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<br />o <br /> <br />, <br />, <br />.~ <br />, <br /> <br />the California Development Company) to develop an irrigation system to provide <br /> <br />water for this area of tremendous agricultural potential. Ten years later the <br /> <br />first dive?rsion of Colorado River water entered the Imperial Valley. The valley <br /> <br /> <br />quiCKly boomed, bringing in settlers and developers by the thousands.19 Yet 1905 <br /> <br />proved to be a year of unexpectedly high flow in the? Colorado. TIle California <br /> <br />Development Company, not anticipating a big flood year, made an unwise cut in the <br /> <br />river's bank and did not build a headgate in order to control the flow at that <br /> <br />point. In short, the floodwaters and the entire Colorado River ran through this <br /> <br /> <br />new canal, inundating tlJe Imperial Valley. 20 90,000 cubic feet of water flowed <br /> <br /> <br />into the Salton Sink per second. 21 The California Development Company, too small <br /> <br />an enterprise to control so large a catastrophe, transferred control of the valley <br /> <br />and its future to E.H. Harriman (a'tIler of the Southern Pacific Railroad). With <br /> <br />the vast capital and equipment available to him he was able to stop the flooding. 22 <br /> <br />By 1916, when control of the valley's water distribution was bought out from <br /> <br />Harriman by the Imperial Irrigation District (lID), the valley already had 300,000 <br /> <br /> <br />acres back under cultivation with further expansion in the wori'.:s.23 In 1919 the <br /> <br />110 entered into a partnership with the Reclamation Service. The former had an <br /> <br />"All-American" canal planned that would bring the Imperial Valley a further supply <br /> <br />of water without the hassle of having to divert the canal through Mexican terr- <br /> <br /> <br />itory first and allowing the Mexicans their demands for a share of the ,later. 24 <br /> <br /> <br />The cost of the canal was estimated to be up ta $38,500,000.25 It was a huge cost <br /> <br />and a considerable undertaking, but would allow for the further development of <br /> <br />Imperial. <br /> <br />Imperial Valley's vast potential for agricultural productivity with the <br /> <br />increased use of the Colorado River made the other states of the Colorado Basin <br /> <br />apprehensive. That the Reclamation Service was backing this venture with capital <br /> <br />~- ... <br />