Damming the Salt River

Water Funneling to the DESERT Salt River Project celebrates 100 years

MOST DAYS, THE SALT RIVER MEANDERS slowly through the steep crannies of the Salt River Canyon. But after a few hours of heavy rain across its 6,300-square-mile watershed, the river transforms into an angry, violent beast. Roaring like a strong wind, it uproots trees and boulders in its path with cracks and pops exploding like firecrackers as loose rocks scatter. It's one of the most unpredictable rivers in the world, but a few brave souls dared to tame it, along with the Verde River, to create the Salt River Project (SRP), which celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. The 13,000square-mile total watershed of all the rivers and creeks stretches over roughly a quarter of the state. The parched Sonoran Desert spans its lowest level. At higher elevations, piñon-juniper woodlands merge with hillsides coated in chaparral brush, and at its peak, Douglas firs and aspens dot alpine meadows. Here many failed in their quest for gold, but those seeking water discovered a wellspring that 3 million Arizonans depend on today. The first to see the Salt River's potential was a scoundrel named John W. "Jack" Swilling, as wild and restless as the river itself. The towering Southerner had ventured to the Arizona Territory after the Civil War to chase his fortune in gold. Some historians credit him as one of three discoverers of the Rich Hill Mine, one of the richest placers ever found, in the Weaver Mountains near Wickenburg. He thirsted for adventure, whether fighting for the Confederacy or helping to capture the famed Apache chief, Mangas Coloradas.

The first to see the Salt River's potential was a scoundrel named John W. "Jack" Swilling, as wild and restless as the river itself. The towering Southerner had ventured to the Arizona Territory after the Civil War to chase his fortune in gold. Some historians credit him as one of three discoverers of the Rich Hill Mine, one of the richest placers ever found, in the Weaver Mountains near Wickenburg. He thirsted for adventure, whether fighting for the Confederacy or helping to capture the famed Apache chief, Mangas Coloradas.

His tough-guy persona had left him with a fractured skull after being struck with a revolver, and he also had a bullet lodged in his left side. While whiskey and Perry Davis Vegetable Painkiller laced with opium helped him cope with the pain, the drink and drug combination also led to wild behavior.

"Well, whiskey alone never does it, but taking the narcotic and whiskey together makes me do things that I wouldn't do if sensible," Swilling once admitted.

[PRECEDING PANEL, PAGES 18 AND 19] The Salt River rumbles through the upper reaches of its namesake canyon on the White Mountain Apache Reservation. JEFF SNYDER [LEFT] Reddish cliffs in the Sierra Ancha Wilderness frame a fog-shrouded view of Theodore Roosevelt Lake. Damming the Salt River at the northern edge of the Superstition Mountains created the lake, the largest of the empoundments along the course of the waterway. RANDY PRENTICE One reported insensibility was accidentally shooting and killing his best friend during a riot at the Pinos Altos gold camp. Nevertheless, Swilling would earn the distinction of founding father of modern irrigation in Arizona. In September 1867, he worked as an express mail rider, traveling between Prescott and the Pima villages near Tucson. Once, when he stopped to take a rest in the Salt River Valley, he stumbled across ruins of the largest gravity-based canal system in the world. It was