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How Irrigation Changed Yuma/Southern Arizona

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Intro: From the Roman empire to the rice fields in China, irrigation can be found in some kind of form, this is especially true for Yuma, Arizona where irrigation is vital to its agricultural history. It changed southern Arizona with positive and negative effects. Yuma payed for irrigation in multiple different ways, and brought technology in for its rising stardom. Question 1: Describe in detail how irrigation changed Yuma/Southern Arizona. With the Colorado River dammed, it drives away all of the steamer boat companies in Yuma that were using the Colorado as a source of transportation of cargo, goods and passengers. While the dam did drive away some business from Yuma, it also brought people and grew the cities of Yuma. The dam made irrigation …show more content…

“On the reverse side “The Reading of the Cards” was explained. “The ace of diamonds represents brilliancy, or 365 days of sunshine and growing season each year. The ace of spades represents a deepwater-way through the Gulf of California to the Pacific Ocean. The ace of hearts represents a hearty condition of the soil, comprising two million acres of the richest land in the world. The ace of clubs represents power, or the Colorado River, the greatest irrigating and power river in America.” In order to make Yuma a safer place to farm and to live the,Hoover Dam was needed to be built. Without the YCWUA, Yuma County Water Users’ Association, the Hoover dam wouldn’t have been built to control the water flow. Yuma would still have flooding regularly and we wouldn’t have the agriculture that we do today. “It wasn’t until Hoover Dam was built in the 1930s that the river was controlled and the valley and city were protected, he said. “Hoover wasn’t part of the Yuma Project, but it influenced it.” For the most part completed by 1915, the Yuma Project “functioned well, settlers came, the area grew and Yuma grew,” …show more content…

It wasn’t until 1871 that Sheriff Oscar Frank Townsend transferred all county records from La Paz to Yuma.” These events all followed and happened because of the need for farming and using the soil beneath our feet, the only one thing that stood in our way was,irrigation but we conceded it. “What really put Yuma on the map for Americans was the gold rush of 1849, when thousands off or tune hunters headed west, seeking the quickest way to reach California.(...)As the Wild West era ended, Yuma also changed, though it continued to take a pioneering role in regional development. An ambitious irrigation scheme called the "Yuma Project" was the first major undertaking authorized for the new U.S. Reclamation Service (now Bureau of Reclamation) in 1904;actual construction of the Laguna Dam began in 1905. Completed in 1909, the Laguna Dam was the first dam on the Colorado River, marking the end of the steamboat era - and the beginning of irrigated

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