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<br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />2 <br /> <br />Introduction <br />By Professor Daniel Tyler <br /> <br />The seven commissioners and Secretary of Commerce did not <br />come to Santa Fe through pure happenstance. Selection of each <br />individual for the purpose of negotiating a Colorado River Compact <br />was the culmination of events dating back to the earliest years of the <br />20th century. <br />In the spring of 1905, the lower Colorado River flooded near <br />Yuma, Arizona. Despite attempts to keep the river between its banks, <br />it roared through a recently constructed headgate that had been cut to <br />deliver water through Mexico to the Imperial Valley. For almost two <br />years the raging river followed this course, creating the Salton Sea, <br />and inundating many of the 160,000 acres farmed by a population of <br />nearly 15,000. The Southern Pacific RR stemmed the flow in 1907 and <br />returned the river to its channel. But during two harrowing years, <br />frightened Californians determined to find ways to construct a flood <br />control dam and an All American Canal on the Colorado River <br />somewhere above Yuma. They had their eyes on Boulder Canyon. <br />Even with the Reclamation Act of 1902 in place, funding costly <br />reclamation projects was difficult. World War I encouraged food <br />production and brought prosperity to the Imperial Valley, but residents <br />were increasingly nervous about the volatile Colorado River. Levees <br />on the lower Colorado were barely holding. Another flood was likely. <br />When the war ended and the federal government announced plans to <br />settle veterans in the Southwest along the Colorado River, <br />Californians stepped up their efforts to influence a willing <br />Reclamation Service to design and construct the works necessary to <br />tame the river. They also encouraged other state, local, and private <br />entities to join with them. <br />The League of the Southwest was the result. Born in 1917 and <br />made up of representatives of eight western states (Arizona, <br />California, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma (later replaced by <br />Wyoming), Nevada, Texas, and Utah) municipal, cultural, and <br />commercial organizations, the League's goal was to establish a power <br />base capable of sustaining a partnership with the federal government. <br /> <br />2 <br />