and
villages line their banks, all surrounded by a fertile farming country. But
not so the Colorado! It has cut its way through the rocks so fiercely that
it is buried a thousand, two thousand, three thousand and even five
thousand and more feet below the surrounding country. It and its
tributaries drain away even the water that falls in gentle showers, before
it has time to benefit the thirsty land. Only by the expensive construction
of cemented cisterns and occasional dams can the rancher, stockman and
miner of the region hoard for his scantest needs enough of this precious
fluid. Even the hotels that are placed upon its brink to afford
stopping-places for the curious travelers who wish to see this river and
its unique waterway are compelled to haul their trains of water-cars nearly
a hundred miles to supply themselves with the water which the Colorado
River drains from their very dooryards and empties in reckless neglect into
the Gulf of California.
Yields No Electrical Power. Other rivers throughout California and the West
are yielding millions of volts annually of electrical energy, for the
lighting and heating of cities, the turning of mill-wheels, and the
running of electric cars; but the Colorado, though possessed of a potential
energy greater than any ten or twenty of these rivers combined, so far has
refused to yield up a single volt.
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