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<br />002535 <br /> <br />Mining operations were scattered through the area by 1860, and <br />settlements grew to serve the needs of the miners. Some of these <br />settlements were short lived and exist today only in the shambles of <br />the ghost towns that dot the area, Or in historical reference. The <br />surviving mining towns were joined by agricultural settlements as the <br />Homestead Act and the transcontinental railroad made the West more <br />attractive. New settlers irrigated the fertile valleys just as the <br />Indians had done centuries before. After the establishment of the <br />mining~agricultural economy, growth in the area again became moderate. <br /> <br />The 1930 population of the Pacific Southwest, predominantly in <br />southern California, stood at about 3~ million. Drouth-ridden people <br />of the Midwest flocked to southern California during the 1930's. With <br />the war-induced economy of the 1940's and improved air-conditioning <br />technology, the 1950 population of the Southwest increased to about <br />7 million. The migratory stage had been set. Cold-weary and oppor- <br />tunity-seeking people thronged to the Southwest, increasing the total <br />population to about 11 million in 1960. Table 1 shows the growth and <br />projection of the regions which are included in the Pacific Southwest <br />Water Plan. <br /> <br />This westward migration of people has resulted in the incorpora- <br />tion of a large number of towns which, prior to 1960, were either <br />nonexistent or unincorporated. It has also resulted in a heavy con- <br />centration of people in several of the larger cities of California, <br />Nevada, and Arizona. Phoenix, Arizona, had a population of 107,000 <br />in 1950, and jumped to 439,000 in 1960. Tucson, Arizona, grew from <br />45,000 to 213,000 during the same period. Los Angeles has grown from <br />1,970,000 in 1950 to 2,479,000 in 1960, and San Diego from 334,000 to <br />573,000. It has been reported that California gains 1,700 people a <br />day, including 1,000 people from immigration. <br /> <br />Some of these large metropolitan areas are located in areas of <br />rich agricultural land. With the influx of people concentrating in <br />and around these regions, agricultural land has and is giving way to <br />urbanization. In metropolitan Phoenix 50,000 acres of irrigated land <br />were shifted from crop production to housing and industrial sites <br />during the 50's. In 1950, southern California had 570,000 acres of <br />urbanized land; in 1960 there were 1,080,000 acres urbanized. During <br />the same period, 60,000 acres of irrigated land went out of crop <br />production. <br /> <br />Figure 1 presents a line graph showing population estimates <br />based on Bureau of the Census Reports, 1930 through 1960, with pro- <br />jections to the year 2020. While southern California does not have <br />the greatest percent increase from the period 1960 to 2020, it does <br />possess the largest population when related to the rest of the regions <br />in the study area. Southern California had 87 percent of the area's <br />population in 1960, ahd, according to projections, will have about <br /> <br />1-4 <br />