WSP01908

• File Number: 8278.300
• Description: Title I - Merxican Deliveries
• Basin: Colorado Mainstem
• Date: 2/1/1963
• Author: USDOI/BOR
• Title: Special Studies - Delivery of Water to Mexico
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Publication

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2. Wellton-Mohawk Division

Tbe first irrigation in this area was probabq performed by

the P:IJna Indians on the bottom lands along the Gila River about 1540.

Earq white settlement started about 1860 and several homesteads were

filed in Roll and Vellton bottom-land areas by 1875. In the 1880's

the Mohawk Canal was constructed, heading on the Gila River near

Texas Hill, and the Antelope Canal was constructed with headworks

near Antelope Hill. Each supplied water to several thousand acres

of productive land.

In 1906 the Antelope Irrigation District liaS formed. A thermal

electric plant was constructed at Wellton for operation of pumps to

suppq the Antelope Canal. Tbe developnent of ground water in 1915

provided the first continuousq available suppq of sediment-free

water. In 1921 the Gila Power District was organized to suppq

power to.97,000 acres of the 10\ler Gila Valley for development of

ground water as an irrigation and domestic supply. In 1923, the

Mohavk Municipal Vater Conservation District was formed to construct

levees-along-the-Gi-la Rlv", t1ud LO-ConD L, "c L e..a ope:H,te:-irr1-g8tion

wells and other facilities to serve an area of 18,500 acres in the

vicinity of Roll. In 1931 maximum agricultural development of the

District was reached, with about 11,000 acres under irrigation.

DuriQ8 the next fev years many wells failed as the water levels

de~lined.--Also. the Quality. of water deteriorated until a majority

of wells had a salinity level in excess of 6,000 ppm.

Construction of present project facilities in the Vellton-

Mohawk Division began, following the re-authorization of the Gila

Project under Public Lav 272 on July 30, 1947. The first project

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