Imperial County CA Archives History - Books .....Government Antagonistic 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 14, 2006, 3:33 am Book Title: History Of Imperial County California GOVERNMENT ANTAGONISTIC It is strange to record here that apparently from the very inception of this great reclamation enterprise the attitude of the national government seemed antagonistic. At times the work was much retarded from this cause, the operators becoming discouraged, and in some cases fell into discredit in the community. This opposition came, not only from the reclamation service department, but also from other branches of the government from which every assistance had been expected. This was mainly attributed to the dilatory tactics of the officials in sending inexperienced men to undertake work of such large importance. For instance, the soil survey made by the Agricultural Department in 1901 and 1902 resulted in such an unfavorable report that for a time operations were entirely stopped, and the faith in the enterprise became much impaired. The substance of this report was that the alkalies would rise to the surface and destroy all plant life. But the wisdom of that cruel prediction has been amply refuted from that time to this by the marvelous crops produced in the very parts of the Valley where the trouble was expected. And yet at the time the blow was a sad one for the projectors. There was also trouble from the Government Land Department. And this made it necessary that a resurvey of the lands in the Valley should be made. This was authorized by Congress in 1902, and it took seven years to complete it. But even this snarl of red tape was finally untangled. But meanwhile the projectors were confronted with an empty treasury once more. Then resource was had to the Southern Pacific Railway Company, which was of course deeply interested in the development of the Valley. At the instigation of Mr. E. H. Harriman, after careful investigation, a loan of $200,000 was secured on certain conditions. But then came a break in the Colorado River in June, 1905, which had been preceded by some water-sewage the past two years, due to some defects in the construction system. But again all these troubles, and many others which followed from periodical floods unprecedented, were successfully met and surmounted, as all others had been. On the far eastern side of Imperial County are 17,000 acres of the finest land in the world which are now watered by the diversion of the Colorado River under the Laguna Dam system. This great dam is nearly a mile long by 240 feet wide, and it raises the water in the river about ten feet. It stands as a monument to the engineering skill of the government. It will eventually reclaim about 130,000 acres of land. And to this will be added some 100,000 acres from the Imperial Mesa land. This new county, therefore, seems like an empire in itself, being 84 miles long from east to west and 54 miles from north to south, covering about 2,600,000 acres. About one-sixth of this, now known as Imperial Valley, lies in the middle of the county, extending toward the Mexican line toward the north some 40 miles. The Salton Sea is in the western part of the county, the probable remains of the California Gulf. 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/governme212nms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/cafiles/ File size: 3.9 Kb