Community Development in the Southwest as Influenced by the Boulder Canyon Project

Abstract

T HE semi-arid Southwest, with its constantly changing atmospheric colorings and its rugged topography, its mesa slopes, beautiful valleys, and coastal plains, and its deep-cut canyons exposing the rocks of all ages, is quite as distinctive as any section of the earth, not excluding Spain and Italy; and, it seems, is destined to become a center of culture and of economic activity. Little wonder that the Indian of this section was notably a silent man, eloquent, and true to the Great Spirit that controlled his emotions. During the period of occupancy of this territory by the aborigines, followed by the Spanish rule with its missions and romance, and later by the more hardy pioneers from the north under the rule of our own country, the more populous communities were to be found, until recently, in the valleys along the natural water courses. Their wants were quite fully supplied by the uses made of the water and other natural resources found within close range of their settlements. Until the city of Los Angeles reached a population of one hundred and sixty thousand, its water supply was readily and amply provided from the Los Angeles River watershed. Then it became evident to men of vision that an additional and much larger water supply must be brought in from some distant source, as otherwise the city's growth would be limited to a population of possibly five hundred thousand people. IMPORTANCE OF ELECTRIC POWER