The Salt Water Saga A Waterway of Surprises
In the early 1900s there was no body of water called the Salton Sea. This barren wasteland was instead known as the Salton Sink. It was only through a series of errors and natural water flow that the Salton Sea was created. For a moment the Salton Sink seemed to be a promising jewel within the Imperial Valley. Innovation would prove to be costly as people at the time couldn’t have foreseen what was coming.
DESERT DREAMERS
In the late 1800s, Charles Rockwood and his partner Anthony Heber created the California Development Company (CDC). The local CDC was created to replace the Colorado River Irrigation Company, which was supposed to find ways to irrigate the Colorado Desert. The CDC’s primary goal was to find ways to divert water from the Colorado River into canals around the Colorado River serving the Coachella, Imperial Valley and Salton Sink basin in hopes of turning the desert into agricultural green fields.
Charles Rockwood led the CDC, but by 1900 the company, plagued by rising costs, forced Rockwood to seek out economic aid. George Chaffey, a renowned engineer experienced in building irrigation systems under conditions similar to those of the Imperial Valley, agreed to help Rockwood and the CDC. Chaffey would agree to help the project with a sum of $150,000, equivalent to $5,233,397 in 2023, on the condition that he be made president of the CDC. Despite Charles’ disapproval, he had no choice but to accept the terms to complete the project.
The project began with the construction of the Alamo canal, which took two years to complete. Starting near Pilot Knob just before California’s border with Arizona, and extending 50 miles into Mexican territory, the purpose of the Alamo Canal was to divert water from the Colorado River into the Salton Sink allowing for the irrigation of the surrounding land. When water was introduced into the Imperial Valley in 1901 and following farming seasons, the future of the Imperial Valley appeared promising. However, Rockwood, dissatisfied with Chaffey at the head of the CDC, acquired company stocks and forcibly removed Chaffey as the head of the company. Shortly after the canal opened, it soon filled up with silt at an alarming rate.
BATTLING THE COLORADO FLOOD
A drastic solution was needed to address the silt accumulation. Many Imperial Valley farmers were losing crops and refusing to pay the CDC. Charles Rockwood was tasked with finding a solution, which led to the construction of a breach in the bank of the Colorado River known as the Lower Mexican Intake. In
1905, the Colorado River flooded into this intake, completely overwhelming the earthen dams previously constructed. In a desperate attempt to stop a future flood from the Colorado River, Rockwood ordered a headgate to be built to stop the waterflow. However, the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 disrupted this process, as materials from San Francisco could not be transported.
After the floodwaters affected parts of the Southern Pacific Railroad, multiple attempts were made to stop the ongoing
flood. Eventually the Southern Pacific Railroad company was forced to seek the aid from Congress. Hundreds of native workers were brought to the worksites surrounding the new body of water. A telegram from President Theodore Roosevelt to E.H. Harriman allowed Harriman to use all resources available to stop the flow of water into the Imperial Valley. The plan was to build a railroad trestle across the Colorado River using locomotives carrying 2057 carloads of rock, 221 carloads of gravel and 203 carloads of clay from the Sierra Nevada which were dumped into the Colorado River. After nearly two years of extensive efforts the breach was finally filled up on January 27, 1907.
A LONG ROAD TO RESTORATION – TORRES-MARTINEZ RESERVATION
In 1876, the U.S. government established the 24,800-acre Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Reservation. The Cahuilla community fell victim to the catastrophic flood in 1905, as nearly half of the reservation was submerged when the basin flooded from the Colorado River water to form the Salton Sea.
Cahuilla workers, familiar with micro and mass floods of the Colorado River in the Salton Basin, did not wait to find out what the curious new flow of water was; without delay, they packed their belongings, abandoned the salt field and headed into the mountain. Out of roughly four hundred Cahuilla tribal members near the saltworks at that time, nearly all of them retreated to the mountains.
In the aftermath of the great flood in 1909, thinking the Salton Sea would be gone by the 1920s the U.S. government provided an additional 10,000 acres of land under the sea for the benefit of the Torres-Martinez Reservation. It took 70 years for the government to provide any kind of settlement to the tribe for the damage caused. Currently the Cahuilla community continues to advocate for, and actively participates in, the restoration of their land and the Salton Sea for future generations.
To learn more about the long-term impacts caused by the 1905 flooding, join IVDM staff as we host paint, photographer, and environmental scientist Carly Creley for our Evening with an Expert event on Saturday October 7, 2023 from 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.. Her talk
“Imperial Geographies” examines the inequities and environmental justice issues that disproportionately affect residents of the Imperial and Mexicali valley regions. A series of paintings, photographs, writing, and video interviews with residents, workers, and activists bring the stories to life.
The Imperial Valley Desert Museum is located in Ocotillo, California. It is open Wednesdays through Sundays 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.