USA > California > Imperial County > The history of Imperial County, California > Part 16
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It was no accident that brought forth Imperial Valley from the deso- lation of the Colorado Desert. There is no alchemy and no mysticism in the methods whereby the desert is reclaimed. Everywhere in modern husbandry the scientist is analyzing the soil and determining the ele- ment that is lacking for highest productivity, and he has discovered that in arid lands the one missing element is moisture. That supplied, the plant food that has been accumulating through the ages brings forth crops to astonish those unacquainted with the desert.
Early in the 40's General Kearny's expedition crossed Southern Ari- zona, noted the great success of the Pima Indians in the Salt River valley growing cotton and other cultures, thence came on through what was to become the famous Imperial Valley.
A decade later they were followed by soldiers of the United States, and so early as that time the possibility of reclaiming the desert by
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bringing water from the Colorado River was reported on by army officers.
A little later Dr. Wozencraft of San Bernardino became interested in bringing this about, and did his utmost to get Congress to make an appropriation to this end, but when it seemed that he might succeed, the Civil War came on, and for years nothing could be done in regard to reclamation works. After the war he again tried to secure govern- ment aid for the work, but was unsuccessful.
During the 70's individuals became interested in a project to bring about the work as a private enterprise, but nothing came of those ef- forts, covering a series of years.
The California Development Company finally was formed, composed of C. R. Rockwood, A. H. Heber, Dr. W. T, Heffernan and others. These were men of moderate means, but all they possessed was put into the work of making surveys and hunting for bigger capital to carry on the work. A number of years went by without accomplishment until the spring of 1900, when George Chaffey, as general manager, began the great work of building which was to be conducted during the four- teen months in which he headed the enterprise.
Mr. Chaffey was a Canadian civil and mechanical engineer, and more than twenty years before he had been connected with the development work at Riverside, and thence had gone to found the colonies of On- tario and Etiwanda, Southern California. Following his success in Southern California he had gone to Australia to take charge of great government irrigation works, and these works being completed, he had just returned to this country when he became interested in the Imperial enterprise, of which he was made the head. He began his task with ad- verse financial conditions. Not only had all the stock of the company passed to private hands, but the company had considerable floating ob- ligations and had sold water rights for 35,000 acres of land. Its only as- sets consisted of a camp equipment and an interest in a surveying out- fit. As he built canals the holders of water rights located them along the canals, thus making it difficult to finance additional works.
Adding to the difficulties, the United States Agricultural Department bureau of soils sent here a young and inexperienced man to report on the soils of the Valley, and the report he made was so unjustly adverse that banks which had co-operated to a degree withdrew their support.
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In spite of these obstacles, in fourteen months Mr. Chaffey dug 700 miles of canal, and colonists having come to the Valley in large num- bers, mainly from irrigated sections of California and Arizona, the sec- tion was given an impetus that nothing could stop.
Building in this way it was inevitable that the works should be con- structed with a view to cheapness rather than endurance, and the col- onists have paid a heavy penalty for this, though greater stability is being wrought out by the people for themselves in these later days, and the irrigation works will in time take rank with the best the world knows.
The supreme evil that came upon the Valley as a result of the cheap construction came through conducting the irrigation canal through Mexico.
Abutting on the international line as it does, a chain of sand hills lies between Imperial Valley and the Colorado River and extends a short distance below the line into Mexico. From an engineering point of view it was the logical thing to do to conduct the canal around the chain of hills. But insomuch as that vested the control of the canal in a foreign country, it was a most serious obstacle to the development of the full resources of the American lands, it being necessary to make great con- cessions to Mexico.
It would be much better if the writing of this historical sketch could be delayed a few months, for then, in all probability, the triumph of the colonists over this obstacle could be recounted. As these words are writ- ten there is a delegation in Washington conferring with the representa- tives of the Interior Department, and there is assurance that arrange- ments will be perfected whereby a canal wholly within the United States will be constructed and the irrigation of the half million acres now in Imperial irrigation district, and nearly as much additional land outside the present boundaries of the district, will be divorced from the six hundred thousand irrigable acres in Mexico.
In late years a new line of organization has been followed, which has placed the irrigation system in the hands of the residents of the Valley. The financial difficulties of the California Development Company and its closely affiliated Mexican company (the stock of the latter owned by the former and maintained as a method of control of the canal in Mexico) eventually led to a receivership, and the Southern Pacific Rail-
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road Company having advanced the company a sum of money, the rail- road company became the controlling factor. The people of the Valley in 1911 organized an irrigation district under the laws of California, and for three millions of dollars purchased the irrigation system, as- suming the obligation of the original company in its contract with the Republic of Mexico to give to the Mexican lands one half of all water brought through that country, providing those lands require that quan- tity of water. The district also maintains a Mexican corporation, the function of which is the same as that of its predecessor.
In the original organization the Development Company was a parent company, having contracts with a series of mutual water companies for the delivery of water at 50 cents an acre foot, the farmers holding stock in these companies on the basis of one share (usually) to the acre. Each of these mutual companies serves the water used in a well defined sec- tion of the Valley.
In forming the district this organization was continued, the district serving the mutual companies and not the individual farmers and con- tinuing the former charge. The mutual companies levy assessments from time to time to cover the maintenance of their distributing canals and their office expenses, and charge the farmers at the rate of 50 cents a second foot for actual water deliveries. The irrigation district has as its revenue the water rentals from the mutual companies and levies taxes to make up the deficit, these taxes applying on all real estate in cities and country, exclusive of improvements.
In many respects there is in this irrigation project a suggestion of that on the lower Nile. The Colorado River draws its great volume of wa- ter from a drainage area that reaches almost to the Canadian line and which includes the whole western slope of the Rocky Mountains. Scant summer rain in arid America and the melting snows of the mountains give to the river great variability in volume of discharge, which rises and falls with almost clock-work regularity. The maximum discharge comes about June 20 each year, and the annual outpour of the river is about sixteen million acre feet.
With present development there is a good margin of safety above the minimum flow, but at the rate development is proceeding along the river, it is evident to all that something in the form of storage must be devised in years not far distant.
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Taken as a whole, the farmers use an average of a trifle over three acre feet per acre a year, the maximum demand being in June, July and August, but time undoubtedly will bring about considerable change in this respect. The use of water runs so extensively to summer maximum now because of the great acreage of cotton grown, but the tendency al- ready manifest toward fall and spring garden crops leads to the belief that cotton in the years to come will occupy a smaller percentage of the total area, and the more intensive culture of fall, winter and spring crops, and the more extensive planting of fruits, particularly grapes and dates, will lead to a more equitable distribution of water service throughout the year.
VIEW OF LATERAL CANAL SOUTHWEST OF IMPERIAL The tent and ramada formed the first and only school conducted in Imperial Valley, 1900-1901. Photographed September 24, 1901, by G. W. Donley
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CHAPTER V
EDUCATIONAL BY A. P. SHIBLEY
ON SEPTEMBER 8, 1901, Mr. J. E. Carr opened the first school in Im- perial Valley under a ramada, roofed with arrow-weeds and that roof supported by eight poles, not far from the present city of Calexico. He enrolled fifty boys and girls, many of whom came trudging across the desert for four and five miles.
In the fall of 1903 John W. Shenk, now a judge of the Superior Court of Los Angeles, opened another school in the newly organized Calexico School District. His school house was a tent about fourteen feet by twenty feet. It had a board floor, canvas top, sides and ends. The sides and ends were drawn outward and upward and attached to mesquite poles during school hours, except during windy weather. This school was located just south of the canal levee and west of the main traveled road at the bridge across the main canal just north of Calex- ico. This school opened with nearly fifteen pupils and increased to twenty before the close of the session in the following May. Judge Shenk says: "The pupils came on burros, on horseback and on foot from habitations not as a rule visible from the school house. Two or three ranch tents in the distance and the California Development Com- pany's building and water tank at the international boundary line were the only signs of civilization apparent to the eye. The pupils were ear- nest and eager, with but an occasional infraction of the arbitrary rules prescribed by the schoolmaster. Corporal punishment was seldom re- sorted to and when used it was, of course, with the full approval of the parents-obtained after the incident was closed."
During the same year Mr. L. E. Cooley was the teacher of the school in the Van Horn community, somewhat west of the present town of Heber. This school of Mr. Cooley's was frequently spoken of as a "rag knowledge box"-a name fully indicative of the kind of structure in which the school was taught.
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These three schools were all that Imperial Valley afforded up to the close of the school year 1902-1903. But from this time on the popula- tion increased rapidly and just as rapidly were the facilities for the education of the pioneer children provided.
During the summer of 1907 the County of Imperial was formed from the eastern part of San Diego County. The first teacher of the Imperial Valley became the first county superintendent of schools.
Under his supervision the following school districts opened and maintained schools during the school year of 1907-1908: Adair, Alamo, Brawley, Calexico, Central, Colorado, Eastside, El Centro, Elder, Eu- calyptus, Heber, Holtville, Imperial, Jasper, Picacho, Silsbee and Sun- set Springs. The Spruce School District had been previously formed, but maintained no school that year and the Old Beach School District was suspended and somewhat later ceased to exist. The Imperial Val- ley Union High School at Imperial was the only high school in the county during this first year of the county's existence.
The elementary schools enrolled one thousand sixty-seven boys and girls and employed thirty-eight teachers. The high school enrolled for- ty-eight pupils, who were taught by three teachers.
The elementary schools were maintained at an expense of $22,201.06 for maintenance and an expense of $9,129.96 for sites, buildings and furniture, and the high school at an expense of $4,782.93 with but $200 spent for building purposes.
The total amount of elementary school property was estimated to be worth $51,965 and the high school property was valued at $7,555, mak- ing a total valuation of all school property of $59,520.
During the administration of Superintendent J. E. Carr the schools showed a remarkable growth in every respect, including the number of schools, enrollments, valuations of school property, number of teach- ers employed and efficiency of education generally.
In January of 1911, Superintendent Carr was succeeded by Superin- tendent Lewis E. Cooley, another of the triumvirate of pioneer Impe- rial Valley teachers. At the time Superintendent Cooley began his work in the county office Imperial Valley had come to "blossom as the rose," agriculturally and educationally. Thirty-four elementary school dis- tricts were employing sixty-three teachers and had an enrollment of seventeen hundred ninety pupils. There were five union high schools,
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employing twenty-six teachers, and with an enrollment of two hundred thirty-eight pupils. The educational foundation had been laid and the superstructure started. But big and worth while work was yet to be done. For four years Superintendent Cooley gave of himself liberally and well in the handling of the mighty tasks that fell to his lot. He was then succeeded by the writer in January, 1915.
Figures are not yet available for the year 1917-1918, but the annual report of the year 1916-1917 shows a remarkable growth when com- pared with those of the first year of the county's history.
Imperial County now has fifty elementary school districts and last year employed one hundred sixty-seven teachers, with an enrollment of four thousand one pupils. She spent $167,848 for maintenance of them and $58,372 for buildings, sites and equipment.
She has five union high schools and last year employed fifty-eight teachers, with eight hundred thirty-six young men and women enrolled. She had one evening high school that enrolled five hundred men and women for study in branches mainly applicable to their own needs in daily life. She expended for maintenance $118,709 and $112,588 for extensions of union high school plants.
The elementary schools owned school plants valued at $593,004 and the union high school plants valued at $611,321.
Most of these schools are located on tracts of land varying in size from three to eight acres in area. Careful attention has been given to the construction of the buildings and equipment to make them modern and well adapted to the educational needs of those whom they are de- signed to serve. Most of these schools have either an auditorium or two or more rooms with accordion doors between, making these rooms convertible into an auditorium. Practically all of them are adorned with trees, vines and shrubs. In some cases groves have been set out with the idea of making picnic grounds, as well as to serve the usual needs of the schools.
On the whole the school districts are large. It is the hope that these districts may be kept large, thus obviating the necessity for the much- heralded consolidations of schools that such great lengths have been gone to obtain in the eastern and middle western states. It is not un- usual to see ten to fifteen horses-and often several burros-hitched about one of our schools, oftentimes in sheds that have been erected
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for their protection. The writer has seen as many as twenty-seven horses and burros about one school; all of them had carried or drawn precious burdens to a rural temple of learning. In a few of the elemen- tary school districts transportation is provided at public expense. Doubtless the next few years will see a considerable expansion of the transportation facilities of school children.
Transportation of high school pupils is now carried on by each of the five union high school districts; all of them own automobiles of their own; most of them pay certain individuals for transportation of themselves and some of the pupils from neighboring families, and some pupils are transported by contract. In a few instances pupils are trans- ported from homes fifteen miles distant from the high school. Thus are the homes kept intact, the pupils enabled to retain the benefits and pleasures of home life and home environments.
Imperial County is seeking the best in courses of study for both the elementary and high schools. Essentials are striven for and non- essentials eliminated as far as possible. Our schools attempt to securely fasten the worth while parts of the formal subjects. In addition, we are stressing the teaching of agriculture, nature study and school and home gardening, and a strong beginning has been made in Agricultural Club work.
Nor are our schools neglecting the newer subjects demanded of the schools. All of our high schools and many of the elementary schools have well taught courses in drawing, art, manual training, home eco- nomics, music-including, in some cases, both vocal and instrumental -and from time to time other desirable and needed courses are given.
An article prepared by Principal W. T. Randall of the Central Union High School will give an idea of the real breadth of our high school courses and the courses in the other four union high schools are similar.
"The school provides instruction in the following lines : English, four years, with an extra year in commercial English and another in jour- nalism; history, four years, with a year in civics and economics and debate; the foreign languages are Latin and Spanish ; in mathematics, a year's work in practical business arithmetic and four years in the higher and advanced subjects ; music includes chorus, glee club, orches- tra, piano, sight singing, harmony, and history; the sciences, involving full laboratory practice and interwoven with the practical affairs of
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life, are agriculture (together with a competition club), botany, chem- istry and a year of qualitative analysis, physics, physiology, hygiene and zoology. The vocational subjects meet the needs of two classes of stu- dents : those who elect these subjects in an academic course, and those who are studying them for immediate use in business. The commercial subjects are bookkeeping and stenography, with their arithmetic, Eng- lish, law, geography, history, penmanship and typewriting. Drawing is both free-hand and mechanical. Household arts at present are confined to cooking and sewing. Shop work as yet extends only to some of the simplest forms of carpentry, cabinet work, a little forge work and au- tomobile repairing. Some excellent practice in the use of a library is given by the efficient teacher of that subject, who has at her service the collections also of the city and of the county. An exceedingly home- like cafeteria is provided."
Each of the five large towns of the Imperial Valley are maintaining well equipped and well taught kindergartens.
Thus it will be seen that Imperial County is caring for its children in an educational way from the kindergartens through the four years of high school and beginnings have been made in junior college work. We expect in a short time to put the ambitious boys and girls within two years of obtaining a bachelor's degree without the breaking of home ties and the large expense of four years at college.
FORT YUMA INDIAN SCHOOL
BY L. L. ODLE
FORT YUMA INDIAN SCHOOL AND AGENCY is located on a prominence in Imperial County, California, just across the Colorado River from Yu- ma, Arizona. In the early days it was used by the soldiers as a fort which was abandoned between 1878 and 1880, at which time it was taken possession of by the Catholic Sisters and a school established for the Yuma Indians. In the year 1895 the United States Government took possession and it was made a boarding school.
At this time the Indians were very superstitious and it was difficult for them to see the advantage of the school training. There was some trouble in getting the children in school, but they are beginning to open their eyes and the majority of the parents are anxious and willing for their children to be in school.
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HISTORY OF IMPERIAL COUNTY
The pupils are brought in at the age of five years and are kept at the school until they complete the primary work. They are also trained along the industrial as well as the academic lines. The girls are given special training in housekeeping, laundering, cooking, etc., while the boys are given dairying, gardening, carpentry, etc.
After completing the primary work they are transferred to non- reservation schools, namely, Sherman Institute, Riverside, California, and Phoenix Industrial School, Phoenix, Arizona, these being the near- est industrial schools, and are given further industrial training where better results are obtained through association with pupils of other tribes. The Yumas are clannish, cling to their own language, and prog- ress is slow when they remain in the boarding school after completing the primary work.
Much improvement has been made to the buildings the last two years and the construction of new screen porches has added sufficient room for pupils to sleep in the open air throughout the year.
The school farm containing 160 acres is located about one mile north of the school and is under cultivation. The income has been very no- ticeable the last six months and the garden has kept the school tables well supplied with fresh vegetables, pumpkins, etc. A great success has been made on the farm. The pupils are very fond of it and it is in great demand in the surrounding community. It is predicted that this school will produce the molasses used in most of the schools in the service after another year.
The Yuma Indian Reservation lies to the north and west of the school. This contains 8000 acres of irrigable land under the Yuma Project. The soil is the best, with an abundance of water for irrigation and domestic purposes.
Five years ago the Reservation was a wild wilderness of desolation. The Yuma Indians were considered the poorest in California. The government had done little for them. The tribe, now numbering 833, of whom 779 are full bloods, lived by raising pumpkins, watermelons, wheat and corn on the overflow lands of the Colorado River. Sanitary conditions were very bad and the death rate far exceeded the birth rate.
In January, 1916, the entire Reservation was flooded, the Indians losing everything.
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By Act of Congress March 3, 1911, 8,000 acres were allotted, a share of 10 acres to each Indian, and to place these lands in cultivation about $100 per acre must be expended in labor. After the lands are grubbed, cleared and leveled for irrigation their equal cannot be found in this country, if in the world. As an illustration : alfalfa is cut from seven to ten times, yielding from three-quarters to three tons per acre at each cutting. Alfalfa seed is a very valuable crop, yielding from four to eight hundred pounds of seed to the acre which sells from 18 to 35 cents per pound. Two crops of seed can be made with two cuttings of alfalfa, the second crop of seed yielding from one to three hundred pounds per acre. Four cuttings of hay can be made with one crop of seed. Cotton raising has also been very successful, yielding an average of three-fourths to one bale per acre for long staple and one and one- half to two and one-half for short staple. Milo maze averages two tons per acre. Under the climatic conditions anything can be grown except products that require a damp or the extreme cold climate.
The Yuma Indian is considered the best laborer among the Indians and he is on the road to prosperity, which is best shown in the follow- ing statistics :
Lands irrigable .8,000 acres
Land cultivated by Indians, March 1, 1918. .1,600 acres
Land value $200 per acre
Crop values for 1917. $62,075.00
Earnings, employed by others. $31,555.00
About two-thirds of the reservation is leased to whites under the improvement plan and about 4,400 acres of this is in cultivation.
Every effort is being put forth to get this land cleared and in crops and at the close of 1918 all lands will be in cultivation with the produc- tion more than doubled.
It will be one of the richest and most productive reservations for its size in the United States and a credit to the Service.
Health conditions have greatly improved in the last four or five years with much credit due the Physician, Nurse, and Field Matron. The following record will be interesting in this connection :
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