Colorado River and its utilization

Abstract

The region traversed by the Colorado and its tributaries is for many reasons of intense interest to the people of the United States. Here was the home of that forgotten people of which there is almost no record except the hieroglyphics on the rocks, the ruins of their irrigation systems, and the cliff dwellings by which they are most widely known; here were Spanish missions whose history extends back nearly to the days of Balboa and Cortez; here is the Grand Canyon, whose sublimity was first fully disclosed by Maj. Powell and his associates, who navigated it from end to end in 1869 and 1872; here are the greatest known natural bridges, so remote and inaccessible that they have only recently been discovered; here is the mighty river and its tributaries, as yet largely undeveloped, affording possibilities of extensive use for water power in its many canyons and for irrigation in its desert valleys, which need only the life-giving water to make them productive and valuable. We are interested in its mysteries, its traditions, its history, and its possible future; in the fascination of its deserts, whose immensity awes us; in the grandeur of its mountains, from the highest peaks of the Rockies on the east to the beauties of the Uinta and Wasatch mountains on the west; in the wonders of its canyons, perhaps the most famous in the world; in the range of its climate, from its short and cold summer season in Wyoming, where frosts may occur in every month of the year, to the subtropical temperatures of the valleys of Arizona, where the growing season never ends.