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Valley project was cut off. Irish and Miller sold off the implements, turned the money over to the estate, and left the valley. Since Blythe Wctl a bachelor and left no will. his estate was tied up in court for many years. There was no further agricultural progress until 1908. Frank Murphy and Edwin F. Williams. cattlemen of southeastern Arizona, visited the valley in 1904 and Murphy decided to try to buy the Blythe estate. Ed Williams describes his 1904 visit as follows: "Frank Murphy and I had ridden the Arizona ranges in the latter 1880's and early 1890's. Later he made a considerable fortune in cattle. but had been too active throughout life to be satisfied to retire. I met Murphy in Los Angeles and he begged me to go to the Valley with him and advise him regarding the purchase of the estate. The year previous, one Mr. Benton had a lease on the estate for cattle feeding with the option to purchase it at $4.00 an acre. Benton was giving up his lease. and Murphy was desirous to obtain a similar one. Farmers down the river at Yuma and other places tried to dissuade him from the undertaking. We left the Southern Pacific train at Glami. some 70 miles from Blythe at 3:00 a.m. on a stagecoach that delivered mail to Palo Verde, Ehrenberg. Quartzsite and thence eastward to the west end of the Phoenix cutoff railway, which was near the present town of Salome. We were all day and until after dark getting into Palo Verde, at that time the only village in the valley. A few persons were living there, most of whom had come up the river by steamboat during that and two preceding years. The following day we proceeded on northward by horseback and saw no person except one Ose Mercer who was camped near where Blythe now stands and was looking after Benton's cattle. . "We spent three days in riding over the Blythe estate, which was a Jungle of heavy growth. only traversable by winding trails. Three days later we started eastward. spending a day in Ehrenberg, another in Quartzsite, another at the end of the Santa Fe cutoff and thence to Globe, Arizona where I had a beef contract on Roosevelt Dam. "I advised Murphy that I thought the feed on the estate would be sufficient to pay interest on an investment of $4.00 an acre and that with his experience with cattle. I felt he could make a go of it. On leaving him at Globe I told him that so much time had elapsed since Blythe's filings and no progress had been made in reclamation, that I thought that addi- tional filing should be made by him. When we left he agreed to follow all the advice I had given him:' Murphy interested A. L. and W. A. Hobson of Oxnard and together they formed the Palo Verde Land and Water Company and purchased the Blythe Estate. and became the parent company of the Mutual Water Com- pany. The diredors of both organizations (all Land Company men) were identical. The Land Company, in payment for the intake, head works, etc.. assumed the right to sell the water stock which was issued for the entire valley at prices of their choosing. The settlers on 40.000 acres west of DeFrain Boulevard, which had been opened to homestead in 1911. could foresee ahead many years under the dominance of the Land Company. On September 21. 1912, after much controversy, an agreement was reached. whereby a committee of ten settlers. headed by Ed Williams met with a committee of ten Land Company men, headed by A. L. Hobson. An all-day fight resulted in a satisfactory solution for the settlers, after which a Land Company director resigned in favor of Williams. In November, 1912. Williams W'tls elected by the stockholders; he served for ten years, much of the time as president, and all the years as presiding officer of the Mutual Company and the annual stockholders' meetings. Later. Williams became president of the Levee- and Drainage Districts. C. K. Clarke was the first engineer of the water company and it was he who built the first intake structure and located the principal canals as they are today. The Palo Verde Levee District was organized in 1917, sold bonds and built a levee; the Palo Verde Drainage District was or~ ganized in 1921, sold bonds and started drain construction. The Palo Verde Irrigation District was voted in 1923, was organized in 1925 and took over the assets and liabilities of the three organizations: Palo Verde Mutual Water Company. Palo Verde Levee District. Palo Verde Drainage District. During the thirties, the valley was hard hit and the district defaulted its bonds. Later, the bonds were refinanced with an RFC loan. Leaders of the valley worked hard for the Boulder Canyon Project and were influential in bringing about the construction of Boulder Dam (later designated as Hoover Dam), completed in 1935, which regulated the flow of the river and virtually eliminated floods. Since that time. farming in the valley has been less of a gamble and the valley has prospered. '"'" Operation and Maintenance During the year 1953 the District continued to expand in developed acreage and also to show a general improvement in older cultivated lands. A total of 3683 acres of land went into crop for the first time during the year. and approximately 4000 additional acres of new land is now in the process of development; this includes approximately 2000 acres east of the Levee and south of 6th Avenue formally owned by A. A. Tiscornia and currently being developed by the J. E. Haddock interests. Other new developments are on the Union Stock Farms property south of 34th Avenue and the Howbuck Ranch near the town of Palo Verde. The new develop- ments required installation of 96 canal strudures, including 55 deliveries. 5 checks, 5 new headings. and 31 siphons. Canal maintenance work included the replacement of 56 old wooden structures with the pre-cast concrete type, five of which were large four and five-bay main canal checks. A new Thompson automatic upstream radial gate was installed in F Canal Spill at 18th Avenue; this gate automatically spills excess water back into the river at that point. The most important structure installed during the year was the new F Canal heading located on 2nd Avenue in the south bank of Duplicate Main Canal. It was necessary in the design of this structure to allow a crossing for 2nd Avenue and the new railroad spur to Riverview Farms. West C Canal was reconstructed between Defrain and Arrowhead Boulevards and C-03 Canal was reconstructed from West C Spill to 25th Avenue. C Canal was dragline dredged to its original cross section from 28th Avenue to 16th Avenue and D-23 Canal was also dredged from 0-23-1 heading to 22nd Avenue. It is apparent that as more land is added to the cultivated area it will become necessary to maintain all major canals at designed size. . ~n pursuing. the policy to impro~e the appearance of the Valley. the Dlstrld has conhnued the work. of remforcing. grading. and shaping canal banks; almost all canal banks 10 the Valley have been improved to some extent; the major efforts have been applied where most needed. ~eed control work has continue~ with good results. no heavy growth remaIns on the canal banks and dram banks are beginning to show the effects of chemical spraying. The Ruth dredger has continually operated, except for minor delays. covering 104 miles of canal banks. All of the C~03. C-05 and Lower C systems were Ruth dredged during the year. 6 216100 7