Garden of Eden

Arizona's Garden of Eden-the Yuma Valley-and 500,000 acres of rich Colorado river delta and desert land are ready for post war development under the extensive plans of the United States bureau of reclamation and other federal and state governmental agencies.

The Gila project, encompassing the 500,000 acres, the Yuma project of 50,000 acres, 250,000 acres in process of development in Mexico, south of Yuma, and the Imperial valley project across the river, will place Yuma at the hub of the largest reclamation development in the United States.

Reclamation of the desert for the benefit of homecoming veterans first, others secondarily, is the policy of the reclamation bureau and cooperating agencies according to officials; however, this plan will not hamper private individuals from acquiring land under the project.

The policy and purpose of the Reclamation bureau is to place people on the land and make homes for them. Payment for the land and improvements may be financed over a forty year period.

Cited by officials of the Reclamation bureau as one of the most successful projects in the United States, the present development was brought about by the control of the rampant Colorado river, by the installation primarily of Boulder Dam, 225 miles up river from Yuma.

Flood control the old bogey man of early day agri-cultural and business development in Yuma-has worked wonders in this thriving community, largest on the entire river and known as the Queen City of the Colorado. Davis Dam, 60 miles below Boulder, unfinished due to war use of critical materials; Parker Dam, primarily a water diversion development 123 miles below Boulder, and Imperial Dam, 19 miles above Yuma, are additional checks on the river. Imperial dam diverts water into the AllAmerican canal to the Imperial valley, and the Gila canal leading to the Gila project. The canal was constructed under reclamation bureau plans to carry all the water necessary for the Gila project.

Known also as the "Garden of Eden" by modern day residents, the Yuma district was inhabited by the Yuma Indians when the first Europeans penetrated the country from Mexico in 1539 and 1540, giving it a location as an Indian rancheria. In succeeding years Padre Kino named it San Dionisio; Padre Garces called it Concepcion. In 1854 the name Colorado City was given by Charles D. Poston who surveyed a townsite, sold a corner lot to the ferryman for passage of his party across the river. A few years later this name was changed to Arizona City and then to Yuma, its present name, from the Yuma Indians.

Going eastward from the west coast, the railroad came to Yuma in 1878, ending river boat traffic from the gulf,and stage coach travel overland. Modern passenger and freight depots adequately serve the community.

The University of Arizona Agricultural Experimental Station Farm in the Yuma Valley continually aids the work of the irrigation farmers.

GARDEN of EDEN

In 1930 the population was 4,892; the 1940 census shows 5,325, and 1944 estimates of the bureau of the census give the greater Yuma area a population of more than 15,000. Services and facilities of the community have kept pace with this growth as evidenced by new enterprises opening even in wartime to garner the trade from the growing agricultural empire.

Schools and churches in the Yuma district rank with the best in the southwest. Yuma proper has often been referred to as a "city of churches," having a representation of denomination befitting a community much larger, with constructive and vigorous programs a good barometer of high moral character in the community.

The visitor to the community will find ample opportunity to participate in community enterprise for the civic and social club activities are constant with a large participation from various individuals, committees and delegations. All of the established organizations found in much larger communities are functioning in Yuma.

Schools of the county rank with the highest in the nation; experienced teachers with high educational standards place the community in keen scholastic competition with the rest of Arizona. Yuma Union High school athletic teams rate with the best in inter-school competitions.

Recreation in the Yuma valley has ample facilities for all the major activities, including tennis courts, baseball fields, basketball courts, a polo field, municipal swimming pool, skating rink, boating, Yuma Valley golf course, Yuma High school athletic field, and many private amusement enterprises.

In the outdoors field, the area provides unexcelled hunting and fishing in the Mexican gulf south of Yuma. Year around stream and lake fishing along the Colorado river attracts anglers and each year there is an open season for hunting deer, quail, ducks, doves, and other small game animals and predators in the immediate vicinity of Yuma. There are several guest ranches in this section which are located to take advantage of the many attractions of the southwestern outdoors.

Gila canal headworks below the Imperial Dam on the Arizona side of the Colorado River show the vast flow of water available to the project.

Outstanding points of interest which may be seen in short motor trips from Yuma are Laguna and Imperial diversion dams; the Mexican border town of San Luis with curio shops and Spanish eating places; the gulf of Lower California and deep sea fishing; old Fortuna and Castle Dome ghost town mining camps; the ruins of Hacienda de San Ysidro (Redondo Ruins); the territorial day prison, cemetery and prison museum; the University of Arizona and United States agricultural experimental stations; placer gold mining operations on the Gila river, and the drifting sand dunes, favorite spot for photographers.

During past months the Yuma desert area has been the center of vast United States army training programs, chief of these being the Yuma Air Field training center at Fly Field, close to the city. Paved runways, modern hangars and personnel facilities make the field one of the best equipped in the country.

To those familiar with crop conditions and financial returns as evidenced in the middle west and far south, fertility and climatic conditions bring such results here that the observer is constrained to believe that a great miracle has come about.

Primary factor in the high production records is the 327 day yearly average growing season. Very few farming areas in the United States have as long a frost free growing period as does this valley. It is not unusual for a farmer to realize a three crop harvest from one piece of land-dual use is common practice with grazing and liveStock possible during part of this period.

Scientific farming on small and large scale is followed, with the Yuma branches of the University of Arizona and the United States Agricultural Experimental Stations lead-ing the way in new crops, methods, and harvesting pro-cedures.

With their fine teaching staffs, schools of Yuma rank with the highest in the nation, Fourth Avenue Grammar School being typical of modern buildings.

GARDEN of EDEN

ing the way in new crops, methods, and harvesting procedures.

Weed free felds, regular control of moisture through periodic irrigation has made the area a mecca for seed crop growers of all kinds, with special emphasis in recent years on alfalfa, carrot, onion and flax seeds. In past years three to six million pounds of alfalfa seed have been marketed annually. In 1943 more than 460,000 bushels of flax seed, 10,000 pounds of carrot seed, 2,000 pounds of onion seed, and 50,000 pounds of lettuce seed were marketed to leading agricultural seed distributors. Five thousand, one hundred and seventy-two carloads of lettuce and 372,177 crates of cantaloupes were shipped..

The irrigation season is 365 days per year and crops are harvested each month throughout the year. Delays due to adverse weather conditions with resultant losses from damage to crops in process of harvesting are practically unknown. The average yearly rainfall is little in excess of three inches, which amount is fairly evenly distributed over the period of a year. An unusually low wind velocity prevailing in the Yuma area assures protection to such growths as may be damaged by high winds. Horticulturists rate the area one of the best in the world for date culture, due to the low humidity and high per cent of sunshine.

Yuma's sunshine averages 90 per cent per annum of the sunshine hours possible with the remarkable record of some sunshine for each and every day of the year a fact so well established by precedent that numerous concessions are made to those experiencing a day in Yuma during which the sun does not shine.

Fruit and vegetable train icing with facilities for icing two full seventy car trains at a time, are the most complete and largest in the southwest, having a capacity production of 150 tons of ice daily and storage capacity of 1600 tons. Lettuce, cantaloupe and miscellaneous vegetable packing sheds provide regular employment. A grapefruit packing and canning industry, date picking and packing activities, and a water softener manufacturing company add to the industrial payroll.

Delays due to adverse weather conditions never plague Yuma Mesa Citrus growers who produce unusually heavy crops on land naturally adapted to this crop.

Five thousand one hundred and seventy-two carloads of lettuce were produced in 1943 in the harvest from thriving Yuma valley fields.

The following are shipped from Yuma in car load quantities: lettuce and lettuce seed, cotton and cotton seed. alfalfa hay and alfalfa seed, green peas; livestock, including hogs, cattle and sheep; oranges and grapefruit, pecans, broom corn, flax seed, hemp, bermuda grass seed, barley, wheat, honey dew melons, wool, honey, cantaloupes, water melons, onions and onion seed, endive, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus and cabbage.

Dairying, poultry and egg production furnish local markets. Rich fields of alfalfa, barley, wheat, higera and milo maize produce a cattle feed that is unequalled anywhere, and these prolific feed crops have led nationally to one of the largest cattle feeding and fattening projects in the southwest. A network of paved highways throughout the valley area has been so well planned as to place every farmer within a mile of pavement, greatly facilitating movement of crops and cattle.

Mining activity has been one of the mainstays of the Yuma area since the fabulously rich placer mines were discovered in 1858 on the Gila river near Yuma and in following years north along the Colorado for more than 200 miles. In addition to gold, silver, lead, antimony, and tungsten have been mined with work being accelerated recently to aid the war effort. Mills of sufficient capacity to handle the present output are located near Yuma.

Mining, it seems, will always be the connecting link identifying the mineral producing states with the pioneer history of boom making eras. The weathered old prospector with his pack burro, grub stake and never faltering hope, is still a familiar figure as he trudges the desert. That the mineral is still there is witnessed by the new mining claims continually being filed and new mines opened. Proof of past production is seen in the U. S. Geological Survey reports that the Yuma county output from 1860 to 1880 was $20,000,000, with some estimates as high as $42,000,000. Where occasionally in modern times the ever inquisitive prospector unearths the bleached bones of less fortunate pioneers of Arizona Empire; where mining and other semicommercial activities back the agricultural developments, the "Garden of Eden" is on the threshold of blossoming into a 500,000 acre agricultural oasis, literally reclaimed from the desert.

Horticulturists rate the Yuma Mesa area the best in the world for date culture due to the low humidity and high percentage of full sunshine the year around.