Before the coming of the railroads, all freight for the interior of Arizona was carried by sea-going ships to the head of the Gulf of California; there it was transferred to the river boats of the Colorado Steam Navigation Co. and shipped to various points along the lower river whence it was carried overland by wagon train to its final destination.

In 1857 the War Department dispatched Lt. J. C. Ives to proceed up the Colorado River by boat as far as navigation was possible. He ascended in his steamboat only as far as Fort Callville near the head of Black Canyon, about 400 miles above the mouth of the river. It took him 5 days to navigate the last 20 miles.

In his report to the War Department, Lieutenant Ives said:

The region last explored is, of course, altogether valueless. It can be approached only from the south, and after entering it, there is nothing to do but leave. Ours was the first, and doubtless will be the last, party of whites to visit this profitless locality. It seems intended by nature that the Colorado River along the greater portion of its lone and majestic way shall be forever unvisited and unmolested.

In 1869, Maj. J. W. Powell succeeded in leading a river expedition down through the canyons of the river. In traveling by boat from Green River, Wyoming, to the mouth of the Virgin River in Nevada, a few miles above where Lieutenant Ives had been stopped, he achieved the hitherto impossible feat of traversing a thousand miles of unknown rapids and formidable canyons. He became the first white man to gaze up the sheer walls of the Grand Canyon throughout its entire length and live to tell the tale.

Subsequently, Major Powell and others made additional voyages to explore the canyons. With the river explored, active investigation began to make it useful for

man.

Settlement

Settlement of the Colorado River Basin has slowly but steadily progressed. Rural settlements have been scattered along streams. Towns and cities have grown up mainly near farms and mines and at important railroad points.

The early settlers endured many hardships in carving homes from the wilderness-the rigors of an arid climate, the depredations of Indians and wild beasts, and the arduous and wearisome existence of frontier life.

Missionaries influenced early settlement in the basin. Father Kino, a Spanish priest, founded the first settlements subsequent to his visit to the region in 1691. Spaniards established resident fathers in the Santa Cruz River Valley as early as 1700, and soon after several missions were constructed on the banks of the stream.

Among the early colonizers of the basin were Mormon pioneers, who settled in small agricultural communities along river valleys, cultivated the more favorable farming lands adjacent to streams where irrigation water was readily accessible, and grazed livestock on nearby range lands. Old Fort Supply in Wyoming and Santa Clara, Utah, were established by Mormons in 1854. Mormon settlements spread into other parts of Utah, and in Arizona and Nevada in the 1860's and '70's.

The lure of gold was a chief factor influencing early settlements. Many a pioneer settler came seeking his fortune in the gold rushes, but, finding that his dreams of easy riches would never materialize, stayed to raise livestock or to farm.

Several rich mines were discovered throughout the basin by transient prospectors and these discoveries were responsible for a temporary population influx. Miners and prospectors pushed over the mountains from older mining districts on the eastern slope of the Continental Divide. The placer ground at Breckenridge, Colorado, near the crest of the divide attracted the first settlers to this region in 1859. Within the next decade other mining camps were established near the mountain tops. Some miners turned to farming and found a lucrative business in supplying agricultural products to the mining communities. Settlement grew downward from the mountains into the valleys in this western slope section of Colorado, the advance being slowed somewhat by the hostility of the Indians who occupied the territory.

The greater part of the Uinta Basin in Utah was established as an Indian reservation in 1861.

Mining was active in southeastern Arizona from 1847 to 1860 under protection of the Federal Government, but during the Civil War hostile Indians caused nearly all of the early mining settlements to be abandoned. After the Civil War mining was resumed.

The establishment of amicable relations with the Indians and the construction of railroads through the basin finally made permanent settlement possible. The Union Pacific Railroad was completed to Green River, Wyo., in 1869. The Southern Pacific Railroad reached the Colorado River at Yuma, Ariz., in 1877, and the Atlantic and Pacific Railroad crossed the river at Needles, Calif., in 1883. With the coming of the railroads, navigation soon declined Other than by railroad, early transportation was by horse and mule, pack train, or freight wagon traversing trails and primitive roads.

For many years mining was the leading industry in the Colorado River Basin but declined in relative importance with the development of irrigated agriculture. Many rich gold and silver lodes pinched out. Aspen, Telluride, and Silverton in Colorado, once prosperous cities pouring out gold and silver, became dozing towns. Production of copper, lead, and zinc became more important, and

Arizona displaced Colorado as the leading producer of minerals in the basin. Where valuable mines were discovered, towns sprang up in their immediate vicinity, and where possible, irrigated agriculture was practiced nearby to supply the demands of local markets.

Cattlemen were attracted to the expansive grazing areas of the basin and in many sections were the first settlers.

Colonization in the basin has been accompanied by a continual search for a satisfactory irrigation water supply. Settlers migrated to areas more readily irrigated and concentrated along river courses. A few small settlements were made in favored isolated areas.

The history of early settlement along the lower reaches of the Colorado River is a story of community struggles with destructive floods. Many towns were established only to be abandoned later when it became evident to the settlers that it was impossible for them to control the rivers. Dams were repeatedly washed out, crops withered and died in time of drought, and flash floods ravaged the fields and towns.

Private and community efforts were responsible for the establishment of early settlements. Some presentday settlements, however, followed in the wake of Federal Reclamation developments. These projects, making available new areas of fertile farm land and attracting many new settlers, have been the nuclei around which farming communities and trade centers have evolved.

Population

Referred to as an area of "wide open spaces", the Colorado River Basin is sparsely populated. On the basis of the 1940 census, which reported fewer than a million people in the basin, the average population

Division

density of the entire area, including urban centers, was 3.6 persons a square mile, as compared with a national average of 44.2 persons a square mile.

POPULATION GROWTH

Except for short-lived surges resulting from mining, the population of the Colorado River Basin has steadily increased since its colonization. At the beginning of the Twentieth Century the basin supported only 261,197 persons, or little more than an average of one person a square mile. The population has more than tripled in the first 40 years of this century.

The first settlements which grew into permanent communities were largely the result of farming. But farming was slow to develop into a stable industry, and in the early stages it was not adapted to the support of sizable centers of population. Urban communities began to rise with the development of federally financed irrigation projects. The city of Phoenix, Ariz., grew rapidly in the decade 1910-20 when great strides were taken in the development of irrigation in the immediate vicinity.

The relatively high rate of natural increase, the improvement in transportation facilities, the opening of scenic features of the country to tourists, the accessibility of outside markets, and migrations from the Middle West have been largely responsible for the increase in population during the 1930-40 period.

Population growth has not been uniform throughout the basin. Between 1900 and 1940 the Lower Basin increased its population five times while during the same period the upper basin little more than doubled. A phenomenal growth was experienced by the southern California area where the population increased more than 12 times in the same 40-year period.

The people of the Colorado River Basin are predom

inantly white, almost 90 percent of the population being so classified in 1940. Of the nonwhite races, Indians are in greatest number, both in the upper and lower basins, and are concentrated in vast Indian reservations scattered throughout this area. Indian and Negro populations are increasing.

DISTRIBUTION OF POPULATION

Approximately 69 percent of the 1940 population of the Colorado River Basin was classified as rural. This means that approximately 630,000 people lived either in the open country or in towns and villages of fewer than 2,500 population. Only 28 percent of the total population lived on farms and approximately that proportion was directly dependent upon agriculture for a livelihood.

Urban centers are scattered throughout the basin. Largest settlements in the upper basin are mining, agricultural, and railroa dcenters. In the lower basin concentration of population is mainly where irrigation is extensive, although recreational and scenic attractions have been responsible for the location and growth of many cities. Conforming to a National trend, there is an increasing concentration of population in urban centers. Principal towns and cities in the basin are:

years ago will reveal names of communities which are today but memories of a romantic past.

From the beginning the population possessed a high degree of mobility, particularly in the lower basin. Although the number and size of permanent communities have increased since the turn of the century the population has not lost its trait of mobility. The University of Arizona found from a recent study of population trends in Arizona that while the decade 1930-40 brought 134,000 people into the State, the net population gain was only 63,000 persons, of which 32,000 could be attributed to the natural increase in the resident population. Some 103,000 people had claimed Arizona as a place of residence during that decade but had failed to become permanently established.

Economic depressions and disasters in other States have dislodged many people from permanent moorings, and those thus affected have moved aimlessly about the country. The droughts and dust storms which occurred in the Middle West in the 1930's resulted in such migrations. Hearings before the House of Representatives Committee of the Seventy-Seventh Congress investigating migratory labor problems revealed that 63 percent of all migrants into Arizona and southern California during this period came from the Middle West. The committee found that while 66 percent of the group investigated had been farm operators or owners prior to migration, less than 15 percent became owners or operators of farms in their new locations. The majority of the migrants from the Middle West became farm laborers or joined the ranks of the semiskilled or unskilled workers, depending on seasonal or other temporary employment.

The population of the upper basin has been less affected by immigration than that of the lower bsin. Instead of growing from migration, Utah lost by outward movement of its residents from 1920 to 1940. Many young people left the State to seek work and opportunities in larger industrial centers and metropolitan areas. Despite its outward migration, Utah has had a net population gain each decade because of its high birth rate. In 1930 Utah had the highest rate of natural increase in the Nation.

The rise of war industries during World War II brought to the area its most rapid influx of people. The most significant movements were to southern Nevada and central Arizona. Las Vegas, Nevada, tripled in population during the war period, and the city of Phoenix, Arizona, increased approximately 130 percent. At the same time, thousands of young men left the area to join the Nation's armed forces. Thus, the war induced movements into and out of the basin.

The relatively undeveloped state of the basin and its store of natural resources indicate that by no means has the population reached its peak growth.