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<br />ol <br /> <br />2. Wellton-Mohawk Division <br />The first irrigation in this area was probab~ performed by <br />the P:lJna Indians on the bottom 1.a.nds along the Gila River about 1540. <br />Ear4r white settlement started about 1860 and. several homesteads were <br />filed in Roll and Wellton bottom-land areas by 1875. In the 1880's <br />the Mohawk Canal was constructed, heading on the Gila River near <br />Texas Hill, and the Antelope Canal was constructed with headworks <br />near Antelope Hill. Each supplied water to several thousand acres <br />of productive land. <br />In 1906 the Antelope Irrigation District was formed. A thermal <br />electric p1.a.nt was constructed at Wellton for operation of punps to <br />supp~ the Antelope Canal. The development of gr01Dld water in 1915 <br />provided the first continuous4r available supp~ of sedilnent-free <br />water. In 1921 the Gila Power District was organized to sUPP4r <br />power to 97,000 acres of the lo1ier Gila Valley for development of <br />ground water as an irrigation and domestic suPP4r. In 1923, the <br />Mohawk Municipal Water Conservation District was fonned to construct <br />levees along the Gila River and to construct and operate irrigation <br />wells and other facilities to serve an area of 18,500 acres in the <br />vicinity of Roll. In 1931 maxtmun agricultural development of the <br />District was reached, with about ll,OOO acres under irrigation. <br />During the next few years many wells fp..11ed as the water levels <br />declined. Also, the quality of water deteriorated until a majority <br />of wells had a salinity level in excess of 6,000 ppm. <br />Construction of present project facilities in the Wellton- <br />Mohawk Division began, following the re-authorization of the Gila <br />Project under Public Law 272 on J~ 30, 1947. The first project <br /> <br />11 <br />