Corralling the Colorado

Lynn Poole announces that the current issue of TV Stage has an article about "The Johns Hopkins Science Review." A film by the U.S. Dept. of Interior then shows the historical use of the Colorado River. In the late 1800s, Thomas Blythe acquired 40,000 acres in Palo Verde Valley, California and filed the first water rights to the river. In 1867 Jack Swilling built the first irrigation canals in Arizona. By diverting water from the river to land, the southwest began to thrive. However, floods, such as the one that created Salton Sea in 1905, alternating with droughts required a plan to stabilize the flow of the Colorado. Arthur Powell Davis, Director of the U. S. Reclamation Service, proposed a dam, and the Boulder Canyon Project Act was passed in 1928. In 1931 dam construction was begun in Black Canyon, and Hoover Dam (called Boulder Dam from 1933-1946) was completed in 1936, two years ahead of schedule. The resulting Lake Mead, named in honor of U. S. Reclamation Commissioner Dr. Elwood Mead, extends over 100 miles upstream, can hold 2 years of flow from the Colorado River, and has become a very popular recreation area for water sports.