The Yuma Reclamation Project: Irrigation, Indian Allotment, and Settlement Along the Lower Colorado River

Chapter 8: Distress and Discontent

The distress and discontent that prevailed in the Yuma Valley spread to other parts of the project as a multiplicity of new problems arose once water from the Colorado River began to be turned onto project lands. Many of the complications encountered on the Yuma Project were similar to those found on other Reclamation projects, particularly those dealing with the environmental repercussions resulting from the onset of industrial irrigation as well as with the socioeconomic problems produced by federal irrigation and settlement policy. But other difficulties were unique to Yuma. It is apparent that federal policy makers and Reclamation engineers were oblivious to the complexities associated with arid land reclamation. Unrealistic expectations among federal agencies, and the conflicts that developed between them, also resulted in sluggish progress. It did not take long before government officials and the settlers on the Yuma Project realized that the mere turning of water onto dry land did not necessarily result in reclamation, that the process was far more complex than simply completing the engineering works that made irrigation possible. President Roosevelt, in his message to Congress in 1901 advocating a national irrigation policy, admitted that early reclamation efforts by the federal government would “of necessity be partly experimental in character.”1 As we have seen, the events leading to the approval and completion of the Yuma Project clearly illustrate the experimental nature of federal reclamation, but this facet of government intervention became even more apparent after Colorado River water began to flow toward newly planted fields. The Bard Debacle Settlement and development of the Bard unit began on a hopeful note. Within a couple of months after the drawing for the 173 farm units in March 1910, nearly 40 settlers were in the process of clearing and leveling their farm units, and, by the end of August, 71 entrymen had established residence on their holdings (fig. 8.1).2 But only about 425 acres were under crop and receiving i฀8 j Distress and Discontent water at the end of the first season. By the end of the following year, all but one of the 173 farm units was occupied, and the area under cultivation now exceeded 1,700 acres; however, this represented an average of only about 10 acres of cultivated area per farm.3 Because of the relatively slow progress, settlers soon realized that they would have difficulty meeting the second installment of their construction charges, due on December 1, 1910. One way to resolve this problem involved the relinquishment of entries. The original unit holders could legally assign the right to their homestead to another entryman for monetary consideration as long as the relinquishment paper was filed simultaneously with the new entry. By the end of 1910, 62 of the original 173 farm units, or nearly 36 percent, had been relinquished (map 8.1).4 Most of those who relinquished their units in 1910, however, probably never really intended to farm, but instead were looking to earn a fast buck at the expense of the federal government. In succeeding years 30 more farm units would be relinquished. Of the 92 total farm units relinquished , 21 were relinquished twice, 4 were relinquished three times, f i g . 8 . 1. The one-month-old Hadley homestead located in the Bard unit of the Yuma Reclamation Project, May 1910. (National Archives photo, courtesy of the Yuma Area Office) Distress and Discontent 145 while 1 parcel each was relinquished four and five times (map 8.2). Multiple relinquishments characterized the farm units located near the Bard townsite because they carried the highest speculative value, or those along the riverfront that turned out to be the hardest to work. Less than half of the 173 farm units at Bard were carried to patent by the original unit holders. The majority of the first settlers on federal irrigation projects relinquished their holdings because, according to Newell, they were inexperienced and expected irrigation farming to be much easier.5 ���� � �� � ��� �� ������ ����� � � � � � � � � � ���� ���������� ��������� �������� ���� � � ���� ������ �������� ���� ���� ������������� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� �� ������������� ������ ���� � � � � � � � � � � ������������� ������ � � � � � � � ����������������� ������������������ � � � � � � � � � � � � � � ���������� �������������������� ��������������� �� � ��� ��� ��� � � � ��� ����� ���������� � ��� ��� ��� � � � ��� ��� m a p 8 . 1. Farm units relinquished in the Bard district in 1910. (Compiled from Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Historical Indexes, Yuma) 146 t h e y u m a r e c l a m at i o n p r o j e c t In reality, though, it was the cost of irrigation farming that forced many serious settlers off the land. Whether original or replacement entrymen, all homesteaders...