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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 18 the wisdom of calling another meeting, wondering whether the commissioners might be "so hopelessly far apart that there [was] no use in proceeding." But Carpenter was not ready to quit "We are here with a pretty sacred trust," he said, "and it should not be treated lightly. I realiy believe that in the months and weeks to come many small matters of difference can be argued out [T]his to me has been a very profitable conference and there is more nearly an approach to a common accord here than I . . . expected when I arrived in Washington I think it would be the height of crime to the people who sent us here to adjourn permanently now." That said, the Washington meetings ended Hoover agreed that the commissioners should organize and attend public hearings in their respective states. Nevada's 1. G. Scrugham offered to host a trip down the Colorado River to the proposed Boulder Canyon dam site. All agreed that the Commission's next meeting should take place in the Southwest Over the next few months, while hearings were being held in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Grand Junction, Denver and Cheyenne, Carpenter devised a plan to divide the Colorado River on a fifty-fifty basis. Thus was born the nucleus of the Colorado River Compact, the "general single idea" on which Hoover thought the Commissioners would never agree. The Fifty-Fifty Idea: Carpenter has been given credit for originating the fifty-fifty plan39, In simplest terms it called for a division of the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry into two basins. The Upper Basin would include the states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico; the Lower Basin would be represented by California, Arizona and Nevada. Lee's Ferry, located in Arizona just below the Pariah River, was situated above the Grand Canyon. All of the water