Laserfiche WebLink
<br />rep~eation. The extreme isolation of the San Miguel basin, plus an <br />unstab~~ water supply has restricted the economic activity and <br />growth of the area. <br /> <br />The population trend has shown a decline from 8,419 people in 1960 to <br />5,909 people in 1970. Most of the egress has been young people <br />leaving the area to find jobs in the big cities. <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />The nearest stop light, hospital and large shopping center are 70 <br />mites away. There are no railroads, scheduled air li~es or bus <br />sefviCe to the area; and since a lot of local money is spent outside <br />of the San Miguel basin, we do not have the iob multiDlvinq e~fect <br />that other areas do. For instance, the average basic. 'job in agri- <br />culture ~nd mining supports about one local service job in the'San <br />Miguel basin. In other areas, a basic job will support about five or <br />six service job~. We do not have the turnover of local money that <br />is suffipient e~ough to create viable economy, and unless we can <br />correct this prqblem, we will continue to be left out of the main <br />stream of society. In spite of this adversity, the San Miguel basin <br />is not a poverty area; however, the average income of $5,100 is <br />below the, state average. <br /> <br />The native population is characterized by hard-working, independent, <br />rugged individualists who have scratched a livelihood from Mother <br />Earth 'through mining and ranching. These people are the most valuable <br />resou~ce ~n the San Miguel basin; for it was these hard-working, <br />rugged individualists who banded together in 1957 toorgani~e the San <br />Miguel Water cohservancy District with the ~pecific 'purpos~.i~ mind <br />of building tqe'San Miguel project. These people have respondel;i to <br />n~meious calls .for money, time and a great deal of hard work t9 <br />promote the San Miguel project from an idea to author~z~tion in the <br />Colqrado River Project Storage Act of 1968 to be constructed ~on- <br />currently with the central Arizona projectr <br /> <br />I sp~ak for the majority of the people in the San Miguel b~sin when <br />I say we want ,and need the San Miguel project very badly. ~n 1971, <br />a group of progressive citizens called "Project 2020 Fores~g~t" <br />organized a study of the area. A copy of the results of this studY <br />entitled "Alternative Economic Development Programs for the'san . <br />Miguel Basin" is in your hands. That is the book we just handed out. I <br />We have,learned:from this very detailed study of our area th~t our <br />future is rather bleak unless we change our situation from a .depen- <br />dence Qn,the historical "boqm and bust" cycles of mining and a water- <br />short ~~ric~lture to a broader basic economy. We have studied all <br /> <br />-59- <br />