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<br />After the Civil War, development of agriculture along Colorado's Front Range, a mining <br />boom in the central Rockies and Arizona and the construction of transcontinental railroads allied <br />to additional development within the Basin.45 <br /> <br />In 1854, irrigation began from Black Forks, a tributary to the Green River. In the 1860s and <br />1870s, irrigation in Colorado's high mountain valleys near mining towns began. In 1877, Thomas <br />Blythe made the first filing for Colorado River water in California. Blythe had moved to the Palo <br />Verde Valley in 1856.46 <br /> <br />In 1883, the Grand Valley Irrigation Company (GVIC) began delivering irrigation water to <br />lands near Grand Junction, Colorado.47 <br /> <br />1902 was a landmark year. In 1902 Congress passed the Newlands Act (named after a <br />senator), also known as the Reclamation Act.48 Among the early projects built by the Reclamation <br />Service were the Uncompahgre Project near Montrose and Delta Colorado, the Grand Valley <br />Irrigation Project near Grand Junction, Colorado, the Strawberry Valley Project in Utah and the Salt <br />River Project in central Arizona. <br /> <br />It was also 1902 when the California Development Company began construction of a canal <br />that would deliver water from the Colorado River near Yuma to the Imperial Valley using a gravity <br />rout through Mexico referred to as the Alamo Canal. By 1904, there were 700 miles of canal and <br />75,000 acres were under irrigation within the Salton Sink.49 <br /> <br />In 1905, the Alamo Canal configuration led to a disaster. The Colorado River, swollen from <br />flood waters from the Gila River, broke through the Alamo Canal diversion headworks and the entire <br />flow of the Colorado River flowed into the Imperial Valley for 16 months. This flood inundated <br />30,000 acres of irrigated land and created what is now called the Salton Sea. According to the <br />Reclamation authors of House Document 419, "Here, in the need for flood control was the prime <br />motivating reason for the construction of the Boulder Dam." House Document 419 summarizes the <br />conditions prior to 1922 as follows: <br /> <br />"Thus by 1920 the situation with respect to the Colorado River had <br />become very tense. Increasing stream depletions were accompanied <br />by increased requirements for irrigation development in California <br /> <br />45id. <br /> <br />46House Document 419, page 56. <br /> <br />47The GVIC canal has an appropriation date of August 22, 1882. See Water Rights Tabulation for Division 5, Colorado Department <br />of Water Resources. <br /> <br />4832 Stat. 388. (1902). <br /> <br />4~ouse Document 419. Also refer to the Imperial District website, \vww.iid.com. The Imperial Valley is below sea level. The Alamo <br />Canal route went south through Mexico, then turned north into the Imperial Valley using the Alamo River channel. <br /> <br />Page -17- <br />