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DEVELOPMENT OF THE SAIJ:r RIVER PROJECT Daniel Boone, Treasurer, Salt River Valley Water Users Association, Arizona 'The first irrigation by white settler-s in the.Salt River Valley began in 1865 with formation of an irrigation com;pany, clearing of land and digging of canals. By 1867 the population of this Arizona territory was 6,500. Eighteen other canal com;panies were formed and new land put under cultivation. It soon became evident that there was not sufficient water in the river during SUllIIII.er months, and that the only way to expand irrigation in the Valley was to provide storage of winter floo.dwaters. A committee selected to study storage possibilities discovered, in 1889, an ideal dam site in a gorge of the Salt River. Mr. A. B. Fowler was sent to Washington to persuade C'ongress to allow Maricopa County to bond itself' to finance construction of the project. But the Congressmen would not listen. They said that if Ari1ilona must have its project it should be financed privately, but that Mr. Fowlerfs proposal would put the nation on a wild spending spree. But Mr. George R. Maxwell, lawyer-engine.er, saw the possibilities 0:( this Ariz.ona .enterprise and, moved by his eloquence, some Congressmen began to change their minds. Representative Newlands of Nevada Joined in preparing a reclamation bill. President Teddy Roosevelt, who believed the . West could, be developed in rapid and orderly fashion only by a wise and prom;pt pro~am of public expenditures, urged Congress to pass the bill, and on June 17, 1902, signed the. RansbrOugh-Newlands Act" commonly referred to as the Reclamation Act. The Salt River Valley Water Users' Association was or-ganized in 1902; basic reasons being to establish for the benefit of the Unite.d State.s and the water users a central organization which could: (1) Represent indivldual water users in dealing with the Se'Cretary of the Interior; (2) Guarantee payment of the construction cost to the government and enforce collection of each installment from individuals; (3) Assume at a future date, operation and :management of the Project and dism:-ibution Of water to land owners in accordance with water rights. (4) Insure equitable distribution of costs a:nd assessments among members of the Association. An agreement between the Association and the Department of the Interior covering construction of the Salt River ProJect was executed on June 25, 1904. Among other things it recited that the Secr.etary of the Interior contemplated construction of a dam on Salt. River, theest:!.lllated cost being $2,700,000 or $15 per acre on the 180,000 acres then in the ASsociation, It was later decided to increase the storage depth of the -15-