Again And Again Engineers Have Estimated
And Suggested, But The Great Facts Remain That It Is So Uncertain, So Wild,
So impetuous, so sure to rise when unexpected, so sure to fall when relied
upon, that, as yet, no one
Has been found venturesome enough to try to tame
and harness its fierce energy.
Waters to be Diverted by a Dam. Yet in spite of these serious charges I
make against the Colorado, it is peculiar in that it is the most useful of
the large rivers of the world in another domain. The United States
Reclamation Service has spent millions of the people's money in making it
of use. At Laguna, a few miles above Yuma, it has built a huge dam larger
than any similar dam in the world - that diverts these once turbulent waters
into irrigating ditches to convey their life-giving power to thousands upon
thousands of acres of desert land. The Blythe Estate is doing the same
thing a hundred or more miles higher up, near Parker, on the Santa Fe, and
already towns and settlements are springing up on those desert wastes. The
California Development Company began this work, four miles below Yuma, in
1900, and in four years had converted that great sink of the Colorado
Desert into the richly fertile domain now known as the Imperial Valley,
where today are many growing towns.
Opportunities for Swimming. Though the current of the Colorado is so
strong, there are times and places where it affords one who is not
over-fastidious as to the color of the water, an opportunity for an
excellent swim.
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