The Biggest Project in Yuma. Irrigation is the process by which a water supply is brought to the land or crops to aid its growth, and to do so channels are usually used. The yuma project was designed to irrigate Yuma County Arizona And part of California and thus to exploit to the maximum the agricultural activities of the place using as main source of water the Colorado River. The project began in the year of 1903 and with the a series of geographic, environmental and logistical challenges that the workers had to overcome to complete this project which would become the main driver of development in the city.
The geography of Arizona was a very important factor during the irrigation because there were many problems with it.
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This was a problem because the products and supply no longer Could reach people and this affected the development of everything.Not only were there problems with supplies and products but also with natural disasters. In 1916, a great flood affected the counties of Yuma because of all the water that came from the mountains. This caused a lot of damage to the city, such as breach a levee and ruining many previous records. In addition to this, the flood stopped the development since this problem blocked the roads as well as the railroads so the products as the construction materials and food could not get easily and the workers were not in the best conditions.Perhaps you do not believe that after one Flood a drought but in this case it was. The river carried a lot of sediment and this covered the irrigation canals, the water could not pass and caused the crops to wither and die quickly. The division of the water of Colorado river was the most difficult legislative aspect.Due many people depended on the water of this river, California had many duel system of water rights and the best solution to all this was to put all groups in agreement, after this they decided to build the Hoover Dam.During the construction of the Yuma Siphon, there was also some problems present. One of them was to find a way to …show more content…
The Colorado River passes through Rocky Mountains carrying water to Colorado, and to the states of Los Angeles and Arizona.Thanks to new technologies of irrigation agriculture progress in a very unpredictable and unexpected way. The advance of agriculture not only brought a lot of benefits to farmers, progress was so great that agriculture created jobs outside the farmer sector , in sectors such as goods and services. Many Yuma jobs were created by agriculture, which brought much progress and income for the city.Agribusiness had a direct effect with 16,428 jobs, an indirect effect with 1,196, and an induced effect with 3,120 jobs. It can be seen that the Yuma project affected a very big number of people. After it was seen that in Yuma there was a good land for crops, many people decide to move, this caused a massive move towards Yuma with a great impact on the population. The impact of the population was so big that in other parts of the state were left with only 5,000 people.In the year 1948, 609 veterans were selected to win one of the 54 homesteads that were raffled on the Yuma-Mesa division of the Gila project.Veterans came as far away a New York as well as California, just 8 were from Arizona.This brought
The land west of the Mississippi provided benefits for few people and imposed hardships to many. The land provided the people with rich natural resources and was the reason a majority of the people went west. Climatic changes and unexpected hardships made the voyage west and settlement in the west hard for many. The success of the settlements largely depended on the abundance of the natural resources and the changes in climate. The natural environment overall fueled the development of the
Along this journey created by nature, the river interacts with man’s influence to encapsulate the full geographic experience of this region. The succession of dams along the river’s path is a major contribution to how man has decided to mesh with the river. The dams have created reservoirs for water supplies, harnessed energy to provide electric power to the southwestern region, and controlled flooding. Flood control was the main concern at the time between the years 1905 and 1907 when large floods broke through the irrigation gates and destroyed crops in California. The flooding was so large it actually created a 450 square mile sea, named the Salton Sea. As a result of this major disaster, ideas were formulated to
The Colorado River Basin starts in the Rocky Mountains and cuts through 1500 miles of canyon lands and deserts of seven US states and two Mexican states to supply a collection of dams and reservoirs with water to help irrigate cropland, support 40 million people, and provide hydroelectric power for the inland western United States [1,2]. From early settlement, rights over the river have been debated and reassigned to different states in the upper and lower basin; however, all the distribution patterns lead to excessive consumption of the resource. In 1922, the seven US states signed into the Colorado River Compact, which outlined the policy for the distribution rights to the water [3], however, this compact was written during an exceptionally
The Navajo Nation has an arid climate, with deserts and high plateaus covered with alpine forests, mesas, and mountains reaching over 10,000 feet in elevation (Navajo Nation Economic Development, n.d.). It lies on top three aquifers, the (Navajo) N-Aquifer with 290 million acre feet of storage, the (Coconino) C-aquifer with 413 million acre feet of storage, and the (Dakota) D-aquifer with 50 million acre feet of storage (Four Corners Area Drinking Water GIS, n.d.). The Colorado River
When the Yuma Project began more people from different places migrated here. The invention of water canals became together providing water year long and when other places were dry people found the way to come here and live. Most of these people would work on the fields growing crops. The Yuma Project was important in many ways. One important factor is construction on the city. Over time there was not much places where people can enjoy the day or stay at a home. The results had people staying at these homes to work and make a living. When many canals were built there would be occurring floods. A flood hit in 1916 in the city of Yuma causing reconstruction on the city. When it was all payed for the buildings were built better. When the canals break free construction workers would use leaves to fix there problem. Canals were one of the other important sources in Yuma. The Laguna Dam was built resulting flowing water and irrigation issues were not more of an
One of the many things that irrigation changed Yuma was by it expanded Yuma’s population by 80%. Yuma used to be a very unpopulated area. Phoenix, Tucson, and Las Vegas have the biggest basin.” One of the biggest reasons on how Yuma got very populated was because of the project called Yuma Project. For this project to get authorized President Theodore Roosevelt turned the abandoned Fort Yuma Military Reservation, in Arizona, over to the newly formed Reclamation Service for the development of irrigation projects.”
There are many different ways irrigation has changed Yuma and the rest of Southern Arizona very drastically. Irrigation has existed in Southern Arizona and Yuma County since the 1800’s. Irrigation has been practiced in the Algodones Grant with a view to determine if gravity canals would be effective for irrigation. 50,000 to 60,000 acres are extremely fertile and are very capable of producing crops when there is a sufficient amount of water given for irrigation to take place. “Water is too valuable to use on farms” was a myth in the 1900’s about irrigation but there is 80% of the Colorado River water the is used in agriculture. Agriculture business in Yuma county has changed
It is without saying that irrigation holds a vital role in the Yuma County and is significant in varying ways. The influence and control that it has reaches past the county and state of Arizona and affects people throughout the nation. It paved the way for superior crops, more efficient farms, and great feats of accomplishment.
The Yuma Project was important because it dealt with all the uprising conflicts that occurred.Irrigation greatly changed southern Arizona, also known as Yuma. It started out small, but as more people moved there it grew largely. There were a series of different irrigation systems, but the commonly used one was canals. Some of the canals that were built long ago still stand today, and Yuma is the most linked place. Yuma today is the largest agricultural place, but will not be for long if they keep having the problems they do. They also need to have money so they can fix what they need to and be able to pay workers to help.
The early private efforts tried on pumping water from the river to irrigate the valley. They used wood and oil so the pumps would run but it did not go as they thought it would they had problems. A group of farsighted farms in Yuma Valley formed the Yuma County Water. The Yuma zproject included the Laguna Dam, Yuma Main Canal, a distribution system, a levee and a power plant. The first dam that they found on Colorado River was the Laguna Dam. Thats was the beginning of irrigated agriculture in the Yuma Valley.
The yuma project was first authorized in May 10,1904 and was the first irrigation project in Yuma. Thanks to the Yuma project many farms got water and the farms were finally able to produce goods. Once the project was done many people found out that Yuma had water and it was able to be transported to the farms, the population started to increase, but it didn't only just increased, it also decreased by a little, but later on population started to expand once more. Developers also faced many challenges, it wasn't easy for the developers to assemble the project. Something that was also a bit of a problem to them was the cost of building, repairing, and paying the workers when the project was being generated. The challenges that they had to face were not that simple.
If you see yuma right now you wouldn't tell that back when yuma became a town it flooded up most of the time and destroy everything in its way and it would be dangerous because it could kill people. The reason it would get flooded is back at that time they didn't have anything to control the water coming from the colorado river. The people that lived here notice that the soil in yuma is amazing and it would grow a lot of crops because of the water that would run through there when it would get flooded so they decide to build a dam that would help control the water so they would be able to grow crops and it was named the yuma project.
Irrigation in Yuma is one of the biggest things here because half of our jobs depend on it. Describe in detail how irrigation changed Yuma/Southern Arizona. Irrigation has change Yuma and Southern Arizona half of our income is agriculture with help of irrigation.The Colorado River is the water source for Southern Arizona around 17 million people depend on the colorado river “Total population in the immediate area is estimated at 4,500 practically all dependent on agriculture” without it Southern Arizona would just a waste land. Irrigation projects in Arizona have been going since Theodore Roosevelt was in office he even turned an abandoned military fort into development of irrigation projects. Post construction for the Yuma irrigation projects the workers wages were about
Some challenges that Yuma County had with the Irrigation System was flooding, the use of water for crops on farmland, the supply of water for irrigation, and the transfer of water from the canals. Millions of years the Quechan Indians would depend on the flooding river to fertilize and irrigate the farmlands crops Companies had formed irrigate lands in the Yuma Valley, but they were not successful at all with this plan they thought would work.
Prior to settlement of the western United States, the Colorado River roamed free. Starting from cool mountain streams, the river eventually became a thunderous, silty force of nature as it entered the canyons along its path. The river nourished wetlands and other riparian habitats from the headwaters in the Rocky Mountains to the delta at the Sea of Cortez in Northwest Mexico. Settlers along the river harnessed these waters mainly for agriculture via irrigation canals, but flooding from spring runoff wreaked havoc on agricultural land, prevented development in the floodplain and full utilization of the water, a waste in the eyes of western farmers. In order to meet current and future water demands in the west, the Federal Government