Imperial County CA Archives History - Books .....Early History Of Imperial Valley, Part 2 1918 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 15, 2006, 5:56 am Book Title: History Of Imperial County California work, if carried through to success, would cover, in one body, more than half of the irrigable land on the Colorado watershed. That it was the intention of the reclamation service to bring water into the Valley as early as December, 1902, is evidenced by the sworn testimony of Mr. J. B. Lippincott, supervising engineer, U. S. R. S., given in the case of the Colorado Delta Canal Company vs. the United States Government, which is a matter of court record. The reclamation service had contemplated the construction of a series of high-impounding dams on the Colorado River, but through soundings, finding no bed rock, they were obliged to abandon this project, but finally, during the year 1903, outlined the plan of the Yuma project and the Laguna Dam. The engineers of the reclamation service advanced the theory that no canal from the Colorado River could be a permanent success except that a diversion dam across the river be constructed which would raise the water and would allow them by means of the sluicing head that it would give, to wash out the silt that would drop in the canal. Not only then would the continuance in successful operation of the Imperial Canal disprove their theory that a dam was necessary and thereby question the necessity of the expenditure of the amount of money that the Laguna Dam would cost. But the cost of the Laguna Dam was to be so great that it would put too great a burden on the farmers unless they could gain possession of the Imperial enterprise, and by so doing carry the Imperial Canal to the Laguna Dam, and thereby make the farmers of the Imperial Valley pay the major portion of the cost of that work. The reclamation service then, in this year of trouble, 1904, advised the people of the Imperial Valley that if they desired the government to come in, it would be necessary for them to form a water users' association, and through it make the necessary petitions to the government. It would also be necessary in some way to get possession of the plant of the California Development Company or to ignore them. In order to ignore them, if possible, surveys were projected by the reclamation service with the idea of keeping the canal entirely in the United States, but it was found, according to their estimates, that to do so would cost at least twelve million dollars more than to follow the route of the Imperial Canal through Mexico; that, consequently, it was not feasible. It was at this time, in the summer of 1904, harassed by lack of funds, by damage claims piling up against us for failure to deliver water, by suits being threatened in every direction, by statements emanating through the reclamation service, that we had no right to take water from the Colorado River on account of its being a navigable stream, that we decided that if the reclamation service desired to enter the Valley that.we would sell to it all of our rights and interests, provided that we could obtain an amount that we considered commensurate with the value of the proposition. Mr. Heber, as the president and financial agent of the company, went to Washington in order to undertake these negotiations and the engineers of the reclamation service went over the entire plant of the California Development Company in order to estimate its value. Mr. Heber and the reclamation service, however, were far apart in their ideas of value, inasmuch as the reclamation service believed that the only remuneration that should be received by the stockholders of the California Development Company was the amount that would be required to duplicate this system. They were unwilling to take into consideration that in this, as in every new enterprise, the securities of the enterprise must be sold at a very great reduction below par; that in the building of such an enterprise the original cost must be far in excess of what it would be when the project is partially completed. They were unwilling to allow any consideration for the rights and franchises which we had obtained. They were unwilling to allow anything for the Alamo Channel, which had been purchased by us and used as a canal and which had saved at least one million dollars in the construction of the system. It is possible that we might, at that time, however, have gotten together on some basis of settlement with the reclamation service, but that, unfortunately, the relations between Mr. Heber and the service became so strained that it was impossible to carry on negotiations and the whole deal was declared off by the reclamation service arriving at the conclusion that no law existed whereby they would be able to carry water through, Mexico; at any rate, this is the reason given for breaking off negotiations. Not only was our work greatly retarded and handicapped by the attitude of the reclamation service, which made the people of the Valley antagonistic to us, destroying our credit with the banks of Southern California and in the larger financial markets of the United States, but other departments of the-government as well, from the very inception of the enterprise, instead of rendering us the assistance which we had every reason to expect we would receive from the government, retarded our progress and at times made it nearly impossible to carry through our work. I do not claim that this has been intentional on the part of any department of the government, with the exception of the reclamation service,; but that it has been due to the dilatory tactics of the government or to the fact that it has sent inexperienced men to undertake work of very great importance; but no matter what the reason may be, the effect upon the welfare of the Imperial Valley and the welfare of the California Development Company has been very disastrous. I refer in this especially to two things: first, to soil surveys made by the agricultural department in, the winter of 1901-1902. The field work preceding this report was made by a young man by the name of Garnett Holmes. Mr. Means, his superior officer, came to me in Los Angeles in the summer of 1901, and stated that he desired to send a man to the Valley in the fall of the year to make a study of the soils and report upon the same; and requested my co-operation, which I very readily gave, as I believed that such a report from the government would materially assist us in our work in the Valley. But as many of the early settlers know, the issuance of the report for the time entirely stopped immigration into the Valley and very nearly bankrupted the California Development Company, as it, by destroying the faith of investors in the Valley, destroyed for the time being the credit of the company. The report gave the impression that the larger portion of the Valley was unfit for cultivation, and particularly warned the people who were intending to settle here to be exceedingly careful in their selection of land, and expressed a very serious doubt as to the ultimate future of the Valley, due to the belief of the writer that the alkalies would rise to the surface and would destroy all plant life. Mr. Holmes made statements that in certain lands, near the townsite of Imperial, barley would not germinate due to the alkali. On this same land large crops have been produced every year since, and, fortunately, people have finally forgotten the report or have lost faith in the accuracy and knowledge of the government investigators; but at the time the blow to us was a very serious one. Also, in our work we have been constantly hampered by the attitude of the land department, although it is my belief from personal intercourse with the officials in Washington that the desire of the department is to straighten out the surveys as soon as compatible with the red tape of the government, and not unjustly burden our people. I referred before in this article to the basis that we assumed for the surveys projected to the north of the fourth parallel and the reason for taking as that basis the Brunt surveys to the south of that parallel. It was not until these surveys had been projected far to the north and work had begun on the retracing of the lines to the east of the Alamo River that we discovered wherein lay the real trouble with the surveys, by finding one of the old monuments of the survey of 1854, the finding of which showed wherein the Imperial land survey was wrong. Upon discovering wherein lay the error in the land company's survey, we immediately put several parties in the field searching for the old monuments of the surveys of '54 and '56, but in an area of thirty townships we found but five of the old corners that could be sworn to as authentic. These corners, separated as they were over such a large area, showed that very great errors existed in the original survey; for instance, between the third and fourth parallels, a distance, according to the government surveys, of twenty-four miles, we found the actual distance to be approximately twenty-five and a quarter miles; that is, the government had made an error of a mile and a quarter in running a distance of twenty-four miles north and south. East and west across the Valley in a distance of thirty miles the error was relatively the same, or approximately two miles. It was manifestly impossible to trace the old lines and to reset the old corners, and it became necessary to either get the government to make a resurvey or else obtain an act of Congress adopting the surveys of the Imperial Land Company. Could the latter policy have been carried through, it would have done away with many of the difficulties and troubles that have existed since, but we found that that was impossible. Mr. Heber and I went to Washington in June, 1902, taking with us all of our maps showing all of the surveys that had been projected by the Imperial Land Company, so that we might place before the land department the exact condition of affairs in the Valley. We were informed by the commissioner of the general land office that no precedent existed, and that there was no law by which they could make a new survey without a special act of Congress. Although it was very late in the session and Congress was to adjourn in July, we succeeded in having the act passed during that session which authorized the resurvey of the lands in the Imperial Valley. The act was passed in July, 1902; it is now the month of April, 1909, and the work of the government to straighten out the surveys covering less than twenty townships of land is not yet completed. Except for the cumbersome machinery and red tape of the government, there is probably no reason why these surveys should not have all been completed during the year 1904. Had this been done, the story of the Imperial Valley today would probably be very different from what it is now, as the people would have gotten their titles and, having their titles, they would have been able to obtain sufficient funds for the development of the lands where now they find it impossible to obtain money; consequently, the work of development is necessarily greatly retarded. It was early in the year 1905 that negotiations for the purchase of the property by the reclamation service were ended and we were then confronted with an empty treasury, the hostility of the people in the Valley, and much work that it was necessary to do for the safety and permanency of the system, and to fulfill our agreement with the various companies in the Valley. The banks absolutely refused to extend us any further credit and were clamoring for the repayment of moneys already loaned, and it seemed to us at this time that there was but one logical source from which we could hope to obtain sufficient funds to carry on the work, and this source must necessarily be one which was equally interested with ourselves in the development of the territory, namely, the Southern Pacific Railroad. Mr. Heber returning at this time from Washington, the question was taken up and discussed with him and he approached the subject of a loan to Mr. J. K. Krutschnitt, director and manager of operation of the Harriman lines, but was turned down by him. He afterward, however, succeeded in obtaining an interview with Mr. Harriman, and at Mr. Harriman's request, Krutschnitt authorized the officials of the road in San Francisco to take the matter up for investigation and report to him. After investigating they offered to loan us the $200,000, for which we had asked, on condition that two-thirds of the stock of the company should be placed in trust to secure to them the voting control and management of the company until the loan had been repaid. Mr. Heber refused to agree to this proposition except it be agreed that he would be retained in the management; but the Southern Pacific positively refused to advance the money unless Mr. Heber should retire from the management. Notwithstanding the friction that had arisen on business and personal matters between Mr. Heber and myself, I had great faith in his ability as an executive, and in his ability to handle the land and colonization of the Valley; but I also believed, as did my other associates with the exception of Mr. Heber, that unless money could be obtained quickly from some source the company would soon be thrown into bankruptcy. Consequently, Mr. Blaisdell, Dr. Heffernan and myself went to San Francisco in April, 1905, and in an interview with Messrs. Calvin, Hood and Herrin of the Southern Pacific, succeeded in getting them to agree to lend to the California Development Company $200,000, on condition that we should succeed, at the annual meeting of the company to be held in Jersey City early in June, in placing on the board three men to be named by them, one of whom should be selected as the president and general manager of the company; also precedent to the loan, that we were to place in the hands of a trustee to be named by the Southern Pacific 6300 shares of the capital stock out of a total of 12,500. Mr. Heber was not at the time informed of these negotiations. He left for Jersey City in May in order to hold the annual meeting in June, and I went east during the same month. The result of the annual meeting was that we succeeded in doing that which we had undertaken to do, and as a final result the management of the company was turned over to the Southern Pacific on the 20th day of June. The Southern Pacific officials named as their representatives on the California Development's board, Mr. Epes Randolph, Mr. George A. Parkyns, and Mr. R. H. Ingram, and the members of the board named by the California Development Company were under the contract made satisfactory to the Southern Pacific. It was the desire of Messrs. Blaisdell, Heffernan and myself that Mr. Epes Randolph, in whose integrity and ability we had the utmost confidence, should become the president of the company, and as this seemed to be satisfactory to the San Francisco officials, he was so selected. It was not at the time stipulated that I should be retained as an officer of the company. In fact, on account of the serious difficulties that had arisen between Mr. Heber and myself, I doubted very much whether it was good policy for the company to retain me actively in the management of its affairs. This whole question was broached to Mr. Randolph and he was left with entire freedom to decide as he might see fit. He decided, however, that as neither he nor any of the Southern Pacific officials knew anything in regard to the affairs of the California Development Company, that it would be necessary to retain me in the position that I afterward filled, namely, that of assistant general manager. In June, 1905, the break in the Colorado River was a source of great alarm, not only with the people in the Valley, but was becoming so to ourselves. As I have already stated, there was a serious shortage of water in the Valley in the winter season of 1903-04. There had been some trouble with the silting of the first four miles of the main canal below the Chaffey gate, due to the fact that it had not as yet been excavated to a sufficient depth; and also that Mr. Chaffey, instead of building the canal on the alignment originally planned by me, had followed excavation of a few yards of material in the tortuous channel of an old slough which left in the canal many sharp bends that not only retarded the velocity of the water, but caused, at times, serious erosion of the banks and a consequent deposit of sediment. With the machinery at our command and which we could purchase with the money controlled by us, we had been unable up to this time to straighten and deepen this section of the canal as I had intended, and I evolved the theory that by putting in a waste gate about eight miles below the head gate, from which point we could waste water into the Paredones River and from this into Volcano Lake, that we could carry through the upper portion of the canal during the flood season of 1904 a sufficient volume of water to deepen and scour out by its own action this upper portion of the canal. This waste way was constructed and the flood waters were allowed to run freely through the upper portion of the canal during the summer season of 1904. The first action of the heavy-volume of water coming through the canal was as I had expected. From investigations and measurements frequently made, some two feet of the bottom was taken out, and I believed, then, that we were absolutely safe for our Valley supply during the following season; but I had counted without my host, and my theory was disproven a little later in the flood season, as when the river reached its flood heights, instead of scouring the bottom of the canal as I had expected, the heavy sand waves which are carried along the bottom of the river in extreme flood periods, were carried into the canal and deposited within the first four miles below the gate. As soon as the summer flood dropped and I discovered this condition of affairs, and that instead of the bottom being lowered, it was approximately one foot above that of the year previous, we adopted the only means at our command to attempt to deepen the canal. Knowing the character of the material to be removed, we knew that with the dredging tools that we had it would be impossible to dredge out this four miles of canal in sufficient time for the uses of the Valley, providing the water in the river should drop as low as it had the previous year. The dredgers were brought back, however, and put at work; but the result proved as I had anticipated, that it would take practically all winter to dredge the canals; that is, it would take all winter to provide new machinery, even if we had the money; and in hopes, then, that it might possibly prove effective, I employed the steamer Cochan, and, placing a heavy drag behind it, ran it up and down the canal in hopes that by stirring up the bottom there would be sufficient velocity in the canal itself to move the silt deposits on below the four mile stretch to a point where I knew the water had sufficient velocity to keep the silt moving. A month's work, however, with the steamer proved that the work being done by it was inadequate. We were confronted then with the proposition of doing one of two things, either cutting a new heading from the canal to the river below the silted four miles section of the canal, or else allowing the Valley to pass through another winter with an insufficient water supply. The latter proposition we could not face for the reason that the people of the Imperial Valley had an absolute right to demand that water should be furnished them, and it was questionable in our minds as to whether we would be able to keep out of bankruptcy if we were to be confronted by another period of shortage in this coming season of 1904-1905. The cutting of the lower intake, after mature deliberation and upon the insistence of several of the leading men of the Valley, was decided upon. We hesitated about making this cut, not so much because we believed we were incurring danger of the river's breaking through, as from the fact that we had been unable to obtain the consent of the Government of Mexico to make it, and we believed that we were jeopardizing our Mexican rights should the cut be made without the consent of the government. On a telegraphic communication, however, from our attorney in the City of Mexico to go ahead and make the cut, we did so under the presumption that he had obtained the necessary permit from the Mexican authorities. It was some time after this, in fact after the cut was made to the river, before we discovered that he had been unable to obtain the formal permit, but had simply obtained the promise of certain officials that we would not be interfered with providing that plans were at once submitted for the necessary controlling structures to be placed in this heading. This lower intake was constructed not, as is generally supposed, because there was a greater grade from the river through to the main canal at this point. The grade through the cut and the grade of the main canal above the cut were approximately the same, but the cut was made at this point for the reason that the main canal below the point where the lower intake joined it was approximately four feet deeper than the main canal through the four miles above this junction to the Chaffey gate, consequently giving us greater water capacity. In cutting from the main canal to the river at this point, we had to dredge a distance of 3300 feet only, through easy material to remove, while an attempt to dredge out the main canal above would have required the dredging of four miles of very difficult material. We began the cut the latter end of September and completed it in about three weeks. As soon as the cut was decided upon, elaborate plans for a controlling gate were immediately started and when completed early in November were immediately forwarded to the City of Mexico for approval of the engineers of the Mexican government, without whose approval we had no authority or right to construct the gate. Notwithstanding the insistence of our attorney in the City of Mexico and various telegraphic communications insisting upon this approval being hurried, we were unable to obtain it until twelve months afterward, namely, the month of December, 1905. In the meantime serious trouble had begun. We have since been accused of gross negligence and criminal carelessness in making this cut, but I doubt as to whether anyone should be accused of negligence or carelessness in failing to foresee that which had never happened before. We had before us, at the time, the history of the river as shown by the daily rod readings kept at Yuma for a period of twenty-seven years. In the twenty-seven years there had been but three winter floods. In no year of the twenty-seven had there been two winter floods. It was not probable, then, in the winter of 1905, that there would be any winter flood to enlarge the cut made by us and without doubt, as it seemed to us, we would be able to close the cut before the approach of the summer flood by the same means that we had used in closing the cut for three successive years around the Chaffey gate at the head of the canal. During this year of 1905, however, we had more than one winter flood. The first heavy flood came, I believe, about the first of February, but did not enlarge the lower intake; on the contrary it caused such a silt deposit in the lower intake that I found it necessary, after the flood had passed, to put the dredge through in order to deepen the channel sufficiently to allow enough water to come into the Valley for the use of the people. This was followed shortly by another heavy flood that did not erode the banks of the intake but, on the contrary, the same as first, caused a deposit of silt and a necessary dredging. We were not alarmed by these floods, as it was still very early in the season. No damage had been done by them and we still believed that there would be no difficulty whatever in closing the intake before the approach of the summer flood, which was the only one we feared. However, the first two floods were followed by a third, coming some time in March, and this was sufficient notice to us that we were up against a very unusual season, something unknown in the history of the river as far back as we were able to reach; and, as it was now approaching the season of the year when we might reasonably expect the river surface to remain at an elevation that would allow sufficient water for the uses of the Valley to be gotten through the upper intake, we decided to close the lower. Work was immediately begun upon a dam similar to the ones heretofore successfully used in closing the cut around the Chaffey gate. The dam was very nearly completed, when a fourth flood coming down the river swept it out. Work was immediately begun on another dam which was swept away by the fifth flood coming down during this winter season. About this time I left for the east, and, at the earnest solicitation of Imperial Water Company No. 1, which agreed to advance $5000 for the effort, a third attempt to close the break was made under the directions of Mr. C. N. Perry and the superintendent of Imperial Water Company No. 1, Mr. Thomas Beach. On my return from the east, on the 17th of June, I found them heroically attempting to stop the break with the water so high in the Colorado that all of the banks and surrounding lands were flooded, and I immediately stopped the work as we realized fully that nothing could be done until after the summer flood had passed. At this time the lower intake had been enlarged from a width of about sixty feet, as originally cut with the dredger, to a width of possibly 150 feet, and it did not then seem probable that the Colorado River would turn its entire flow through the cut, but as the waters of the river began to fall the banks of the intake began to cave and run into the canal; the banks of the canal below the intake fell in and, as known by most of the residents of the Valley, the entire river began running through the canal and into the Salton Sea in the month of August of this year of 1905. After stopping the work of Messrs. Perry and Beach in June of that year, it was decided that nothing further should be done until the summer flood had passed. When that flood had receded and we found that the entire river was coming through into the Salton Sea, the question as to how to turn the river became, perhaps, as serious a one from an engineering point of view, as had ever before confronted any engineer upon the American continent. Immediately opposite the heading of the lower intake an island lay in the Colorado River about a half mile long and a quarter of a mile wide, being merely a sand bar upon which there had accumulated a growth of cottonwood and arrow weed, and in the month of July, while still a very large portion of the water was flowing through the east channel along the Arizona shore, I conceived the idea that possibly we might, by driving a line of piling from the upper end of this island to the Lower California shore and weaving in between the piling barbed wire and brush, create a sand bar that would gradually force all of the water into the east channel, after which we could throw in a permanent dam across the lower intake. Under the supervision of George Sex-smith, our dredger foreman, and E. H. Gaines, the present county surveyor of Imperial County, both of whom had been with us for years and made good, this jetty was started from the upper end of the island and directed toward the California shore at a point about 3000 feet above the island. I hardly expected this plan to be a success, but there was a possibility of its succeeding, and it was the only means that could be adopted that might turn the water from the Salton Sea quickly enough to prevent the necessity of moving the Southern Pacific tracks; and also, if successful, it was the most economical means of turning the river. We succeeded in building a bar throughout the length of about 2800 feet, but there was left an opening, approximately 125 feet long, through which the rush of water was too great to control. This work was abandoned about the first of August. The one plan that I had advised, that I felt surely would succeed, was to construct a gate of sufficient size to carry the entire low water flow of the river, believing that when the water was turned through this gate we could, by closing the gates, raise the water to an elevation that would throw it down its original channel. This plan was fully discussed with Mr. Randolph and with our consulting engineer, Mr. James D. Schuyler, as well as with engineers of the Southern Pacific, who fully agreed as to the feasibility of that plan, and who expressed their belief that no other plan gave as great assurance of success. Mr. H. T. Cory, who was at that time Mr. Randolph's assistant and confidential man at Tucson, was sent from Tucson to examine into my plans and to report to Mr. Randolph upon their feasibility. At Mr. Cory's suggestion, an engineer from San Francisco was brought down to go over the works. Both Mr. Cory and his friend agreed upon the feasibility of1 the gate plan. Every one interested agreeing, I then, on rush orders, got together all material necessary for the construction of this gate, the floor of which was to be of concrete on a pile foundation with a wooden superstructure, and it was my expectation to have the entire structure completed by the middle of November, 1905. If I remember correctly, the first material for this structure left Los Angeles on the 7th day of August, 1905. It had been my intention originally to construct the gate in a channel to be built by the dredge west of the intake, but the soil proving of a quicksand formation and saturated with water, I found it difficult to make this excavation, and after working a few days I abandoned that idea and decided to construct a by-pass immediately east of the intake channel through which I would force the water of the river and would then build a gate in the intake itself. The intake at this point was about 300 feet in width, no more than we would require for rapid and successful construction of the work. The dredger was immediately put to work upon the by-pass and this material was so easily moved that the dredger found no difficulty whatever in making the short cut of about 700 feet that was required, and as soon as the cut was made a large portion of the water in the intake began naturally to pass through; and work was begun upon the first dam required to force all of the water through the by-pass, it being the intention that when this dam was completed and all of the water was going through the by-pass to throw in another dam about 250 feet below the first in order to inclose that portion of the intake to be used as a site for the gate; the second dam being built in still water, would have required only two or three days' work with the dredger, as it would have been simply an earthen bank thrown up by that machine. It was at this time that I decided that it would be necessary for me to either put some one at the river to take absolute charge of the construction of the gate and the closing of the river, or else it would be necessary to put some one in the Los Angeles office to handle the business affairs of the company, as I found that I was spending fully one-third of my time on the train between Los Angeles and Yuma and that the strain was becoming too great and that either work required my presence all the time. I met Mr. Randolph about the middle of September and discussed the question with him and he fully agreed with me that I could not fill both positions, and also agreed with me that it would be easier to find some one capable of completing the gate in accordance with the plans outlined, than it would be to find some one to take charge of the business end of affairs of the company, as no one but Mr. Heber and myself knew fully in regard to all contracts that had been entered into. Mr. Randolph asked me who I had in mind for the river work and upon my replying that I had not decided, he suggested that Mr. F. S. Edinger would be the right man if we could get him. 1 did not know Mr. Edinger intimately, but had known him for several years as the superintendent of bridges for the Southern Pacific Railroad. He had built the bridge at Yuma and I believed him to be a man of integrity and of great ability, and I concurred with Mr. Randolph in the wisdom of placing Mr. Edinger in charge of the work at the river. providing his services could be obtained. He had left the employ of the Southern Pacific about three months previously and was then interested with the contracting firm of Shattuck & Desmond of Los Angeles and San Francisco, with headquarters at San Francisco. I had to leave the following day for San Francisco in order to pass upon the plans for the concrete head gate which were being gotten out by our consulting engineer, Mr. James D. Schuyler. In San Francisco I attempted to find Mr. Edinger, but learned that he was in Arizona. On my return to Los Angeles, I found a letter from Mr. Randolph stating that he had met Mr. Edinger in Tucson and had arranged with him to take entire charge of the work at the river for the construction of the gate in accordance with my plans; he requested me to go to Yuma with Mr. Edinger and turn the entire work over to him. Mr. Edinger had left for San Francisco, but returned in three or four days, when I accompanied him to the river, discussed with him the entire gate plans, went with him over the ground and turned at the time the entire work over to him. He expressed himself as entirely satisfied with the plans of this gate and as believing that the gate could be put in place much easier than I had anticipated, but agreed with me that if I was erring it was on the side of safety, and that the work would go ahead as outlined by me. He said that it would be necessary for him to return to San Francisco at once in order to obtain some additional pumping machinery, which we decided we would require, and also to get several of his old men whom he thought would be of very material assistance to him in carrying through the new work rapidly. He went to San Francisco and was to return in a week. He did not return for two weeks, and when he did return passed through Los Angeles without notifying me. He went to the river, and at this time we were having what we ordinarily expect about the first of October, a slight rise in the river of two or three feet. This rise I had been expecting and hoping for, as I believed it would enlarge the by-pass and would, without the aid of the dam, throw a larger amount of the river water through the by-pass. Mr. Edinger, according to statements made to me, remained on the work at this time but a few minutes, when he returned to Yuma and took the first train for Tucson to see Mr. Randolph, to whom he said that neither he nor any other man could build that gate and put it in place and that he would not undertake it. He had plans for the construction of a dam across the west channel from the head of the island direct to the Lower California shore, a distance of about 600 feet, by means of which he said he would be able to turn the water down the east channel. He claimed that he could do this work in much quicker time than the gate could be put in, even if the gate could be built at all, which he denied. Mr. Randolph, who had great faith in Mr. Edinger's experience and ability, agreed to this change of plan without consultation with me, and authorized Mr. Edinger to remove all material from the gate site, and to proceed at once with the construction of what was afterward known as the Edinger Dam. This was on a Thursday that Mr. Edinger went to Tucson. On Friday they started to move all material to the «ite of the Edinger Dam, and I knew nothing at all of this change of plan until the following Monday, when I was notified by Mr. Randolph in Los Angeles of what he had done. The dam met with several mishaps; Edinger was very much longer in its construction than he had estimated. One of the foundation mats had broken, and though it was held in place, I did not believe, nor did other engineers believe who examined the work, that it would be a success. On the 29th day of November, Edinger had succeeded in raising the water thirty-five inches by means of the dam and had some water going down the east channel. In order to have turned all the water down the east channel, it would have been necessary to have raised the water to a height of between eight and ten feet, and it is exceedingly doubtful if the structure would have stood the pressure, but that is merely a matter of surmise. On the 29th of November a very heavy flood came down the river and the entire structure was washed away and the work was abandoned. Whether or not the first gate planned would have been completed before the flood of November 29th, is a matter of conjecture. No man can tell positively, but, judging from the tremendous work evolved in the construction of the second gate, which would not have been incurred in the construction of the first, and judging, too, from the rapidity with which the second gate was put in place, it is my opinion and the opinion of others who were able to judge, that the first gate would have been in place before the flood came down; and that gate, with its concrete floor, would have stood the pressure that would have been placed upon it, in which case the river would have been turned in November, 1905, and at a cost that would not have exceeded $125,000. On the 15th day of December, 1905, I was authorized to go ahead again with the construction of what has been known as the Rockwood Gate. The heavy flood of November 29th had enlarged the intake from a width of 300 feet to a width of approximately 600 feet. It had taken out the island between the by-pass and the intake, and as we could not hope for the completion of the new gate before April, 1906, by which time we might possibly have high water in the river, it seemed an unsafe proposition to attempt to build the gate in the old channel. After looking over the ground, then, I decided to build the new gate directly in the main canal and to carry the water around the gate by means of a new canal to be built. The first gate was planned for a width of 120 feet and to carry a maximum of nine thousand cubic feet per second, which was the estimated amount of water that might be in the river in the month of November, 1905, at which time I had expected to have the gate completed. The Yuma records show that the amount of water flowing in the river previous to the flood of November 29th could have been successfully carried through a gate of the width planned. As the new gate could not be completed until the spring of 1906, I decided that it would have to be built larger than previously planned in order to carry the larger amount of water that might be expected in the river at that time; consequently, it was planned with a width of 200 feet. The dimensions of the new gate, including its wooden aprons, was to be over all 240 feet by 10 feet. Instead of having a clear cut channel to work in, as we had for the first gate, the entire space had to be enclosed in a coffer-dam, and the excavation made from the interior of this enclosure. The work involved was such that the time required, as well as the expense, was fully twice as great as required for the construction of the first gate. Mr. Randolph, while giving his permission to go ahead with this construction, expressed doubt of our ability to put the floor of the gate down to the elevation that I expected to reach. I succeeded in placing the floor one foot below the elevation proposed in the original plan and the gate, except for its rock aprons, which were never built, was completed on the 18th day of April, 1906, practically within the time I had estimated, although at a very much greater cost. But we had had high water in the river since about the first of March, and at this time some 22,000 cubic feet per second were passing down the channel; and, while I believe that the gate might successfully carry 15,000 feet, it seemed foolish to place a test upon it, at this time, against a rising river, as it was exceedingly doubtful if we would be able to construct a dam across the 600 feet of channel with the means at our disposal before the summer flood should be upon us; consequently, we decided to stop the work until after the summer flood of 1906 should have passed. I had found, at this time, that it was impossible for me to manage the affairs of the company in accordance with my ideas, and unless I could do so, I believed that it was best for the stockholders of the company that I should resign as assistant general manager, which I did the latter part of April, 1906. Mr. H. T. Cory was then made general manager and I became the consulting engineer. After the summer flood had passed Mr. Cory moved his headquarters to the river and took complete charge of the work. At this time, due to the summer flood of 1906, the intake had again been enlarged from 600 feet to approximately 2600 feet, and the work of filling was of such a magnitude that we decided it would be impossible to accomplish it in the time at our disposal except by means of a branch road to be built a distance of seven miles from the Southern Pacific main line across the intake, on the site of the proposed dam. The construction of this line, which was immediately begun, gave us the opportunity to throw a spur track in front of the gate and assure its safety, as it would permit rock to be dumped either on the gate or in front of it in case serious erosion should occur; but the spur was not built until too late. The rock aprons that I had intended to build above and below the gate had not been put in, which omission allowed whirlpools to start in front of the gate which dug a hole below the sheet piling. The spur was then completed as rapidly as possible in order to bring in rock to fill the hole, but when the first trainload of rock started across the spur on the morning of October nth, a part of the trestle gave way and the train was thrown from the track, and at three o'clock in the afternoon the gate rose and went out. I was not on the ground at the time, having resigned as consulting engineer in October. Previous to this, however, this gate, which had been planned to carry 12,000 cubic feet of water per second on an even flow, had been carrying for a period of nearly two weeks far in excess of the amount, and, due to the drift which had been allowed to accumulate in front of it, this water, instead of going through smoothly, was going through with an overpour exceeding four feet in height. Whether the structure would have stood the strain had this spur been completed in time and had the rock aprons shown in my original plans been built, no man can tell, but it is my belief and that of other experienced engineers who examined it, that it would have stood and would have done the work for which it was planned, and would have been there today. After the Rockwood Gate, so-called, went out, I understand that Mr. Randolph decided to throw a mat and brush dam across the river channel below the intake of the concrete gate, which was built under my direction the winter before, and to force all the water through it. He was dissuaded, as I have been told, from this plan by Thomas Hind, who had been previously in charge of the work at the river under my directions, and who was, at the time of the going out of the Rockwood Gate, foreman under H. T. Cory in charge of the river work. Hind said he could close the river and force the water back into the old channel by main force, providing they could furnish him with rock fast enough. They decided upon adopting this plan, which, at the time, was in all probability the only one that could have been adopted that would have succeeded in quick enough time to prevent the necessity of again moving the Southern Pacific tracks to the high grade level which they had been building at an elevation of 100 feet below sea level around the Salton Sea. Mr. Randolph succeeded in getting the Southern Pacific to agree to this plan of procedure which necessitated, practically, the turning over of the entire trackage facilities of the Southern Pacific to this work. Quarries from all over the country were brought into requisition and passenger trains were ordered to give way to the rock trains that would be required; and what is probably one of the most gigantic works ever done by man in an equal length of time was then inaugurated, and the work of filling the channel began. Most of the cars used were of the pattern called battleships, carrying fifty cubic yards of rock, and the trains were so handled that for several days, or until the fill was above the danger point, one car of rock was dumped on the average of every five minutes, night and day. This plan was successful. The Hind Dam was completed and the water turned down its old channel toward the Gulf of California on the 4th of November, 1908. The river did not stay long turned, however. A few weeks after the closure had been made, a flood came down the river which broke under the earth levees which had been constructed from the Hind Dam down the river for the purpose of preventing an overflow from entering the channel below the dam. The floods which had occurred during the year 1905-1906 had caused a deep deposit of silt upon the lands below the dam. This silt deposit was filled with cracks, and when the Hind Dam was completed, the water at first raised above the natural ground surface and lay against the levee to a depth of from four to eight inches in the neighborhood of where the second break occurred. Even this slight pressure of water found its way beneath the levee in many different places, and a large gang of men was required to prevent it from breaking; but nothing was done to make it safe, and when the next flood came down the river in December, 1906, it broke under the levee and again the water turned down to the Salton Sea. This second break was closed in the same manner as the first had been, on the nth day of February, 1907. After repairing the second break the levees were rebuilt and extended farther down the river and, in my opinion, they will now stand any pressure that may come against themy and I believe that the people of the Imperial Valley are now entirely safe from the probability of destruction due to future floods in the Colorado River, and that these floods may not occur, not because it is impossible that the flood waters of the Colorado should again find their way to the Salton Sea, but as the river has been twice turned, it can be turned again by the same means should it ever become necessary to do so. The people of the Imperial Valley have naturally expected great things of the management of the Southern Pacific, believing that an enterprise backed by all its millions and its natural interest in the development of the traffic would at once surge ahead; that all necessary work to put the entire enterprise in a safe and satisfactory condition for the distribution of water would be done, and that the work would be rapidly carried on to cover the entire acreage available for irrigation within the Valley. Two years have now passed since the final closure was made, and on the 20th day of next June four years will have passed since the Southern Pacific assumed absolute charge of the management of the affairs of the California Development Company, and yet, during that time, I doubt if sixty miles of new canals and ditches have been built, and % doubt if to exceed 5000 more people are now in the Valley than were here on the 20th day of June, 1905. The old company, hampered as it was by lack of funds and the erroneous beliefs of the world regarding the possibilities of this region, began its work of construction at the Colorado River in September, 1900. It brought the first little trickle of water down through what is now known as the Boundary Ditch at Calexico on the 21st day of June, 1901. It was not able to turn water into its main canal for irrigation until March, 1902. Practically then the history of development in the hands of the old management, dates from the time when we turned over the management to the Southern Pacific on the 20th day of June, 1905^ a period of four years. During that time, in spite of all that we had during the early period to overcome, we built nearly 800 miles of canals ; we sold water rights covering approximately 210,000 acres of land, and we brought into the Valley not less than 15,000 people. It must be remembered though that nearly two years of the Southern Pacific control was spent in turning the floods that threatened to destroy all, that it has been hampered by many adverse court decisions against the California Development Company, and it is a question as to whether any financial men placed in the same position that they are would have done more than they have, except that a different administration might have before this cleared the ground for future action and might have effected a reorganization which must undoubtedly be accomplished before the great work can again go ahead smoothly. Court decisions have been rendered which would naturally make the Southern Pacific, or any financial institution in its place, hesitate before spending more money in the Valley for the benefit of others. The decision of the United States Federal Court gave to the Liverpool Salt Company in a suit which it brought against the California Development Company for destroying its works a judgment of $450,000. The Southern Pacific does not, naturally, care to pay this judgment. Some of the people of the Imperial Valley combined and assigned to one Jones innumerable claims for damages, some real, some fictitious, all exaggerated, but aggregating in the total amount some $470,000. The Southern Pacific cannot be responsible for that damage, nor does it care to create additional wealth, additional assets, for the California Development Company that might be taken to pay those damage claims should Jones succeed in obtaining a judgment against the company. I understand that plans had been drawn and consent had been given for the expenditure of a large amount of money for the construction of permanent gates in the main canal, above Sharps, when a decision rendered by the Federal Court in Los Angeles cast doubt upon the legality of the contracts entered into between the mutual companies and the California Development Company, and also threw a serious doubt upon the value of all water stocks and upon the value of future investments that might be made by the Southern Pacific in the canal system. Following this decision then they ordered all work stopped and notified the present management of the California Development Company that it must depend entirely upon its resources obtained from water rentals or from the sale of such water stocks as people might see fit to buy. (The decision referred to above was reversed by Judge Welborn in February, 1900.—Ed.). If these water rentals were paid promptly it is doubtful if they would be sufficient to operate successfully the system, but I understand they have not been all paid and the present management of the company, like the old, is hampered in its work by inadequate funds. A new chapter has now been opened in the affairs of the Valley and in the affairs of the California Development Company by a suit brought on the 9th day of January, 1909, against the company by the Southern Pacific for, approximately, $1,400,000, the company suing on promissory notes given to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company and by the Southern Pacific management of the California Development Company. We may hope, however, that instead of this suit further complicating the situation and retarding development indefinitely, that it may prove an advantage to all concerned by clearing the ground and leaving it clean for future growth. Fight on for C. D. Control. A Late Letter from Mr. Rockwood Los Angeles, Cal., May 12, 1909. To the people of Imperial Valley: It is with regret that I announce to you that on Saturday, May 8, 1909, Mr. W. F. Herrin, the head of the legal department of the Southern Pacific, acting for that company, decided not to accept the proposition recently made by the stockholders of the California Development Company, whereby we agreed to sell to the Southern Pacific Company all of the stock of the C. D. Co., for $250,000, being $20 per share, or one-fifth of its par value. The price at which we offered the stock equals only about $1 per acre for the lands now under water stock and 25 cents per acre for the total irrigable area of the Valley. The revenues from water rentals for this year, 1909, will equal the total amount that we have asked the Southern Pacific Company to pay us for our equity in this great enterprise, that was with your help and theirs created by us, an enterprise that, though still in its infancy, too young as yet to even dream the story of its future greatness, increased the revenues of the great Southern Pacific Company during the year 1908 by nearly two and one-half million dollars. They will undoubtedly deny these figures and I cannot prove them, but my information came directly from a high official of the company, whose name I will not give as such information is not for us common people, and I do not wish to embarrass my friend by subjecting him to reprimand from the higher ups. The little we have asked them to pay us out of their much is, we believe, far below the sum that we are justly entitled to for our part in building up this Imperial empire of the southwest. A year ago we made a proposition to the Southern Pacific Company to settle our differences. They refused it. We have made others since, all of which have been ignored, and they never made to us a counter proposition, unless that we pay back to them all of the money they have squandered in mismanaging our affairs, with interest, be considered a proposition. This sum, which includes freight at $12 a ton, $18 per cubic yard, on much of the rock that was used in closing the break, amounts, according to their statement, to approximately $4,000,000, and unless we are prepared to pay them this sum they have decided that we who have created for them a revenue of $2,500,000 per year, are entitled to no consideration from them. This is of interest to you, of vital interest, and for that reason I am taking you into my confidence and telling you these things that mean the retarding of the development of our great Valley unless we, the stockholders and owners of the California Development Company, who conceived and planned this enterprise and put into it our all, give up that all to satisfy the rapacity of the Southern Pacific Company. When we offered them the stock at $20 per share we offered them nearly all. We offered it because we are weak as compared with their great strength, and because we hoped that if we gave them title to the property that they would use their great power and resources to develop it. I am informed that the attorneys for the Southern Pacific in Los Angeles and San Francisco advised settlement on this basis, that this was also the desire of Messrs. Cory and Doran, the Southern Pacific managers of the California Development Company, but Mr. Espes Randolph and Mr. W. F. Herrin control, and they decided against it, and instructed the Los Angeles attorney to begin marshaling their legal hosts against us. The fight is on. I am sorry for your sakes as well as my own, but I think there are but few of you who can in your hearts expect or ask us to do more than we have. Personally I have given sixteen years out of the middle of my life in turning the Colorado Desert into the Imperial, Valley. I have succeeded, not alone to be sure. Without the help of the brains and money of my associates I could have done nothing. Without the help of the Southern Pacific in time to save all our efforts might have been fruitless, but that they did save no more entitles them to say to us, the stockholders, give us all in payment, than it does to say to you, give us the farm we saved for you. I try not to be egotistical, but when I now ride through our fields of waving grain and look miles across broad acres of alfalfa, dotted here and there with comfortable homes, and the evidence of a prosperous people, and think of that day, more than sixteen years back, when, without a wagon track or trail to guide me, I first crossed the then uninhabitated solitude, I know that I have accomplished that which is given to but few to do, and while my reward is mostly in doing that which I undertook to do, still I believe that in my work I have honestly earned in that visible evidence of success, money, a competency. But I do not expect it now out of my work in the Valley unless I can acquire it in the future through the same opportunities that have been given to you. Personally I own 712 shares of California Development Company stock. At the price it was offered to the Southern Pacific Company I would have received $16,240, not a very magnificent money reward to be sure; but even this they refused, and now to get it or anything I must fight through the long, tedious process of the courts. In the fight I, we, want and hope to receive the sympathy and moral support of the Valley people. The time must come when you, the people, will own the great water system on which you are so entirely dependent, and now that your land titles are being adjusted the time may be not far away when you can offer a security that would permit you to purchase. Hope then, for your own sakes, if not for ours, that we may win, for undoubtedly the price we will ask of you will be but a small part of the demands of the Southern Pacific Company. I believe that in this fight we are legally and morally right, and that the courts of our land will not oblige us, or you, to return to the Southern Pacific Company the millions unnecessarily spent, and spent in any case not for our protection but for their own, and I believe we will win, and if we do, you do. Requesting then your patience and your continued good-will, I remain, Yours sincerely, C. R. ROCKWOOD. Additional Comments: Extracted from: THE HISTORY OF IMPERIAL COUNTY CALIFORNIA EDITED BY F. C. FARR IN ONE VOLUME ILLUSTRATED Published by ELMS AND FRANKS BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 1918 Printed by Taylor & Taylor, San Francisco File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ca/imperial/history/1918/historyo/earlyhis235nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/ File size: 59.3 Kb