WSP11253

• File Number: 8277.200
• Description: California Water Resources Association/California Salinity Projects
• State: CA
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 1/1/1953
• Title: Palo Verde Irrigation District - Blythe California - Annual Report 1953
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Annual Report

Brief History of Palo V erde Valley

INTRODUCTION

The history of the Palo V erde Valley Is entwined in the history of the
Colorado River. The former has always been dependent on the latter. From
1852 to 1871 steamboats plied the Colorado from Port Isabel at the mouth
to Hardyville near the present site of Davis Dam. A few trips were made to
CalleviIle, a Mormon community at the mouth of the Virgin River under
what is now Lake Mead. This river traffic was supported by the mineral
industry, there being gold and silver mines in the mountains near the river
from Yuma to Black Canyon (site of Hoover Dam). A wagon freight line.
which croBsed the river at Ehrenberg, east of Blythe, delivered supplies to
the mining areas of Quartzsite, Wickenburg, and Prescott. Another reason
for river traffic was to supply the U. S. Army. Supplies were shipped from
San Francisco to Port Isabel by ocean vessel, transshipped to river steamers
which Brought the goods to Ehrenberg. From here goods went overland by
wagon train to the army posts in Arizona. When the Southern Pacific
reached Yuma in 1877. river traffic originated there and Port Isabel reverted
to IIludflats. With the advent of railroads in Arizona, traffic on the wagon
freight line diminished. With the construction of Laguna Dam in 1909,
river traffic ceased.
Surveyors of the U. S. General Land Office were also active in South-
eastern California in the period 1855 to 1884, laying out the range, township
and section lines. These too were supplied from the steamboats. One of the
surveyors was Oliver P. Calloway, an engineer who had hacked out the
first stage road from San Diego to Yuma and had had a hand in the
development of San Diego harbor. He saw the agricultural possibilities of
the Palo Verde Valley. Lacking money, he went looking for an angel and
found one in the form of Thomas H. Blythe. a capitalist of San Francisco.
(Blythe was born as Thomas Williams in Mold, England, July 3D, 1822'>
Blythe was making e:zcellent returns on real estate investments in San
Francisco and spending all of it on mining and agricultural promotion
schemes. He acquired some 40,000 acres, all valley land east of the range
line (DeFrain Boulevard), from the State of California under provisions of
the Swamp and Overflow Act. He hired George S. Irish as manager.
Calloway as his engineer and told them to proceed. They put a levee
around the south side of Olive Lake slough (now the Fred 1. Toole ranch),
to store water during the flood flows. and canals from same to irrigate
pasture lands and one 40-acre plot in Section 18-6-23 that was experimental.
A canal was built from the river at Black Point, a mile north of the present
intake, to the slough but it was very costly, even with Indian labor at SOc
a day. Blythe spent some $82,000, before any irrigation was accomplished.
He visited the valley in December 1875 and again in November 1882.
On March 28, 1880. a Chemehuevi Indian named "Big Bill" killed
Calloway with a knife after an argument between Calloway and an Indian
named "Up and Up" about employment. He was buried in the north part
of the valley in a casket made from mahogany fittings of an abandoned
saloon in Ehrenberg. The army caught "Big Bill" and sent him to Alcatraz
then a military prison. Calloway was replaced by C. C. Miller of the family
later affiliated with Mission Inn. Riverside.
Thomas H. Blythe made the first filing on Colorado River water in
California when he recorded a request for 190,000 miner's inches C3800
second feeU in the county seat at San Diego on luly 17, 1877. The water
was requested for "agricultural, mining, manufacturing, domestic and
commercial purposes."
Thomas Blythe died of a heart attack in San Francisco on April 4. 1883.
His creditors immediately fro~e his assets, and money to the Palo Verde

This is a report of the accomplish-
ments and condition of your District for
the calendar year 1953, this is the filth
in a series of annual reports initiated in
1949. Y bur Board of Trustees hopes that
this policy will continue and that a re-
port of this kind will be made to the land-
owners annually. Inoluded herewith is
a comparative crop report for the last
three years, a financial report for the
year and a breakdown of receipts and
disbursements; also an outline of plans
for future development.

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